Green Street Scoring in six seconds or less
· Yahoo Sports
Oct. 5—The intention from has always been to play fast since she took the job as the Illinois women's basketball coach back before the 2022-23 season.
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But the Illini have yet to truly see that come to fruition in Green's first four seasons as coach.
Not for a lack of trying.
Still, it's where a lack of depth has played a part in that. That hasn't been the only factor, however.
Green understood what kind of team she had heading into last season. What was one of the youngest rosters in the nation — with a freshman at point guard, albeit a very talented one in former five-star recruit — forced Illinois to play differently from a pace standpoint.
Still, entering year five, and with basically the entire Illini roster back for another season, Green is hopeful this upcoming 2026-27 season can be her team's best opportunity to utilize the best of what her Phoenix transition offense can do.
It helps, too, that Illinois can feel comfortable playing potentially as many as a 10-player rotation.
That could be a key difference maker.
"We have always wanted to play fast, but I think by default and injuries and kids playing a ton of minutes, we just haven't had that consistency in our pace," Green said to me last week. "Our Phoenix transition, we haven't changed. It's just now maybe we'll have a little more bodies. Not everyone's playing 40 minutes or 38, 39 minutes.
"So, we'll continue to try to score in six seconds or less. I do feel like in practice we have been playing with better pace and also having a lot of new kids last year (who are now a year older) I think they get it. They understand it more. We dribbled the air out of the ball last year a lot. We're supposed to get that ball up the floor and (instead) we're pounding, pounding it (into the floor). Those are just things we have tried to be more intentional on and getting back to some of things that Phoenix is supposed to be. So, I would hope and I think already we're playing faster than we have in our time here."