Sep. 30—Official practices have been underway since this past Thursday at Ubben Basketball Complex for ‘s Illinois women’s basketball team.
It was an early morning wake-up call for Green’s Illini team with a 7 a.m. practice last Thursday on what was for all intents and purposes day one of the 2024-25 season for a veteran Illinois roster.
Those 20-hour weeks are an important period for this Illini team. Even one that’s already had a head start on the upcoming season with Illinois getting 10 full practices in this summer at Ubben and playing two exhibition games overseas in early August during the team’s foreign trip to Italy and Greece.
The Illini will build over the next month toward the early November tipoff of a new season. A full complement of players on the court was key for Illinois when it opened official practices after forward and center sat out the team’s two August exhibitions with undisclosed injuries.
The Illini will have two more dress rehearsals before the 2024-25 season starts and the games actually count toward the standings with an Oct. 26 “secret scrimmage” and a Nov. 1 home exhibition against Division II Lewis University.
“Really, we don’t have much time,” Green said. “November 7th will be here before we know it. It’s going to move quickly. And I keep telling our team, ‘This is not a year where we can use our first couple games to get in the swing of it, because three of our first five games are against Power Five teams that are really, really good.'”
That opening five-game stretch that Green mentioned will feature Illinois playing three NCAA tournament teams in Florida State (Nov. 7), Marquette (Nov. 10) and Oregon State (Nov. 22) — all at State Farm Center. The Illini also have matchups with Eastern Illinois (Nov. 14) and Le Moyne (Nov. 18) in the first two-plus weeks of the regular season with Green and Co. not venturing away from home until just before Thanksgiving.
“I’m super excited about our home schedule,” the Illinois coach said. “I know I have only been here two years, but this is, by far, the best teams we have coming to State Farm Center. We’re already in preparation (for those games). We’re doing pre-scouts this early right now of already preparing for those three teams, because we have got to be able to get them.”
