Illinois Women's Basketball Schedules Visit With Top-50 2026 Recruit

Twenty seasons had passed since Illinois women's basketball’s last NCAA Tournament berth before Shauna Green led the Illini to a 22-win season and an appearance in the Big Dance in 2022-23, her first year at the helm.

Two seasons later, despite a flurry of serious injuries, the Illini still managed to earn an invite to the NCAA Tournament – and then win the program’s first tournament game in 25 years.The best part?Green and her crew are just getting started.

Illinois is bringing in an unbelievably loaded class of 2025, which includes three top-50 recruits (and a total of four top-100 recruits), headlined by point guard Destiny Jackson – the reigning Illinois Ms. Basketball and 29th overall prospect in the nation, per ESPN HoopGurlz.

Naturally, there’s always more work to do. And with the 2025 roster-building seemingly taken care of, the Illini have turned their attention to 2026 – and GiGi Battle.

A 5-foot-11 guard from Florida, Battle is ranked as the No. 44 recruit in the country. According to Talia Goodman of On3 Sports, Battle has scheduled five upcoming visits – one of them to Champaign. She has already taken a visit to Michigan, and has scheduled dates for Stanford, Rutgers, Georgia and Indiana, along with Illinois (June 25-27).