The 2026–27 Illinois Fighting Illini women's basketball team will represent the University of Illinois during the 2026–27 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Fighting Illini, led by fifth-year head coach Shauna Green, will play their home games at State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois. This season marks the program's 45th year as a member of the Big Ten Conference.

Previous season

The Fighting Illini finished the 2025–26 season with a 22–12 record, 9–9 in Big Ten play to finish in tenth place. As the No. 10 seed in the Big Ten tournament, they lost in the quarter finals to number 2 Iowa.

They later received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 7 seed in the Fort Worth regional 1. The Illini were the youngest team in the tournament. They defeated number 10 Colorado, which was their second NCAA tournament win in two consecutive seasons, before losing in the second round to number 2 Vanderbilt to end their season.

At the end of the 2025–26 season, Illinois won games in both the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999–2000.

Accolades Three Illini players earned All-Big Ten honors after the end of the 2025–26 season. Berry Wallace was named to the league's first team in the coaches' poll, while earning second team honors by the media. Wallace is the 19th player in program history to receive All-Big Ten first team accolades. Destiny Jackson and Cearah Parchment were named to the All-Freshman team by both the coaches and media. In addition, Parchment earned an honorable mention All-Big Ten status by the league's coaches.

Junior Maddie Webber earned Academic All-District honors from the College Sports Communicators.

Offseason In April 2026, coach Jackie Alexander was chosen as the new women's basketball head coach at Morehead State.

On May 26, 2026, Illinois announced the hiring of Simon Harris as an assistant coach, replacing Alexander. Most recently, Harris served as assistant coach for NC State, having worked previously at other institutions since 2011. He also was an assistant coach for Green at Dayton from 2016–18 and both Green and Harris served as assistant coaches at Dayton for the 2014–15 season, when the Flyers made it to the NCAA women's tournament Elite Eight.

In September 2026, Green's contract was extended for a second time, through the 2035–36 season, to be based on team performance during that time period.

Departures Illinois departures Erica Finney 3 Guard 6'0" Forward Sydney, Australia Transferred to Loyola Marymount Naomi Benson 21 Forward 6'2" Forward Streetsboro, OH Transferred to Cincinnati Gisela Segura 24 Forward 5'11" Graduate Student Cervera, Spain GraduatedHayven Smith 25 Center 6'6" Sophomore Frankfort, IL Transferred to Western Kentucky

Incoming transfers Illinois incoming transfers Divine Bourrage 5 Guard 5'11" Sophomore Davenport, IA LSU Ona Riopedre 24 Guard 6'0" Junior Barcelona, Spain Raritan Valley CC (NJCAA)

Recruiting There were no ranked recruits for the class of 2026.

Roster

Schedule and results

!colspan="10" style=""| Exhibition

!colspan="9" style=""| Regular season

Source:

Rankings

See also 2026–27 Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team

References

External links Official website