Aug. 28—Players on the Illinois women's basketball team are now back on campus with the University of Illinois wrapping up the first full week of fall semester classes on Friday.
and were two of the last pieces to get moved onto campus on Aug. 19, with Baptist a late addition to fill out the 2026-27 roster with the Kankakee native signing with 's program on July 7. Brenjo was a much different case coming over from Europe as the 6-foot-4 freshman forward from Nevesinje, Bosnia, played last season in the Serbian 1 ZLS league for ŽKK Mega Superbet, which is based in Belgrade.
While the Illini accomplished a lot this summer — with eight weeks of workouts the chance to further lay the defensive foundation and make some offensive tweaks — Green and Co. also had to deal with some key absences.
Early on in the summer, it was working redshirt junior guard and redshirt freshman forward back from knee injuries. But Illinois also had a period, where sophomore forward went through two separate training camp sessions with the Canada senior women's basketball team.
Also, junior guard and redshirt junior center played at two major August tournaments for the Brazil senior women, including at the South American Qualifying tournament and later the FIBA Women's Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament.
Both tournaments turned out to be a success for Brazil — and for Guyton, in particular, from an individual development perspective. Brazil qualified for the 2027 AmeriCup and also reached the semifinals of the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament.
Parchment and Team Canada went even further by winning the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament, taking a major step toward playing in the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles by earning an automatic berth into the 2028 Olympic Qualifying tournaments.
Now that Illinois has everyone back on campus and together again, it's a chance to ramp up preparations over the next few weeks ahead of the start of preseason practices in late September.
It's an Illini roster with plenty of hype around it and oversized expectations heading into the 2026-27 season with a core group all returning.
"It's really cool," Parchment said. "I mean not a lot of people had high expectations last year, so coming into this year, I think it's going to be great. You know, there might be a little more more pressure, I guess you could say. But I think we keep it pretty in the building, in the family and just focus on us and use every day to get better. And when the games come around, we'll use every game to get better, as well."
Leave a Comment