Prior to Sunday night, the Colorado women’s basketball team didn’t know much about Illinois.
By Tuesday, however, head coach JR Payne and associate head coach Toriano Towns could almost see Illinois plays in their sleep – during what little sleep they’ve had.
Guard Maeve McErlane said that by Saturday, “They’re going to be one of my new most-watched teams, for sure.”
The 10th-seeded Buffs will take on seventh-seeded Illinois in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Nashville on Saturday (7:30 p.m. MT, ESPN2), and they’ve wasted no time in preparing for the Fighting Illini.
“They wouldn’t be as successful as they are without a lot of talent,” Payne said. “They’re very well balanced. They have great post play, they have a lot of players that can shoot the ball, they have great point guard play. They’re young, but they’re super-duper talented. They rebound really well, they guard well.
“Itap a lot of challenges on both sides of the floor, but I wouldn’t expect anything less at this time of year.”
According to Illinois, its team is the third-youngest team among the five major conferences, with five freshmen and seven sophomores on the 15-player roster.
Illinois is led by sophomore Berry Wallace, a 6-foot-1 forward who was named first-team All-Big Ten while averaging 18.4 points and 6.2 rebounds. Freshman Cearah Parchment, a 6-foot-3 forward, led the Big Ten with 12 double-doubles, averaging 13.4 points and 8.5 rebounds.
Destiny Jackson, a 5-6 guard, joined Parchment on the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team. She averages 9.9 points and 5.2 assists.
Juniors Maddie Webber (11.0 points per game) and Jasmine Brown-Hagger (6.8), and sophomore Aaliyah Guyton (6.6) can also score.
“Some of the youngest, most talented freshmen in the country contributing at a really high level,” Payne said. “I think a really similar team to us in that they’re really tough, totally fearless, great defensively, they can score in bunches. A really well-balanced, talented squad.”
CU senior Jade Masogayo said she’s been impressed with the skill level across the board at Illinois, as even the bigger players for the Illini can do multiple things.
“Honestly, I feel like their starting five is quite different than people that we’ve played,” Masogayo said. “I feel like they have a lot of guard-like skills, including the fours and fives, and so itap going to be kind of different playing against a team like that, but I’m very excited.”
Offensively, Illinois is one of the better teams in the country. It ranks 23rd nationally in scoring (77.5 points per game), 24th in field goal percentage (.457) and 17th in 3-point percentage (.361). Rice is the only team in the country with a better free throw percentage than Illinois (.815).
On defense, the Illini haven’t been nearly as good, ranking 219th in points allowed (66.1) and 294th in field goal percentage defense (.425).
CU has been the opposite of Illinois, in that defense leads the way, while the offense is inconsistent. Still, the Buffs hope they can cause some problems if their weapons – Masogayo, Desiree Wooten, Zyanna Walker, Logyn Greer and more – are firing on all cylinders.
“I mean, thatap always the goal to be on, but we’re just really trying to focus on our game plan and all that type of stuff,” Masogayo said. “Be sound defensively, and just we know that we can execute, so as long as that falls in line, we’ll be just fine.”
One similarity between the teams is they’ve both dealt with injuries. CU lost starting point guard Kennedy Sanders and 3-point specialist Claire O’Connor to season-ending injuries in December. Illinois lost starting guard Gretchen Dolan – the team’s third-leading scorer at 12.9 points per game – to a season-ending injury on Feb. 1.
Neither team has flinched, however.
“They’re blue-collar, they’re tough, they’re physical, they rebound, they defend,” Payne said. “Itap actually two very similar teams that are going to play Saturday. And so I think when you’re built that way — yeah, we all wish that nobody got injured, but thatap life, and so I think both teams probably just say ‘next woman up’ and you got a job to do.”
