Illinois hired Shauna Green as its women’s basketball coach Monday, hoping she can lift a struggling program after a winning tenure at Dayton.
Green was chosen Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year three times while leading Dayton to five regular-season conference championships and a 127-50 record over six years. The Flyers went 26-6 this season, finishing first in the Atlantic 10 in the regular season and beating DePaul in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Georgia.
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“I truly believe the time is now for the program, and we will work tirelessly to build it into a championship program,” Green said in a statement.
Green is 156-75 in eight seasons as a head coach, including two at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. She was an assistant at Dayton, Northwestern and Providence.
Green, who’s from Clinton, Iowa, is Canisius’ all-time leading scorer with 2,012 points from 1998 to 2002.
She replaces the retired Nancy Fahey, a Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame coach who struggled over five years at Illinois after winning five Division III national championships. The Illini went 7-20 this season and were 42-99 overall — and 7-77 in Big Ten regular-season games — during her tenure.
“In visiting with Shauna, I was struck by her inner drive, her innate competitiveness and her commitment to the student-athletes under her charge,” athletic director Josh Whitman said in a statement. “She and I connected quickly around an ambitious vision for the future of Illinois women’s basketball, which she and her staff plan to spread around the state and across the country.”