2019–20 Illinois State Women’s Basketball Preview
“Be where your feet are.”
These are words to live by for Illinois State women’s basketball coach Kristen Gillespie. Now in her third season at the helm, Gillespie and her Redbirds are taking every moment as it comes.
“We haven’t really talked [about] specific goals,” Gillespie said. “We’re more worried about the day in and day out of just trying to build that great foundation … We just want to get a little bit better today.”
For those who do look ahead, the outlook is bright in Normal, Ill. Only three years removed from an eight-win campaign, the program has steadily improved each year under Gillespie. After beginning her Illinois State tenure with 14 wins in 2017–18, she led the team to 19 wins last season.
One key to the turnaround has been Gillespie’s knack for recruiting the transfer market. She has brought in a junior college All-American each of her first three seasons, and so far their success has translated to the NCAA Division I level.
Simone Goods, the 2017 NJCAA Division II Player of the Year for Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, was an honorable-mention All-Missouri Valley Conference forward in her first season with the Redbirds and earned first-team honors last year as a senior.
TeTe Maggett joined Goods on last year’s All-Conference first team after being named an NJCAA Division I second-team All-American in each of the previous two seasons at Vincennes University in Indiana.
This year’s addition carries first-team All-MVC potential as well. Guard Juliunn “JuJu” Redmond finished her career at Tallahassee Community College as an NJCAA Division I first-team All-American and the Panhandle Conference Player of the Year.
When asked who has stood out so far in practice, Maggett responded without hesitation: “JuJu. [She’s] gonna open some eyes.”
Redmond, a former AAU teammate of Maggett, will do everything but sell popcorn for the Redbirds. The 5-foot-11 super-athlete saw time at every position during her JUCO career. Scoring, rebounding, passing and defending are all skills she’ll bring to the table — she posted per-game averages of 16.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.4 steals for Tallahassee last season.
“I think [fans] are gonna enjoy watching JuJu,” Gillespie said. “She’s a different type of player. I think she’s gonna be a really tough matchup for a lot of teams.”
In addition to Redmond, the Redbirds have five other newcomers on the 2019–20 roster. Little Rock transfer guard Terrion Moore will sit out this year due to transfer rules, and the coaching staff is considering redshirting freshman guard Maya Wong. Gillespie also adds freshmen guards McKenna Sims and Cameron Call and freshman forward Hannah Kelle.
Illinois State returns five of its top seven scorers from a year ago: Maggett (15.9 points per game), redshirt freshman guard Mary Crompton (8.0), senior forward Lexi Wallen (5.4), sophomore forward Lexy Koudelka (4.5) and sophomore guard Kayel Newland (4.4). Maggett, Crompton and Wallen will be particularly significant to watch.
Crompton showed promise as a freshman last year. Starting four of the team’s first five games, she was an integral part of the rotation before her season was cut short by a knee injury. Among returning players, only Maggett averaged more points, rebounds, assists, threes and steals per game.
Wallen transitioned to basketball in December of last season after a stellar four-year volleyball career. Entering her only full season of college basketball, Wallen will join guards Maggett and Frannie Corrigan and forward Megan Talbot as seniors on the squad.
Among all of the returning talent, Maggett will be the centerpiece. The reigning MVC Newcomer of the Year is the conference’s third-leading returning scorer behind only Drake’s dynamic duo of Becca Hittner and Sara Rhine. Maggett spent her first full offseason with the team working on her left hand, and she is confident that her hard work will produce results.
“[My left hand] is getting very strong, way stronger than last year,” Maggett said. “They can push me left if they want to, but it’s gonna be hard.”
Gillespie — and opponents — have already noticed a difference. After returning from the team’s foreign tour in August, Gillespie said of her star guard, “She wouldn’t go right in Italy. I was like, ‘Who is this?’ The coach from Canada [said he] tried to force her left. I was like, ‘Yeah, well, she can dribble with her left hand now.’” Gillespie added, “She was good last year, but I think she’s done the work to have an outstanding senior year.”
Another thing for Redbird fans to keep an eye on will be a revamped offense. The new look will feature a heavy dose of running and an even heavier dose of guards. “I think you’ll see us play a lot of small lineups this year,” Gillespie said. “We’ll go four guards quite a bit.”
Gillespie is hoping that the offense will better suit this year’s personnel. “I think it’s gonna showcase some of our kids,” she said. “We have more playmakers, more shooters — something we haven’t had in the past.”
The team got a chance to test out the new offense during its trip to Italy. Rebounding is a potential weakness of four-guard lineups, but Gillespie believes the early returns were positive. “We did a really nice job on the offensive end,” she said after the trip. “And I was pleasantly surprised by the way we rebounded on both ends of the floor.”
The Italy trip provided a chance for the team to develop off the court as well.
“It’s a pretty special group, and I’m not even talking about talent,” said Gillespie. “Their chemistry is unbelievable already … How [the newcomers] have been able to acclimate themselves, that’s a credit to the returners in just kind of bringing them in, really taking great care of them.”
The players weren’t the only ones who used the Italy trip to gel off the court.
“I feel like we have something really special here with our staff,” Gillespie said. “I really believe that we all generally enjoy being around each other … We spend ridiculous amounts of time at work together, but those are the first people that each of us are calling to hang out outside of work.”
Between player development, roster additions and the new offense, there are several reasons for fans to be bullish this year about the Redbirds’ chances to make some noise in March. Gillespie and the Redbirds, however, are staying focused on where their feet are.
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