Green Street: Class of 2025 recruiting board

Welcome to "Green Street," your dose of women's college basketball news from Illini beat writer and AP Top 25 voter Joe Vozzelli. He'll offer up insight on Shauna Green's Illini team and the women's game at large every week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Illinois women's basketball team received some really good news earlier this month when Divine Bourrage had Shauna Green 's program among her top-six finalists.

The five-star point guard at Davenport North (Iowa) High School who plays on the AAU circuit for Example Sports is one of the top recruits in the Class of 2025 with the 5-foot-11 standout ranking as the No. 5 overall prospect per ESPN's HoopGurlz.

Bourrage named Illinois, Arizona, Baylor, LSU, South Carolina and Virginia Tech among her top-six schools on July 5 with Bourrage planning official visits, as well, to three of those programs in the fall. Bourrage is set to visit Arizona (Sept. 7), California (Sept. 14), Virginia Tech (Sept. 21) and LSU (Oct. 12), according to 247 Sports, with the plan to make her college commitment sometime in the fall, as well.

Bourrage would fit perfectly on any roster given her status as a high-level recruit, but the Iowa native would also fill a major need for the Illini.

Illinois, after all, will need a new starting point guard in 2025-26 with lead guards Makira Cook and Genesis Bryant both exhausting their eligibility after this upcoming season. Bryant and Cook opted to take advantage of their bonus COVID years in 2024-25 and play one final college season with Illinois.

Still, the Illini aren't just recruiting Bourrage. Illinois is also in the mix for some other highly touted recruits, including Whitney Young point guard Destiny Jackson . The 5-6 senior guard for the Dolphins led the team last winter in points (16.6), rebounds (6.3) and assists (4.0) per game as Whitney Young finished with a 27-6 record after losing 57-52 to Kenwood in a Class 4A sectional semifinal game.

While Bourrage and Jackson are at the top of the list for the Illini, Green and Co. continue to recruit Bryn Martin , a 6-1 shooting guard out of Springboro (Ohio). Martin put up 20.8 points per game on 41.1 percent shooting from three-point range and also recorded 4.9 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 2.1 steals per game as a finalist for Miss Ohio Basketball this past season as a junior. Illinois is among the 10 finalists for Martin's services along with the likes of Louisville, Dayton, Ohio State, Kentucky, West Virginia, Miami, Clemson, Washington and Virginia Tech.

Two recruits that came off the board for Illinois earlier this year were Edmond (Okla.) four-star guard Janiyah Williams (verbally committed to Oregon) and Cincinnati wing Darianna "Dee" Alexander , who picked her hometown school of Cincinnati with the Illini among her three finalists (Ohio State was the third).