Vasconcelos has 'come a long way' in first summer with Illini

CHAMPAIGN — Lety Vasconcelos’ presence in a room doesn’t go unnoticed.

At 6-foot-7, the sophomore center commands attention. Like during interviews earlier this month at Ubben Basketball Complex when the Baylor transfer and Illinois women’s basketball team newcomer spoke with reporters for the first time since joining the Illini’s 2024-25 roster.

Vasconcelos is the kind of post player Illinois third-year coach Shauna Green knows doesn’t come along often. As a shot blocker/rim protector and inside scoring option who can give the Illini something they simply haven’t had the past two seasons.

But with the Miguel Calmon, Brazil, native, all of that is untapped potential. A raw talent, at least at the college level, the former top-40 recruit, per ESPN’s HoopGurlz in the 2023 class, has yet to show those abilities in the college game.

For all intents and purposes, Vasconcelos is basically a freshman. She didn’t play much in one season at Baylor (a total of 99 minutes in 17 games for the Bears) with Vasconcelos averaging 1.1 points and 2.1 rebounds last winter. That experience, while valuable, didn’t include a regular rotation role on a Baylor team that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

Still, what Vasconcelos could be was more than enough for the Illini coaching staff to jump back in on recruiting Vasconcelos once she entered the transfer portal with the former Montverde (Fla.) Academy standout an important offseason addition.

“Obviously, we needed size,” Green said in June. “That was something that everyone knew we needed, and we got that.”

The process of getting Vasconcelos acclimated to her new team is already underway. It’s been accelerated with the Illini afforded 10 extra full practices this summer and there will be a chance to see how Vasconcelos fits with a roster featuring eight returners and four other newcomers when Illinois plays two games during its foreign trip to Italy and Greece next month.

What will be key for Vasconcelos is two-fold. Conditioning is the first part with the Illini’s style of play very much about playing at pace. The second part: The learning curve Vasconcelos faces in developing on the defensive end and getting comfortable in Illinois’ ball-screen coverages.

That process, as Green admits, takes patience, as it did last season with North Carolina State transfer Camille Hobby really only starting to look comfortable in the second half of the regular season before the 6-3 center was a significant part of Illinois winning the inaugural WBIT championship last April.

Vasconcelos isn’t alone in adjusting to these demands. The Illini brought in three freshmen, including 6-6 center Hayven Smith from Lincoln-Way East, and another transfer (sophomore guard Jasmine Brown-Hagger).

“She’s come a long way,” Green said of Vasconcelos. “She’s made some really great strides with (conditioning), and that’s number one because you can’t play if you’re not in condition. Really proud of her for that growth. Every day she gets better. She is really coachable. She listens and then she applies. She’s working hard. If you do that, good things are going to continue to happen. Defensively, we’ve got to keep bringing her along so she can be a little bit more physical, understand how we cover ball screens and all that. That will come.”

Vasconcelos, too, has sensed that progress within herself in the nearly eight weeks she’s been on campus. Even if it’s “been a process.”

“I feel like I definitely got a lot better defensively,” Vasconcelos said. “I feel like my blocking time is better. I’m moving better and really working with (strength and conditioning coach Kilee Fletcher) to get moving better. It’s a big piece for us because we need to be able to move up and down the court.”

A lot of what drew Vasconcelos to Illinois was her belief that the coaching staff could bring the best out of her game. But it was more than that. That’s where Cori Allen comes in. The current Illini sophomore guard was teammates with Vasconcelos at Montverde.

“I feel like that was a big piece for me to have coaches that believed in me and knew what I could really do,” Vasconcelos said. “I just have to trust the process. I feel like that’s going to be a really big part of my development.

“Cori, she wasn’t trying to be biased. She really told me the truth. She wasn’t trying to recruit me. ... Even when I was asking Cori like, ‘What is it like? Do they check on y’all? Can I go up to my head coach’s office whenever I’m not feeling good and go ahead and talk to her about something that’s really bothering me and she’ll be OK with it, listen to me and hear me out?’ I feel like that was a big piece, just kind of having a coaching staff that really cares about me as a person in general.”

What Vasconcelos’ role will be this coming season at Illinois is still to be determined.

Right now, it could be a true rotation at the 5-spot for the Illini with fifth-year senior Kendall Bostic and senior Brynn Shoup-Hill ahead of Vasconcelos and the rest of the Illini bigs with Bostic a three-year starter and a fully healthy Shoup-Hill looking to return to the form that made her a regular starter as sophomore two seasons ago when the Illini went to the NCAA tournament.

Vasconcelos has already impressed Green with her skills offensively with the Illini coach praising her new post’s hands and abilities at the rim. There’s also the fact there are few players with Vasconcelos’ height in women’s college basketball right now.

“I feel like I can definitely bring a lot of size to the team as a 6-7 post player,” Vasconcelos said. “I feel like I can bring a lot of paint protection, just finish easy buckets, clean up the boards for the guards. Just doing what a post player does, just in general.”