Green Street | Who's next?

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 recruiting news for the Illinois women's basketball team in the Class of 2025 has been a slow trickle.

That it's taken patience has been part of the process third-year coach Shauna Green expected. The Illini have not only recruited some high-level players but really had to given they're going to have five players exhaust their eligibility after the 2024-25 season. Planning for that — in and of itself — is unique with Illinois looking to bring in at least five players in the 2025 class, and preferring to do so by adding high school players as opposed to going to the transfer portal.

The Illini are more than halfway to that goal with 2025 verbal commitments from Whitney Young point guard Destiny Jackson , Australian wing Erica Finney and Canadian forward Cearah Parchment . Jackson is a five-star recruit and Parchment is a four-star prospect, with both players ranked in the top 40 of the 2025 class per ESPN's HoopGurlz ratings.

So who's next on the list for Illinois?

Before we get to that question, let's look at what the 2025-26 roster could look like for the Illini.

Departures (exhausted eligibility)

G Makira Cook

G Genesis Bryant

G Adalia McKenzie

F Brynn Shoup-Hill

F Kendall Bostic

Returning players (Yr. in 2025-26)

G Cori Allen (Jr.)

F Shay Bollin (Sr.)

G Jasmine Brown-Hagger (Jr.)

G Gretchen Dolan (Jr.)

F Irene Noya Catoira (So.)

C Hayven Smith (So.)

C Lety Vasconcelos (Jr.)

F Berry Wallace (So.)

G Mia Zenere (So.)*

*Denotes walk-on player

Verbal commitments

G Destiny Jackson

W Erica Finney

F Cearah Parchment

Back to the question of who might be the next piece in the 2025 recruiting class for Illinois: Green and Co. received some good news earlier this week when four-star wing Naomi Benson put the Illini in her top-three schools. The 6-foot-2 senior from Streetsboro, Ohio, also listed Michigan and Virginia Tech as her other finalists on Monday.

Take what you will of the graphic designed to denote Benson's top-three with a photo of Benson and Green standing back to back featured front and center.

The Illini are also targeting Minnesota guard Addie Mack and 6-3 center Manuella Alves-Fernandez from IMG Academy on the recruiting trail, with Alves-Fernandez recently going on an official visit to the Illinois campus. The top-five finalists for the four-star post player are considered to be Iowa, Louisville, North Carolina and Miami along with the Illini.