Unity's Knudsen transfers to ISU: 'I'm very excited'

NORMAL — Dave Ellars knew early on that Elyce Knudsen had potential to play at the next level.

Before the 2020 Unity grad would play for Millikin’s women’s basketball team — where she finished fourth among the Big Blue’s all-time leading scorers — and transfer to Illinois State for the 2024-25 season, she was a key part of the Rockets’ fortunes on the basketball court and softball field.

“I think the second part of her senior year, she just stepped up,” Ellars said. “Great teammate, great leader, always wanted to get her teammates involved ... she was just happy to get the win, whatever it took.”

Knudsen’s preps success — including being named The News-Gazette’s All-Area girls’ basketball Player of the Year in 2020 — carried over to Millikin, where Knudsen averaged 22.6 points per game over four seasons and was awarded the Jostens Trophy as the best player in Division III after the 2022-23 season.

She’ll have a chance to test her skills at the Division I level this winter for coach Kristen Gillespie while remaining close to home.

“I’m very excited,” Knudsen said. “It’s a very competitive league and I think that’s what I liked about Division III, our league was so tough ... different arenas, different atmosphere, getting to play against players that I haven’t seen in my previous four years. Just really excited.”

The transition to Gillespie’s program — which has won 20 games in each of the last two seasons and qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2022 — has been a smooth one so far, according to Knudsen.

Millikin remained on the table for Knudsen throughout her senior season before she decided to try her hand at the NCAA’s highest level.

“It was something that I wasn’t really thinking about, honestly, going into my senior season at Millikin,” Knudsen said. “Not until about the end of our season going into the NCAA tournament was I really thinking about taking a step, a kind of leap of faith somewhere else.”

She often huddled with then-Millikin coach Olivia Lett to plan her best path forward.

“We met all the time and discussed different options,” Knudsen said. “It was definitely a different recruiting process than when I was deciding where I wanted to go out of high school.”

Staying close to home was important to Knudsen in making her decision on where to play her final college season.

ISU and Millikin are both roughly an hour from Tolono.

“It’s still a little over an hour away from home, it was just too perfect to pass up,” Knudsen said. “I took my visit and immediately knew I wanted to make ISU my new home.”

Knudsen finds herself in a unique position among the Redbirds as the only graduate student on the roster while also being one of the team’s newcomers.

“It’s definitely hard,” Knudsen said. “I’ve talked to the coaches a little bit from a leadership perspective and I think they understand that I’m a 22-year-old, yeah I’m in a new environment, but they expect me to hold people accountable still and they don’t really care that this is my first year.”

Knudsen’s status as a graduate student also leaves her thinking of ways to stay involved with the game after the upcoming season concludes.

She plans to pursue an MBA with a certificate in analytics after earning her undergraduate degree in finance.

“I’m not exactly sure what I want to do in that second year since I only have one year of eligibility left. I’ve thought about becoming a GA here or maybe somewhere else, just to kind of dabble with coaching while I’m still going to school.”

That juxtaposition isn’t something that she anticipates getting in the way of helping the Redbirds return to the NCAA tournament.

She’s already started to fit in among the Redbirds’ other players, a few of which she also calls roommates. Working with hospitals on the business side of their operation is something that interests her.

“The girls have been just tremendous,” Knudsen said. “I luckily live with a player that has been here for a year and then two transfers, we just get a long really well. I’ve been here for a month and a half and my experience has been everything that I could ever imagine.”

The drive from Unity to CEFCU Arena takes just over an hour and should bring plenty of familiar faces to Knudsen’s final college season. There ought to be plenty of Unity maroon and white and Millikin blue on hand, even if it’s disguised by ISU’s red and black.

“I know her family is excited,” Ellars said. “I know everyone around the Unit 7 community is very excited about it. ... I think she’ll fit in well and I think she’ll have success over there.”