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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 2025-26 Illinois women’s basketball roster is now in place. So let’s proceed accordingly with a roster breakdown of Shauna Green’s fourth team.
Erica Finney
➜ Height: 6-0
➜ Year: Freshman
➜ Position: Guard
➜ Number: 3
➜ What she’s done: Finney has been on the Illinois campus for six months having enrolled early along with Cearah Parchment. It’s a move that made total sense for the Australian given how high school in her home country ends in late November/early December. That gave Finney the chance to practice during the spring semester with her new Illini teammates and get an early jump on her college career. Still, Illinois did have a roster flip in the offseason with its top-five players all leaving after exhausting their eligibility.
➜ What her role will be in 2025-26: The recruiting rankings have caught up slightly to Finney’s talents with the previously unranked guard now a four-star Top 50 prospect, according to 247Sports. The stats out there on Finney are limited to what she did while representing Team Australia at the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup when she averaged 8.0 points and 2.4 rebounds and shot 35.9 percent from beyond the three-point arc and while playing for New South Wales at the 2024 Australian National Championships, which included delivering 12.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game and finishing 41.1 percent from three-point range. Finney’s ability as a three-point shooter will be key for the Illini, who were just 34.4 percent from deep last season despite a huge leap in production during Big Ten play.