On March 28, 2012, when Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas introduced Matt Bollant as Illinois’ new women’s basketball coach, he predicted groans across the conference. 

“I can tell you the Big Ten isn’t happy that Matt Bollant is here, being introduced as our head women’s basketball coach,” Thomas said.

One year later, the conference is seeing its fears realized.

Bollant inherited a program that had just finished 11-19, winning just five Big Ten games. He lost two of the team’s top contributors and added only one recruit. He started the season with just 10 scholarship players and lost two to career-ending injuries over the course of the season.

Despite all this, Bollant had more success in his first season than his predecessor, Jolette Law, had in five. 

Illinois’ 19-14 record was the program’s best since finishing 19-12 in the 2006-07 season, the final season of former head coach Theresa Grentz’s tenure. Grentz was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame while she was head coach at Illinois. 

Illinois finished tied for fifth in the Big Ten, made the WNIT quarterfinals for the first time since 2009-10 and ended up playing the longest season in program history at 140 days. Illinois also tied the program record for Big Ten road wins with five. 

“Everything that these coaches brought to the table led us to be more successful,” senior Karisma Penn said. “It was tailored to who we are. We’re more athletic. We should be pushing the ball up and down, and out denying on defense.” 

The new, up-tempo offense scored 5.5 more points per game than the season before. The Illini relied heavily on the long ball, setting a program record for 3-pointers made (184) in a season. Bollant gave the green light to each member of his roster, and all scholarship players attempted at least 11 3-pointers. 

“If you would have told me before the season that we would break the record for most threes, I would say, ‘You’re crazy,’” Bollant said. “I’m still in shock we made that many threes.”

The new offense also saw increased aggression, with more drives to the basket that resulted in free throw attempts to jump from 19 per game last season to 21 this season.

Illinois’ players spent the year trying to learn Bollant’s unique Buzz and switching man-to-man defenses. Despite Bollant saying it takes a full year to properly learn the defense, Illinois broke a 25-year-old record for turnovers forced in Big Ten play.

The Illini made their living off their defense in the WNIT by holding opponents to 35.9 percent shooting and 58.8 points per game, compared to 42.1 percent shooting and 67.3 points per game in the regular season. Bollant attributed the success to weaker competition than in Big Ten play, as well as an improved knowledge of the system. 

Bollant was able to get every player on the team to improve in every major statistical area.

Every player increased their scoring by at least 3.2 points per game, led by First-Team All-Big Ten selection Penn, who increased from 13.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game to 19.2 points and 9.6 rebounds per game this season, and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Adrienne GodBold, who increased from 9.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season to 15.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game this season.

The sophomore class was largely improved as well. Alexis Smith hardly left the bench during her freshman year, but started every game as point guard for the Illini this season. Sixth player Taylor Tuck only appeared in 17 games for the Illini last season, but was the team’s first player off the bench. The 6-foot utility player filled in at every position, averaging 4.5 points and 2.7 rebounds. Ivory Crawford was a rare freshman starter in 2011-12, but was sixth in minutes played. Crawford was able to make a leap and become a consistent scoring threat for the Illini, averaging 11.8 points compared with 6.6 points the season prior. 

The new success and more aggressive systems also brought in much larger crowds than the Illini had seen in a few seasons. Illinois’ average attendance increased from 1,070 last season to 1,926 this season, a 55-percent increase, the largest in the nation.

With the new support, the new schemes and the new coaching staff, GodBold thinks the Big Ten better watch out.

“The program is gonna take off,” she said. 

Johnathan can be reached at [email protected] and @jhett93.