The Big Ten Network’s women’s basketball broadcast schedule for the 2024-25 season was announced Wednesday, and it happens that Illinois will host Marquette to open the network slate on Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. CT.
Other Illini regular-season games that will be broadcast by the Big Ten Network include at Ohio State (Dec. 8), vs. Washington (Dec. 31), at Northwestern (Jan. 23), vs. Purdue (Jan. 27). vs. Nebraska (Feb. 16) and at UCLA (Feb. 20). Much of the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament will also appear on the network, and every Big Ten game that doesn’t air on television will be streamed exclusively on Big Ten Plus (B1G+), a subscription wing of the Big Ten Network.
The Illini may have yet to appear on the radar of some women’s college basketball observers, but that figures to be a different story by season’s end – and in the years ahead. After losing their first game in last season’s Big Ten Tournament, the Illini bounced back in a big way, winning the Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament with a comfortable 71-57 win over Villanova in the final. Since then, coach Shauna Green has overseen recruiting efforts that landed the program’s first- and second-ever five-star recruits in Berry Wallace and Destiny Jackson.
“She has a very strong vision for where this program is going to go and a high standard of expectations that is really now felt throughout, I would say, not even just our women’s basketball program but the entirety of our athletics program,” Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman said during recent Big Ten media days.
“We’re just getting started with what’s possible with that program.”