The Grentz Sage: A Golden Age for Women's Basketball at UIUC

By Isabella Cook

At the end of the 1994-1995 season, the Fighting Illini Women’s Basketball Team was close to a crisis.

In twenty years of the program, they had achieved a 264-298 losing overall record and were used to sitting at the bottom of the Big 10 conference rankings(1). In a time when collegiate women’s basketball dynasties were emerging at schools like Tennessee, Stanford, and Connecticut, the Fighting Illini couldn’t even buy a tournament bid. And with the WNBA still two years from being established, collegiate teams and players fought for possession of very few spotlights. The UIUC WBB team seemed to have no room to grow. 

No one suspected that the program would catch lightning in a bottle.

Fig 1: Grentz Heads B-Ball Revival, Daily Illini April 9, 1996

Taken from the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection

In the fall of 1995, Theresa Grentz entered as the Women Fighting Illini’s new head coach. She came to Illinois after 19 years coaching the Rutgers women’s basketball team to great success: post-domination of the now-defunct AIAW conference, Grentz led the Rutgers women to ten regular season Atlantic 10 championships, four A10 tournament championships, and nine consecutive NCAAW tournament appearances. She had also made her mark on Olympic history, coaching the USA Women’s team to a bronze medal in the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics(3). Not a bad pickup for a floundering program. 

Alas, even a big fish like Grentz did not make a dynasty. The 95-’96 season saw the UIUC WBB team go 13-15 and rank only 8th in the Big 10(4). It was an improvement over their previous 10th place ranking, but certainly not up to a 4-time A10 Coach of the Year’s standards. Still, there was optimism for slow growth to a streak of slight winning records rather than losing ones, maybe an appearance or two in the Big Dance. Perhaps one day, Grentz could do for Illinois what she did for Rutgers.

Fig 2: Tauja Catchings takes a shot against the Lithuanian National Team

Fig 3: Ashley Berggren shoots a layup against Northwestern

Taken from 1997 Illio

That day came sooner than anticipated. In the lead-up to the 1996-’97 season, Grentz held onto Ashley Berggren, a 1996 First Team All-Big 10 member. Grentz also got serious about her first-ever recruiting class at Illinois(4). Those familiar with WNBA legend Tamika Catchings might recognize Tauja Catchings, Tamika’s older sister, who committed to Illinois in 1996 after being named Illinois Ms. Basketball and winning back-to-back high school state championships at Stevenson in Chicago(5). When classes started in the fall of 1996, the program finally had all the pieces it needed to make magic happen.

In 1997, the women Fighting Illini absolutely exploded. They started the season unranked but ended at #16 in the AP Top 25 Poll, exceeding their previous peak of #18. They also had a record-breaking regular season, going 24-8 for their best single-season record of all time and taking down opponents like #10 Arkansas, #16 Wisconsin, and #19 Michigan State along the way(6). At the end of the regular season, they claimed their first Big 10 Conference Regular Season Championship alongside co-champions Michigan State and Purdue. Junior Ashley Berggren was named Player of the Year and Theresa Grentz was named co-Coach of the Year in the Big 10 Awards; Berggren was also named to the All-Big 10 First Team for a second consecutive year(7). To top off an already phenomenal year, the 4-seed Illinois women made a run to the Sweet Sixteen in the 1997 NCAA Tournament, beating Drake and Duke before losing to 1-seed Connecticut in the Midwest Regional Semifinal(8). They were the final Big 10 team standing in that year’s tournament, outlasting the Big 10 Conference Tournament Champion, the Iowa Hawkeyes(9). 

Tauja Catchings remembers how the 1996-97 team began their season playing home games in Huff Hall, the smaller gymnasium on campus, before moving to Assembly Hall later in the season, the larger stadium where the men also played. The women’s program originally played home games at Assembly Hall, but was demoted to Huff Hall at the start of the 1992-’93 season. By 1998, all home games for the women were played in Assembly Hall(10). “[...I]nitially it was ‘well, women don’t, you know, really typically draw the crowds that the men draw’, but by the time she finished pretty much that first season, it was like, ‘oh no, we gotta move them[...] because we’ve sold out at Huff’. So then we got to play at Assembly Hall, and I think that that speaks volumes to, um, just the interest and the level of success, um, of the program itself[...]”(11). Beyond their success, the women Fighting Illini had an electricity to them in 1997 that attracted fans like never before. Moving to Assembly Hall for games was arguably a greater victory than a conference championship or Sweet Sixteen run – these young women, led by a woman coach, defied all expectations and forced themselves onto a bigger stage, one usually reserved only for the men.

Fig 4: Teresa Grentz speaking to her team at 1997 NCAA tournament, Daily Illini, March 10, 1998

Taken from the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection

In the afterglow of the 1996-’97 season, a question lingered: was it a fluke, or could they do it again? Under Grentz, would Illinois go the way of Rutgers or return to its previous lows? To add to the pressure, the AP Preseason Poll gave Illinois its highest ranking ever at #7. But stars Berggren and Catchings returned ready to put up even higher numbers, surrounded by excellent rotational players like Alicia Sheeler, Katie Coleman, Krista Reinking, and Casey Leonhardt(12). 

Unfortunately, the season began with some crucial underperformances. First, a preseason loss to #3 Old Dominion, then a three-game losing streak, including #1 Tennessee and #18 Stanford. But they rebounded with a nine-game winning streak, taking down #22 Purdue, #11 Wisconsin, Michigan State, and #21 Colorado back-to-back. The Fighting Illini ended the season 20-10, losing the Big 10 regular season championship to Iowa by just one game and falling out of the Big 10 Tournament in the first round (Purdue went on to win). But they still ended the regular season ranked #16 and achieved a 3-seed in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. Breezing past UW Green Bay and UC Santa Barbara, Illinois made their second-ever, and back-to-back, Sweet Sixteen appearance before losing to 2-seed North Carolina in the Midwest Regional Semifinal(13). Ashley Berggren made her third appearance on the All-Big 10 First Team(14), while Tauja Catchings earned Second Team honors(15).

Fig 5: Center Casey Leonhardt against Northwestern

Fig 6: Forward Alicia Sheeler takes a shot against Old Dominion

Taken from 1998 Illio

1997 wasn’t a fluke. The Fighting Illini WBB team had entered a golden age. 

Grentz and Illinois finished out the century with two more top-three finishes in the Big 10 Conference regular season and two NCAA tournament second-round appearances(16). Multiple players earned All-Big 10 First and Second Team honors in 1999 and 2000, including Tauja Catchings, Susan Blauser, and Allison Curtin(17). Theresa Grentz exited Illinois after the 2006-07 season with a 210-156 overall record and only two losing seasons under her belt: 1995-96 and 2003-04. These two seasons were also the only ones during her tenure where Illinois didn’t qualify for either the NCAA or WNIT tournaments. To this day, 1996-97 and 1997-98 are the two most successful seasons in Fighting Illini WBB history, with 24-8 remaining the best regular season record and no Sweet Sixteen appearances since 1997 & 1998(18).

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Grentz’s coaching mentality might seem standard in today’s women’s basketball scene, but in the late ‘90s, it was radical. Women’s coaches were expected to be softer on players than men’s coaches, but Grentz loudly rejected that mindset when she spoke with the Daily Illini during her first season. “‘I’m demanding. There are a lot of people that don’t want to see women in their players’ faces"(19). She herself was a woman who didn’t hold back, and she expected the same intensity from the women she coached. “[...] when [James] Naismith invented the game he didn’t invent it for me, he invented it for basketball players”(20). Her attitude and demeanor were a welcome shock to players like Ashley Berggren, who were used to an entirely different breed of coach at Illinois: “My first impression of her was that she was a bit intimidating[...]but it’s a positive intimidation”(21). 

Her discipline manifested in creative and bold ways. Catchings recounts how Grentz didn’t believe in closed-door meetings. “I remember, actually, even her sitting everybody[...]in a circle and kinda going through each player on the team and “this is your role, this is what we expect,”[...]so that I could look across and be like “Hey Shavonna [Hunter], no, that’s – you’re not supposed to be shooting 20 shots a game, your role is to distribute the ball and to be a leader, you know, for – so, um, yeah, so she did a great job just of kind of acknowledging and explaining roles[...]”(22). Grentz also used players’ other interests to motivate them. Catchings loved shopping, so Grentz would reward her with shopping time when she met her goals. “[...]you know, all of us had big feet[...]so [Nordstrom] was the only place we could find shoes size 10s and up, um, and so that would be a thing, like, hey, let’s, let’s knock this practice out and we’ll go to Nordstrom! Okay!”(23). 

As a parent of two athletic sons, Catchings is deeply appreciative of the communication and mentorship modeled for her within the Illinois women’s basketball program. Coaches that are “straight shooters”, she says, “are things you kind of take for granted when you have them[...]it has been a blessing to[...]share a lot of the same lessons and things and values that I learned”. And as much as she values Grentz’s work on the court, Catchings treasures most the glimpses she got of her coach as a well-rounded, balanced individual. Grentz often invited players to her house to spend time with her husband and children, eating meals and sending them home with leftovers, showing them that women didn’t have to sacrifice the fullness of life to pursue their dreams. “[...]it was cool to see her as a coach, but it was even cooler to see her as a mom and a wife, and kind of to know ‘okay, one day I want what she’s got’[...]”(24). In those moments, players also got to see a softer side of their coach and understand that valuing discipline or hard work required a balance with empathy.

Fig 7: Kanon, Kolton, and Tauja Catchings

Taken from Tauja Catchings Website

Many of Grentz’s players from the golden age emerged as leaders in sports and life. Following a short stint in professional basketball, Ashley Berggren found women’s football, playing professionally in Chicago and winning international championships with the US national team(25). Since graduating from Illinois in 2000 and being drafted to the WNBA, Tauja Catchings has become an accomplished, generous, and thoughtful nonprofit leader, book author, and sports mom(26). She connects the youth camps she leads now at her Catch the Stars Foundation to her time at Illinois: “Coach Grentz expected a lot of us off court, so we did a lot of community appearances and things like that and spoke to schools, at schools, and, you know, she was big on giving back, and, um, that was something that kind of resonated with me even beyond Illinois, so. When my sister and I came here [Indianapolis], you know, started off by doing a basketball camp, um, for kids that didn’t typically have those same opportunities[...]next year, added the fitness component to the camp, ‘cause we were like, “not every kid likes basketball, but every kid should learn ways to be more active and healthy and lead, you know, healthier lifestyles”[...]then we added a mentoring program[...]it’s always great to be able to just mentor the next generation and encourage them”(27).

However, not all of Grentz’s golden-age players made it out of the program so easily. Between the team’s two Sweet Sixteen seasons, the University of Illinois reported Grentz to the NCAA for providing players with alcohol. Grentz admitted to using alcohol as a reward on numerous occasions by giving the team champagne toasts after tournament wins or handing out bottles to players who made all-tournament teams(28). Grentz was not fired or disciplined by the NCAA, but the fallout was massive. Worried about visibility and criticism, the WBB coaching staff started enforcing rules about drinking more strictly and encouraged players to limit other social activities. Rumors shortly led to cliques being formed on the team, and morale declined, affecting the team’s play(29).

Fig 8: Katie Colman shoots a layup against the Lithuanian National Team

Taken from 1997 Illio

At the same time, Grentz was engineering hostilities of her own. Only four players returned for the 1998-99 season: four players graduated, one switched sports, one sat out for injury, and the other six quit the team. These players, including Katie Coleman and Casey Leonhardt, alleged that Grentz essentially forced them off the team to reclaim their scholarship money and recruit new players with it. Coaching staff severely limited these players’ time on the court and punished them more harshly than others for small infractions like being late to practice. Four of the six who quit were recruited by Grentz’s predecessor; she claimed that disagreements arose from the transition to a new coaching style, refuting that players were ever treated unfairly. But Coleman was part of Grentz’s first recruiting class, supporting claims that Grentz’s favoritism was “calculated”. Grentz also reneged on promises to let players keep their scholarships after an interview where she was quoted as saying, “I don’t want them. They haven’t contributed anything to the team”(30). When Catchings graduated in 2000, she was the only remaining player from Grentz’s first recruiting class on the team(31). The combination of scandals didn’t seem to impact recruiting, but none of Grentz’s teams could replicate the success of the ‘97 and ‘98 squads. Grentz reaffirmed what the then-graduated Berggren said: it could have been handled better on both sides, but Grentz is the right person to get the program back on track. “I’m a public figure. This (criticism) comes with the territory[...]I’m not perfect, but we move on”(32).

Fig 9: Inaugural Champaigns Graphic

Taken from Fighting Illini Recap Article

And move on we have. Post Grentz’s departure, the Women Fighting Illini muddled around the low-middle of Big 10 standings for over a decade, but a new golden era may be on the way. Since current head coach Shauna Green arrived in 2022, the team has tied for fifth in the Big 10 twice, made it to the NCAA tournament twice, and won the WBIT tournament in 2024. Green is the only head coach since Grentz to qualify for the NCAA tournament and one of only two since Grentz that have cracked the top five in the Big 10, making her tenure to date the program’s second-most successful(33). And in a stunning full-circle moment, Theresa Grentz was inducted into the Illini Athletics Hall of Fame in October of 2025(34) – months before this blog post was published. Longtime Illinois WBB fans have weathered some soaring highs and crushing lows; new fans like myself marvel at those peaks and valleys. We may not be a legendary program in the pantheon of women’s college basketball, but there’s always wind beneath our sails. Our program’s history teaches us that if our time isn’t now, then it’s surely on the horizon. 

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This article features quotes from an oral history interview with Tauja Catchings. Read the full transcription or listen to the audio file in the “Our Stories” → “General Oral Histories” section of the CCHM’s website. Special thanks to Tauja for speaking with me and for everything she gave to Illinois WBB. 

Theresa Grentz and Katie Coleman did not respond to requests for comment.

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