CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Quad City area is starting to become a hotbed for colleges to recruit from. On Sunday, Illinois women's basketball head coach and former Clinton Riverking Shauna Green had two players from the Quad Cities down for unofficial visits.
Everyone who follows high school girls' basketball all across the country is familiar with Davenport North's All-American guard Divine Bourrage, who made her second trip to Champaign, this time to see a game.
But there is another up-and-coming star also from Clinton, Jhaliana Guy, an eighth grader. That is correct: the 2028 5-foot-7 point guard made her first of many visits to Illinois, according to her father Jordan Guy.
Illinois did not fare well against the Wolverines in their conference opener, but that did not matter to the Iowa All-State prep.
"Illinois is going to be fine, Kedric, people make such a big deal about a loss, it's going to happen. I look at so much more than that. Like I told you last Friday night, all these schools preach family, blah-blah, I can tell which coaches and teams are close and mean it. Coach Green is legit; I believe in what she tells her team in a conversation I've had with her," Jordan Guy said.
Jeremy Brooks, head scout and USA Gold certified coach from Prep Girls Hoops, said, "I would describe Jhaliana's game in a few ways, but the most accurate would be that she is years ahead of her age level, in both the skill and athleticism aspects of the game. She has size, strength, and speed, isn’t afraid to be physical, and has the knowledge of when to do what moves during a contest. When you combine that with her athleticism, it’s eye-opening."
The Clinton Middle School guard is making the points game look like a layup line.
"I like the way Coach Green lets her guards play. They didn't shoot it too well today, but I know they do. She tells players she recruits that she allows her players to play the game without looking over your shoulder," Jhaliana said.
Bourrage, on the other hand, is a 2025 prep with 32 DI offers already under her cap, including Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Iowa State, Florida, North Carolina State, Kentucky, Purdue, Alabama, Tennessee and Michigan State to name a few.
Green and her coaching staff, Calamity McEntire, Britney Anderson, DeAntoine Beasley, Emily Durr and Jenna Giacone are not just making an impression on Bourrage; her mother Leanne Binion made the trip south as well.
Binion said, "My daughter has not picked a school yet, there's a lot of time left and visits. One thing I do know, these coaches here at Illinois are real, they're as genuine as you can get, I believe what they're telling us, we watch their game. I'm going to keep it real, I like Shauna (Green)."
Jordan told WQAD, "Man, we don't care about this game, I want to see how they respond next week when Missouri comes to town, that's how you know a team is built."
Green, in her second year, is finding out that home is where the heart is; it is ok to come back to where it started for her to try to get players to play at Illinois.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story credited Jeremy Brooks for the quote in the fifth paragraph. Jordan Guy said it and the story has been corrected.
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