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Welcome to “Green Street,” your dose of women’s college basketball news from Illini best writer and AP Top 25 voter Joe Vozzelli. He will be covering Shauna Green’s Illini team and the women’s game in general on Monday, Wednesday and Friday each week.

Adalia McKenzieThe title of best defensive player on the Illinois women’s basketball team may be challenged, at least for this upcoming season.

Senior guard McKenzie’s ability to be a lock-down defender is in no small part helping the Illini’s third coach Shauna Green The Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, native labels him the X-factor of his team’s success.

Jasmine Brown-Hagger He exhibits some of the characteristics that allowed McKenzie to be successful in Champaign.

Brown-Hagger, a Mississippi State transfer, is expected to be one of the first players off the Illinois team’s bench this season, with the 6-foot-10 sophomore guard and former four-star recruit in the Class of 2023. The No. 1 player in his class in the state of Illinois, according to eSPNW’s HoopGurlz, is looking to become the latest transfer to develop in Green’s system.

Of the seven bench players in the Illini’s 80-53 series victory over Lewis last Friday night, Brown-Hagger played the most minutes (21) while scoring nine points (thanks to finishing 7 of 7 at the free throw line) and he added three rebounds and an assist.

“Jas is still trying to figure out our defensive principles, but he works hard and he’s very fast,” Green said. “Sometimes he’s so fast that he throws himself out of position. He plays really hard. He scored 19 points off the bench in our scrimmage against an SEC team (on Oct. 26). He’s capable of scoring and he can defend, so (McKenzie) is kind of our defender.” We have and now we have someone that I can give Dal a little bit of a break and/or put Jas together to really lock down the other one (offensively) … he hit a couple of threes.

“I’m really excited for Jas. He wants to be great and how much he’s invested in the gym, the film room, working on his mentality with our sports physiologist, this kid is doing everything and doing everything he can do.” “He takes control of the business and these are the kind of kids you want to succeed and these are the kind of kids who will succeed because what he’s really attacking is a holistic approach.”