UIC’s 2025–26 Season Produced First-Team Recognition—and Unfinished Work

UIC’s women finished the 2025–26 basketball season with individual achievements that moved the program’s conference standing forward, but without the postseason run those achievements might have supported. Jessica Carrothers earned first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference recognition, Julia Coleman collected multiple conference honors, and the Flames entered the league tournament as the seventh seed. Their season ended in the opening round with a 76–71 loss to tenth-seeded Evansville on March 12.

The final record was 14–18 overall and 9–11 in regular-season MVC play. Those numbers need to remain separate from tournament results: the conference record describes the league schedule, while the loss in Coralville closed the full season. Combining the two would obscure where UIC stood when the postseason bracket was formed.

The opening-round result was particularly difficult because the Flames had beaten Evansville twice during the regular season. UIC won 66–48 on the road on January 16 and 68–65 at Credit Union 1 Arena on February 7. Carrothers averaged 21.5 points across those meetings. Those wins gave UIC evidence that it could handle the matchup; they did not carry points into a third game.

The two regular-season margins also warned against treating the series sweep as a guarantee. One victory came by 18 points. The other came by three. A tournament opponent that had already played UIC closely did not need to become an entirely different team to make the next meeting competitive. The new contest still required the Flames to establish an advantage and finish it.

There were strong individual performances in the elimination game. Coleman produced 21 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. Amelia Strong scored 18 points and took seven rebounds, making ten of her 12 free throws. Carrothers added 12 points. Coleman’s ninth double-double of the season demonstrated how much of the game she could influence without being limited to one offensive task.

UIC nevertheless needed more than those contributions to advance. Evansville led 21–14 after the first quarter, and the Flames brought the game back level by halftime. The third quarter then gave the Purple Aces the separation they carried into the final period. The final five-point margin describes a close result, but it does not turn an early tournament exit into a successful finish.

For a season review, the important tension is between demonstrated ability and the frequency with which a team can turn that ability into wins. UIC had players capable of winning conference recognition and performances capable of taking individual games. Its final record shows that those strengths were not yet producing winning results often enough across the full schedule.

Carrothers’ honors were a significant part of that ability. She became UIC’s first first-team All-MVC selection since the program joined the conference. She also earned a place on the league’s All-Newcomer Team. Her path to that recognition followed a final season at IU Northwest in which she was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s 2025 NAIA Player of the Year.

The move between levels makes the recognition meaningful without requiring an exaggerated conclusion about the entire team. A player who had excelled in the NAIA also earned first-team recognition in an NCAA Division I conference. That is evidence about her contribution and adaptation. It is not evidence that UIC had already solved every problem separating its individual talent from a winning overall record.

Coleman gave the Flames another form of production. The redshirt sophomore was named to the All-MVC Third Team, All-Newcomer Team and All-Defensive Team. She became UIC’s first selection to the MVC’s defensive team. Those honors reflected a player whose value extended beyond one scoring line and whose work in different parts of the game gave UIC multiple ways to compete.

The stretch before the tournament showed both opportunity and frustration. UIC beat Drake 69–61 in February for its first victory at the Knapp Center. Carrothers scored 22 points in that game. The Flames then closed the regular season with a 78–76 loss to Murray State and a 78–70 overtime loss to Belmont. Close games were an important part of the finish, but they did not become a late winning run.

Ashleen Bracey completed her fourth season as UIC’s head coach with the team’s March exit. The useful question coming out of that season was how the program could turn recognized individual strengths into a more dependable team result. That work would require preserving what had become effective while addressing the gap between competing in a close game and leaving it with a win.

The 2025–26 record should therefore preserve both sides of the story. Carrothers and Coleman earned honors that belong in UIC’s history. The team also finished below .500 and lost its first conference-tournament game. The awards identify real progress; the final result establishes the work that remained.