Inside the Huddle: Peebles Shows Loyalty to Program in Fifth Season at Illinois

Jada Peebles has stood out from her peers on the basketball court for as long as she can remember. Whether it be from the time she started playing at the age of 5, to receiving her first college offer while still in middle school, to now competing at the Power-5 level for a fifth season, Peebles has thrived with a basketball in her hands, even if the sport did not initially seem like a fit.

Admittedly clumsy as a toddler and preschooler, Peebles remembers falling often, and she would often run in from playing outside with bloodied knees.

“She had scar on top of scar, Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid on her knees,” Jada’s mother, Monique, recalled.

Given her clumsiness, her father – Danny, who played football at the college and NFL levels – thought they were throwing $80 down the drain by putting their daughter in basketball. It was Jada’s mom’s decision, after all, to sign her up for the sport she has now played for almost her whole life.

But, Jada Peebles had inherited her father’s athletic genes, and a flip switched inside of her as soon as she picked up a basketball for the first time.

“When she started playing it at the Y, she had a game and my wife kept asking, ‘Are you gonna come watch Jada play?’” Danny Peebles said. “I lift weights at the Y, and my older son was playing sports. I said, ‘No,’ because my son was starting football. I could tell she was mad enough that I said, ‘Let me poke my face into the gym,’ which was right beside the weight room.

“As soon as the basketball touched her hand, because she had never touched a basketball to our knowledge, everything transformed. From that point forward, no more falling, no more being clumsy, no more bandages. I had to eat my words. I kept telling my wife she was throwing away money. I was dead wrong.”

Jada Peebles was put into almost every activity offered at her local YMCA in Raleigh, North Carolina – including ballet, tap, soccer, track, and basketball – as a 5-year-old. Her parents wanted her to be able to choose her own interests, and that meant she would try everything possible.

Between track and basketball, Peebles was hooked instantly. While her brother, Dylan, pursued track and became an NCAA champion at LSU, Peebles focused on basketball, and she eventually worked with a trainer in middle school to help her train and develop her skills. Though her mom was hesitant to take that next step, the Peebles family decided it would be beneficial in the long run.

Soon after, all of their concerns disappeared, as Jada received her first college offer as a seventh-grader, which came from North Carolina State, a Power-5 school located in her hometown that both of her parents attended. Once she became aware of the opportunity and verbally committed to the Wolfpack, Jada Peebles knew just how gifted she truly was.

“When I got my offer from NC State in seventh grade, it kind of clicked for me,” Jada Peebles said. “College sports were always a thought in my household. It's always been a thing in my mind from a young age of being able to play college ball and go to college.”

Jada and her parents acknowledge the impact her trainer had on her eventual success. After becoming the first female athlete that her trainer had ever worked with, the Peebles family made so many referrals that Jada earned the ability to train for free.

Playing varsity basketball starting as a freshman, Peebles went on to surpass the 1,000-point mark during her junior campaign. In October of her senior year, Jada Peebles decided to decommit from NC State and reopen her recruitment. One month later, and one week ahead of the start of her senior season, she announced her decision to commit to Illinois.

That season, she led Wakefield High School to a 27-2 record, including a perfect 10-0 mark in conference play. The Wolverines earned a No. 1 seed in the state tournament, a competition in which they advanced all the way to the Elite Eight before their 17-game winning streak – and their historic year – came to a close.

Over the course of her high-school career, Peebles compiled an impressive list of accolades, including her conference’s Player of the Year and a three-time Northern Atlantic All-Conference selection.

Defense and shooting have always been key parts of Peebles’ identity on the court, and she was glad to see her defensive dominance get recognized and rewarded.

“I just wanted to get stops and then also be on offense. Defense, for me, has always been about generating stops so that we can get more offense or generating stops so that I can score more points,” Jada Peebles said. “Defense wasn't necessarily something that I really needed to work on. It always was something that would hype me up.”

After the final season of her high-school career, she earned another major achievement, participating in the 2019 Carolinas Classic All-Star Basketball game, which featured some of the top high-school players from North Carolina and South Carolina.

While the on-court experience was memorable, Jada Peebles also was appreciative of the community service aspect of the event, as the All-Star Game participants served as volunteers in a baseball game for people with disabilities.

“When I got the opportunity, I saw that it was something greater than what it was. We did community service where we were helping people with disabilities, which was really cool,” Jada Peebles said. “It was a really good opportunity.”

Monique Peebles was impressed with the Fighting Illini’s vision for her daughter. Though she was sad to see Jada move so far away and a bit concerned about the cold Midwest winters, she could not have been happier and more supportive of Jada’s decision to attend Illinois.

“That was all Jada's decision. She wanted to venture out away from home, and they just pulled out all the stops,” Monique Peebles said. “They honestly just did a really good job of recruiting her. She just thought that the environment would be good for her, and she really wanted a change in location. I said, ‘That's far, and it's cold.’

Making the move from North Carolina to Illinois, Jada Peebles traveled with her new squad for a foreign tour to Australia in August 2019, and she earned a spot in the team’s starting lineup in their season opener on Nov. 5, 2019. She went on to start the first 11 games of the season, hitting double figures three times during that stretch, including double digits in two of her first three games at the collegiate level.

Jada Peebles did not expect to take on that role so quickly into her time with the Orange and Blue, but she took it in stride and embraced the challenge.

“Starting was not something that I really expected coming into it, but it was a great opportunity to have when I had it,” Jada Peebles said.

After an impactful freshman campaign, Peebles led the team in scoring as a sophomore with 11.6 points per game. One year later, she hit double figures on seven different occasions, including a 12-point effort in the team’s first-round win in the Big Ten Tournament.

Everything changed following her junior season, both with the coaching staff and the players around her. Head coach Shauna Green took over the program and brought in a wave of new assistants and players. One of only five returners on the Illini last year, Peebles opted to stay the course and trusted Green to turn the program around.

That is exactly what they did, earning a berth in the NCAA tournament for the first time in Jada Peebles’ career.

“It was very surreal to even get to the point where we could sit down and watch our name pop up on Selection Sunday,” Jada Peebles said. “To continue to play basketball, it just brought me a different level of motivation and appreciation for being where I am because a lot of teams, like the ones I was on before, don’t make it to that point. It was very surreal.”

Deciding to come back to Illinois for a fifth season, Jada Peebles has been at Illinois through the highs and the lows, staying the course and remaining loyal to the Orange and Blue. She is happy to take on any role the team needs her to fill, whether it’s starting or coming off the bench.

Her parents enjoy watching her live out her dreams of being a college basketball player, albeit from 12 hours away on the East Coast. Monique Peebles has enjoyed the ride, and they are not done just yet as Jada plays in her final year with the Illini.

“I am just proud to see her dreams become a reality,” Monique Peebles said. “Jada is a very loyal person, and she's one of the very few people who didn't transfer ever. She's just a loyal person. She made a commitment to Coach Green, and she was going to fulfill that commitment.”

As Jada Peebles competes in her last dance at Illinois, she continues to add to an already impressive legacy. Playing for two different head coaches, Jada has made an impact every stop along the way, and that will not change in her final few months of college.

“I was a part of that change,” Jada Peebles said, “and I want people to really understand what it's like to stick around and fully trust the process.”