CHICAGO — Illinois’ chances of getting to the Final Four in New Orleans rest on the big shoulders of Kofi Cockburn, which should make Illini Nation feel pretty good heading into Friday’s first-round game against Chattanooga.
The 7-foot junior has done everything coach Brad Underwood hoped for when he recruited the big man out of Oak Hill Academy in Virginia in 2019, beating out Kansas, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and St. John’s.
Cockburn has helped turn around a program that had been in a deep funk for years, becoming a dominant presence on the court and a leader off the court. He’s the perfect spokesman for a team whose extreme confidence can sometimes come off as cocky.
“My sophomore year when I came back, me and Ayo (Dosunmu), we really locked in and spoke a lot,” Cockburn said last week. “We made that a priority for us, to show those guys: ‘We need to win, we need to win. Every day we’re playing for something really big. Everything counts. Everything matters.’ ... We’re playing for something big, and it can go by fast.”
It has gone by very fast since the NCAA Tournament was canceled abruptly two years ago because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now Cockburn and his teammates are back to finish the job they began in 2019-20.
For most of the last two seasons, the Illini have backed up their big talk. They won the Big Ten tournament and earned a No. 1 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament, and they shared the regular-season conference title with Wisconsin this year.
But unless Illinois gets out of the first two rounds in the South Region and advances to the Sweet 16 in San Antonio, it will go down as another disappointing ending for a talented crew and its star center, who most assume will enter the NBA draft this summer.
Underwood pointed out Sunday that “you can make yourself legendary in March.” This is Cockburn’s opportunity to burnish his college legend and prove “Kofi Time” is more than a T-shirt-ready slogan. On Monday, Cockburn was named a first-team All-American by the Associated Press, one of three Big Ten players to earn that honor this season.
But Friday’s loss to Indiana in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals was an example of what can go wrong when the Illini aren’t totally in sync.
Illinois led by four points after Trent Frazier’s 3-pointer four minutes into the second half. But Cockburn was winded and signaled to the bench he needed a rest as he ran down the court.
After Cockburn blocked a shot by Xavier Johnson, the timeout came at the 15:45 mark, and Cockburn was replaced by Omar Payne. He returned after a couple of minutes on the bench, but the Hoosiers had taken the lead and ultimately held on for a 65-63 win.
Cockburn played well, but Indiana big man Trayce Jackson-Davis held his own and didn’t get pushed around in the post like so many others in Cockburn’s path.
Underwood said Sunday it was the “little things” that did in the Illini, including missed free throws, blown layups and dunks and untimely turnovers.
“And it didn’t help we had pink eye going around our team,” he added. “That’s why Trent and Coleman (Hawkins) are in sunglasses, and I should be. I’ve got it in both my eyes. It was just a weird day.”
The loss didn’t affect Illinois’ seeding or its chances of going deep in March Madness. But the Illini can’t afford another “weird day” and they need to get Cockburn more involved in the offense early if they hope to avoid a first-weekend exit. And Cockburn must be ready to play additional minutes if needed in a close game, as most stars do this time of year.
Cockburn’s future has been debated nonstop for the last two years. He’s projected as a late first-round or early second-round draft pick, like Dosunmu, who fell to No. 38. Dosunmu has been one of the top rookies in the NBA with his hometown Chicago Bulls despite being overlooked, and Cockburn could follow the same path.
He’s an old-school, space-eating center like his idol, Shaquille O’Neal, and Cockburn doesn’t shoot 3s like Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren or current NBA big men such as Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokić. He’s difficult to contain inside with the ball in his hands, but Cockburn doesn’t have the greatest hands and sometimes puts the ball on the floor for an extra dribble instead of going straight to the hole.
Cockburn also is a 65.1% free-throw shooter this season, so some teams prefer hacking him and taking the chance he’ll clank his free throws.
Though he considered entering last year’s draft, Cockburn eventually pulled out and said returning to Champaign was the best decision he has made. And though everyone says they haven’t made up their mind yet, he insisted he isn’t sure if he will turn pro after this season.
“If I need to come back for another year, I’m not in any rush to go anywhere,” he said. “I’m just going to ride the wave, be where my feelings are at.”
Crazy as it seems, there is some speculation Cockburn would be better off returning and getting name, image and likeness deals than getting drafted and perhaps starting out in the G League.
“You have more options,” he said of NIL money. “You can come back to school and enhance your education and play college basketball another year, and you don’t have to worry about bills and stuff like that and you make money. Those things collectively definitely make the decisions a little easier for you.
“But I don’t think the NIL, the money part of it, is any reason to come back to college.”
Nor would winning the NCAA Tournament necessarily mean Cockburn is heading to the NBA.
“I want to win above everything,” he said. “It definitely gives you that warm feeling, that joy. But my decision is ultimately not going to be based on what I accomplished or little things like that. … I know that I’m capable (of playing in the NBA), and I’ve been getting good input from different teams, different people. I think I’m ready personally.”
But for now it’s all about the tournament — and a chance for Cockburn to show what he’s all about.
