NCAA Basketball: Top 25 most impactful freshmen for 2019-20 season

10) Kofi Cockburn, C, Illinois

You don’t often see 6-10, 290-pound big men running around for a full-court pressing, up-tempo team, but that is what Kofi Cockburn is going to be at Illinois next season – and he’s going ot have a valuable role.

That unique style helped the Fighting Illini pick up a few wins last year, most notably over Michigan state, but they still lacked a lot of top-end talent and struggled to produce in the half court.

Cockburn will help fix all of that and give star guard Ayo Dosunmu a legitimate running mate and nice complement on the inside. He holds down the inside on both end of the floor, using his size and strength of neutralize opposing bigs down low and dominate the glass.

It remains to be seen if Illinois will slow down their game to try to take advantage of his offensive skill set in the post but Cockburn has proven he can play fast, too, which he did Oak Hill.

It’s also worth noting that Cockburn is still in the initial phase of his development as a basketball player. A native of Jamaica, he has only played organized basketball for four years and he should continue to develop at a fast pace – which is right up Illinois’ alley.