Illinois Basketball: 5 biggest storylines for 2020-21 season

3. Can Giorgi return to his freshman season form?

There were high hopes for forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili last season in Champaign and for good reason. He was coming off a spectacular freshman season in which he broke Deon Thomas’ school record for points in a game by a freshman and became a piece that was sure to be a key factor for the Illini in years to come.

Obviously the addition of Kofi Cockburn to take the five spot, which then moved Giorgi to the four, was going to be a change for the now junior forward. Bezhanishvili struggled for most of the season in 2019-20 and left Illini fans wondering what happened to the former freshman star. The addition of Cockburn proved to be a struggle for Giorgi as he was not able to transition to a high-post position and saw significant drops in minutes and production.

After having a year of the Kofi and Giorgi show under his belt though, Bezhanishvili could be a key surprising factor for the Illini this year if he is able to return to anything near his freshman self.

A return to this form would mean that the Illini would have someone at every position that would be able to score almost at will, leaving this to be an issue for a lot of teams. While Giorgi won’t be expected to return to his exact form of his freshman self, the 6’9 forward could still up his game to a slightly higher level and make a big impact.

I don’t see Giorgi scoring over 10.0 points per game and will most likely be somewhere in the 5-6 rebounds per game department as well. If he is able to stay right around 10 and 5 for the year though, the Illini could have one of the best high-low games in the nation.