NCAA Basketball: 10 teams that should target Illinois transfer Kofi Cockburn

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

The reigning ACC Tournament champions will be bringing back one of the best backcourts in the country next season in star guards Jose Alvarado and Mike Devoe, along with veterans Bubba Parham, Jordan Usher, Kyle Sturdivant. The issue is in the frontcourt and mainly at center, with little-used big men Rodney Howard and Saba Gigiberia set to get the minutes, or the team will just use a ton of small-ball lineups.

Head coach Josh Pastner doesn’t have a national reputation for development but he should get some credit for Moses Wright, who went from a little-known rotational piece to last season’s ACC Player of the Year and becoming an offensive force. If they could somehow land Cockburn as his replacement, we would have to start talking about Georgia Tech as the team to beat in the ACC and a Final Four threat as well.

Gonzaga Bulldogs

They’re already the consensus No. 1 preseason team in the country so why would the Bulldogs try to go after Cockburn? I mean, the same could’ve been said about them getting top-30 point guard Nolan Hickman earlier this offseason too. But after losing to Baylor in the national title game, this is a team clearly going “all in” on the 2021-22 campaign. It’s also important to note that the program brought in Steven Gentry, a former assistant at Illinois last season.

The question here would be whether Cockburn and fellow All-American Drew Timme would work well together on the court. While the spacing would be tight, the Illini big man is a much better interior defending and gives Gonzaga something they didn’t have with Timme at the five-spot. And with neither able to be double-teamed and with No. 1 overall recruit Chet Holmgren capable of playing on the wing, this frontcourt combination would be near unstoppable.