NCAA Basketball: Top 25 preseason power rankings for 2021-22 season
. Fighting Illini . 16. team. 481. .
Illinois Basketball fans have had to deal with a lot of things this offseason, both regarding the roster and coaching staff. They lost all three main assistants to Gonzaga and Kentucky respectively and had to incorporate a new group of coaches, while seemingly having to rebuild after losing their top two players.
Both of their stars were All-Americans last season in Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn, who led the Fighting Illini to a 1 seed. Yet both of them entered the NBA Draft after the season and were definitely gone from the program.
At least one of them.
In one of the more surprising moves of the offseason, Cockburn left the NBA Draft process and then immediately breaking Illinois fans’ hearts even more by entering the transfer portal shortly after. It look as if he was going to follow the assistants to Kentucky but pulled a 180 and returned to his original team, giving them a megastar that instantly makes them a top-25 team. The frontcourt was fairly thin without him, having just Florida transfer Omar Payne on board so that concern has been rectified.
light. Related Story. Projected Illinois starting lineup
And while both Dosunmu and freshman guard Adam Miller are gone, rising sophomore point guard Andre Curbelo is back. He’s been viewed as a national breakout candidate and will have the keys to the offense, also now having a huge security blanket inside in Cockburn to work with. Also helping is 5th-year senior guard and double-digit scorer Trent Frazier back, along with Utah transfer Alfonso Plummer.
There’s plenty of backcourt depth for Illinois to work with, including a trio of 6’5 guards/wings in Brandin Podziemski, Luke Goode, and Ramses Melendez. If any of them can break out, along with Jacob Grandison and Austin Hutcherson being healthy contributors, this team has a chance to get close to what last year’s group was able to accomplish in the regular season. They have arguably the best player in NCAA Basketball so it’s possible, something few thought was when Cockburn originally elected to leave.