Kofi Cockburn averaged 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game during an All-American season at Illinois last year. (Illinois Athletics Photo)
Can a team ever have too many good players? Obviously, any coach would tell you no as Rick Pitino won the 1996 national championship with a loaded roster and John Calipari had a 38-0 start with his 2014-15 team that was two-deep before losing in the Final Four.
Kentucky will find out Friday if it will add another big-time player to this already loaded roster when 7-foot center Kofi Cockburn announces his future plans. He averaged 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds per game last year at Illinois while earning All-American honors but put his name into the NBA draft and the college transfer portal.
He took his name out of the draft but remains in the transfer portal. While Illinois would love to have him back, it seems unlikely he will pick that option and Kentucky seems perfectly positioned to add him even with Oscar Tshiebwe and Lance Ware already on the roster.
So why would he pick Kentucky? Simple. Calipari gets players ready for the pros and new UK assistant coach Orlando Antigua was the main reason Cockburn was at Illinois. Now that Antigua and Chin Coleman have both left the Illinois staff to coach at UK, Cockburn’s move just seems predictable.
Cockburn told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony that when Antigua and Coleman left Illinois was when he decided to enter the transfer portal to keep all options open.
“Antigua is my guy. I’m going to consider them,” Cockburn told ESPN.
From the UK perspective, Cockburn would bring some different skills than Tshiebwe and Ware and give UK another big man to anchor the defense and/or offense around.
If he doesn’t pick UK, the Cats should still be fine. But if he does pick UK as I expect, the Cats could be better than fine next season.
One Response
KSR has reported by a source he’s staying at Illinois this morning. As matter fact there saying Cal has never spoken to him and Ky wasn’t never really in the picture to get him.