Illinois Basketball: Where does Kofi Cockburn rank among top 5 Illini center commits since 2000

For some reason, the Illinois basketball team hasn’t had luck with landing big-time big men.

There have been a few throughout time that have stood out, but you can look at a variety of other teams and see big man after big man helping them in the paint. That hasn’t exactly been the case for the Orange and Blue.

Sure, I remember some of the Illinois No. 5’s over the last few decades. Maverick Morgan was the most recent. He started to develop into a solid No. 5 toward the end of his career, but John Groce was never able to land a big man who could take the team over the top.

I liked Mike Tisdale during his time in Champaign. He was always a fun player to watch and the team had some success when he was with the team. I also enjoyed watching James Augustine and the title run team. Augustine was an underrated recruit who helped the program tremendously.

Kofi Cockburn is the next big man in line for the starting job at the No. 5 spot. He just signed his National Letter of Intent on Tuesday and will be with the team this fall. This made me look at the top big men the Illini have been able to sign over the years.

Here are the top five Illini big men commits since 2000.