Illinois Basketball: Top 5 underrated Illini recruits of the past decade

1. Kofi Cockburn

And now we get to the most underrated Illini recruit of the past decade. It was hard to pinpoint the most underrated, but I think Kofi Cockburn takes the cake. This kid has the potential to be the best big man in program history.

Kofi was a 6-foot-10, 290-pound center coming out of Oak Hill Academy and residing in Mouth Of Wilson, Virginia. He was rated as a four-star recruit who was the No. 46 player in the class of 2019 and the No. 12 center in the nation. He was also the No. 2 player in the state of Virginia.

I know some people are going to disagree with me on Kofi, but this kid should have been ranked higher in his class. He came in as the No. 46 player, which blows my mind considering the numbers he put up in year one.

Kofi finished his freshman season averaging 13.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He helped save the Illinois program. He took an Illini team that was 12-21 the year before and transformed them into a 21-10 team. We were going to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign.

After everything was canceled due to the pandemic, Kofi declared for the NBA Draft. There was a possibility that Illinois fans would only get to see the talented big man for one season. Just days before the deadline to withdraw from the draft, Kofi made the announcement that he was coming back to Champaign.

I expect huge things out of Kofi as a sophomore. The stage is set for him to have an epic year. He came into college as the No. 46 player in his class, but this number was not correct. I would put him somewhere between No. 15 and No. 20 among his peers.