Illinois basketball fans have a lot to be excited about entering the 2021-22 campaign.
The offseason started tumultuous for the Illini. Ayo Dosunmu departed the program for the NBA. The lead big man, Kofi Cockburn, was not too far behind. Kofi then decides to potentially come back to the college game but enters the transfer portal.
At one time, the feeling was Kofi was either going to stay in the NBA Draft or was transferring to Kentucky. The thought on Kentucky was the assistant coach who recruited him, Orlando Antigua, departed for the Wildcats. This would only make the most sense.
Kofi officially withdrew from the NBA Draft and, on July 14, he announced his top three of Kentucky, Florida State, and Illinois. Just two days later, Kofi posted the video announcement of him staying in Champaign for year three.
KING’S BACK 🦍 pic.twitter.com/NooK3q9BKp
— King Kofi (@kxng_alpha) July 16, 2021
This announcement improved the Illini roster tremendously. Kofi is an elite-level player, and he is starting to make some preseason All-American lists because of his talent.
On Tuesday, Jon Rothstein of College Hoops Today posted his preseason All-Americans for the 2021-22 season. Some big-time names don the first-team list. Villanova’s Collin Gillespie, UCLA’s Johnny Juzang, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, and Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson are four of the five to make the first-team All-American list.
The fifth person on the team? Kofi Cockburn. Rothstein sees Kofi as one of the best players in the country and puts him on his first-team All-American squad.
Illinois basketball pops up again on the All-American lists.
While having Kofi on the first-team list is exciting, many fans expected him to be up there on one of the first three teams. But Rothstein wasn’t finished with the Illini.
Illinois didn’t don the second-team All-American squad, but if you scroll further down, you will find our point guard. Andre Curbelo leads the way for Rothstein’s third-team All-American list.
Finally, Curbelo is starting to get the respect he has earned. He is a sensational player and Rothstein sees the talent that Curbelo brings to the court. The first sentence by Rothstein sums up Curbelo perfectly.
"“A special type of point guard, Curbelo reiterates on nearly every play why Brad Underwood consistently refers to him as an “alpha”."
It is nice to see Curbelo get some shine. He didn’t have a great shooting season as a freshman, but he didn’t need to shoot the ball. His role was to be a sensational distributor, and that is exactly what he did for the program.
You are about to see one of the best one-two punches in the history of college basketball. Curbelo and Kofi will light the world on fire.