Illinois basketball was in a fight on Friday night against a scrappy UT Rio Grande Valley program.
Minutes before the game started, it was announced that Trent Frazier, Jacob Grandison, and Andre Curbelo were all going to miss the game. That didn’t bode well for the Illini.
Despite missing a huge chunk of the team and going down early to the Vaqueros, Illinois fought back and made this game competitive. UT Rio Grande Valley continued to give the Illini all they could handle the entire night, though. Despite the great fight, Illinois would surge ahead at the end and win the game, 94-85.
Here are four observations from the Illinois basketball win over UT Rio Grande Valley.
1. Kofi started his Player of the Year campaign
Coming into the season, Kofi Cockburn was looked at as one of the best centers in the country. He was the preseason Big Ten Player of the Year and was coming off an All-American campaign from last season.
But Kofi had to miss the first three games this year due to suspension. This put him behind the eight ball when it comes to national notoriety. In that time, Illinois dropped a close game to Marquette.
Kofi returned to the lineup, and the Illini were blown out by 20 points against Cincinnati. That was just Kofi’s first game back, though. The rust was not off the big man, and he wasn’t in game shape just yet.
There have been two games since that disappointing loss to Cincinnati, and in those two games, Kofi has shown that he should be one of the options for the best player in college basketball.
Against Kansas State, Kofi put up 23 points and 13 rebounds while going 8-of-10 from the floor. That was a great game, but on Friday night against UT Rio Grande Valley, Illinois fans got to see the best game Kofi has put up as a member of the program.
In a close win, Kofi was one of the two stars for the Orange and Blue. He finished the night with 38 points and 10 rebounds while going 15-of-19 from the field. UT Rio Grande Valley had zero answers for Kofi the entire game.
With that impressive performance, Kofi is now averaging 26.3 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 71.4% from the field this season. He has hoisted himself up into the Player of the Year talks, and those voices will get louder as Illinois starts winning more consistently.