Illinois Basketball: Illini land in ESPN’s way-too-early top 25

It has been about two and a half weeks since the Illinois basketball program concluded their 2021-22 campaign.

The season ended shorter than any Illini fan had hoped. A tough loss to Houston marked the start of the offseason for the Orange and Blue.

So far, through the two and a half weeks, the offseason has been pretty intense. Andre Curbelo and Omar Payne both transferred out. Illinois has been rumored in quite a few incoming transfers as well. The dust will eventually settle and we will play basketball again this winter.

When that day comes, what will the team look like and where will we rank nationally?

ESPN’s Jeff Borzello published his way-too-early top 25 for next season. I feel like in today’s college basketball landscape, way-too-early means more than it used to. With over 1000 players in the transfer portal, who knows what each team will look like come tip-off.

“Brad Underwood potentially has a huge rebuild on his hands…”

Arkansas takes the cake in Borzello’s top 25, as they have an insane recruiting class coming in and some good returning talent. Following the Razorbacks, you will find those pesky Houston Cougars. Most of the talent that beat Illinois in the NCAA tournament is returning for Kelvin Sampson’s squad.

If you continue down the list, you will find the traditional blue bloods of the college basketball world. You don’t have to travel too much further to run into Illinois, though. At No. 17, Borzello has the Illini shockingly inside the top 25.

Illinois basketball is in the way-too-early top 25 for one big reason.

When you read the breakdown of why Borzello put the Illini in the top 25, he makes the reasoning pretty clear. It all hinges on whether or not Kofi Cockburn returns to Champaign.

If Kofi doesn’t return to Illinois, Borzello would drop us outside of the top 25 and even goes on to say that the team is in rebuild mode without Kofi.

"Cockburn has made his NBA decision late in the process the past couple of years, and he might decide it’s time to move on regardless of draft status. If that happens, Brad Underwood potentially has a huge rebuild on his hands"

The projected starting lineup, according to Borzello, would be No. 1 Jayden Epps, No. 2 RJ Melendez, No. 3 Luke Goode, No. 4 Coleman Hawkins, and No. 5 Kofi.

I don’t have much of an issue with that projected lineup. With Curbelo gone, Illinois needs someone who can run the point, and Epps is most likely the best option. He would need to learn the speed of the college game quickly.

My belief is that Kofi is not coming back. I have said that in the past, and he has surprised me by returning. But if he wants to develop into an NBA-caliber player, he needs to play with NBA-caliber talent. The G-League would be better for his development, and I think he will see that. That is why I believe he is going to depart.

No matter what, Illinois is going to have a talented team next season. It is way too early to tell who is going to be on the roster and what the team is going to fully look like. We should be, at worst, sniffing the top 25.