The biggest men’s basketball name to enter the transfer portal in, well, the history of the transfer portal is not transferring after all.
Star big man Kofi Cockburn, a 2020–21 consensus All-America honoree, is headed back to Champaign for his third season at Illinois, he announced Friday. The news ends just over two weeks of intense speculation about the Jamaican center’s future, with Cockburn choosing a return to Illinois over Kentucky and Florida State.
Cockburn is equal parts dominant and flawed. His 7-foot, 285-pound muscle-packed frame makes him virtually impossible to stop on the block, and his presence in the paint defensively helped make the Illini one of the nation’s best defensive teams last season.