Kentucky might add another instant-impact basketball star from the transfer portal
Another big-time college basketball player is looking more and more like a realistic addition to John Calipari’s roster for the upcoming season.
Kofi Cockburn — a 7-foot, 285-pound center — withdrew from NBA Draft consideration on Tuesday, the day before the deadline to retain his college eligibility, and Kentucky is expected to be a major player regarding what happens next in his basketball career.
Last week, Cockburn put his name in the NCAA transfer portal after spending his first two seasons as a standout player at Illinois, which he helped lead to a Big Ten Tournament title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament this past season.
Cockburn was the No. 46 recruit in the 247Sports composite rankings out of the 2019 class, and he signed with Illinois largely due to his relationship with assistant coach Orlando Antigua, who is now, of course, the top assistant at Kentucky. The Wildcats also added former Illinois assistant Chin Coleman, who coached Cockburn the past two seasons, to the staff this offseason, and UK has been widely viewed as the most likely landing spot for the 21-year-old center if he did indeed withdraw from the NBA Draft and return to college.
“He’s the reason I went to Illinois,” Cockburn told ESPN, speaking of Antigua, on Tuesday. “When he left along with Chin Coleman, I decided to go in the portal to leave my options open. Kentucky? It’s a serious option. Antigua is my guy. I’m going to consider them, but there a lot of schools. I wasn’t really focused on that while I was in the NBA Draft. Now I can take my time and evaluate it better.”
A consensus second-team All-American for the Illini as a sophomore, Cockburn would be arguably the biggest instant-impact transfer in the country — ESPN has already ranked him the No. 1 transfer in the nation — in an offseason that has been filled with high-profile moves.
UK has already signed three highly touted transfers since the end of the 2020-21 campaign — Davidson guard Kellan Grady, Georgia guard Sahvir Wheeler and Iowa guard CJ Fredrick — and the Cats added former West Virginia center Oscar Tshiebwe as a midseason transfer. All will be eligible to play immediately for UK this season — as would Cockburn — thanks to a new NCAA rule that wiped out a mandatory redshirt year for transfers.
Cockburn averaged 17.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots per game while shooting 65.4 percent from the field this past season. He also had 16 double-doubles and scored in double figures in all but two of his 31 games as a sophomore, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors. Cockburn has started 59 of his 62 games as a college player.
ESPN ranked him as the No. 96 overall NBA Draft prospect for 2021 in its latest update, before he withdrew his name from consideration. The draft consists of only 60 picks.
Kentucky has the scholarship flexibility to pursue both Cockburn and No. 1-ranked recruit Jalen Duren ahead of next season, though it seems unlikely that the Cats would be able to land both post players, especially with a frontcourt that already includes Tshiebwe, five-star freshman Daimion Collins, returning forwards Keion Brooks, Lance Ware, Jacob Toppin, and freshman wing Bryce Hopkins.
Duren is currently ranked by 247Sports and Rivals.com as the No. 1 overall player in the class of 2022, though he is expected to reclassify to 2021 and play college basketball this coming season. If he does turn down a pro contract to play in college, the 17-year-old star will pick either Kentucky, Memphis or Miami. He has not set a firm announcement date, and no further recruiting movement is expected until after he wraps up Nike league play in late July.
Cockburn also does not have any set date for a transfer announcement. The first day of fall classes at UK is Aug. 23, giving both players plenty of time to make decisions, though the Wildcats’ current roster is already on campus and engaging in preseason activities.
Kentucky was ranked No. 9 in the latest preseason list from ESPN posted last week. The addition of either Cockburn or Duren would almost certainly vault the Cats up a more few spots on those lists.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 12:38 PM.
