By Aidan Joly
The Illinois Fighting Illini squad from the 2018-19 season and the 2019-20 version were like night and day. Now, they look to make another step to become one of the nation’s premier teams.
In head coach Brad Underwood’s second season at the helm in 2018-19, he stuck with a goal of building the program to a script. It didn’t go well, especially on the defensive end of the floor, where he preached a press defense to be aggressive and create turnovers. The team ranked 108th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency and became one of the most foul-prone teams in the country, ranking 338th in the nation in defensive foul rate en route to a 12-21 campaign.
The program knew that change was necessary. They picked up Jamaican big man Kofi Cockburn, with the ability to block shots and fix defensive mistakes. They also got rid of the principles of the aggressive defense, going more for a man-to-man pack line defense.
The result? They shot all the way up to 35th in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency and became one of the cleanest teams in the nation, 20th in defensive foul rate. That ended in a 21-10 season, 13-7 in Big Ten play, and a likely NCAA Tournament bid.
That transformation will continue as Cockburn became one of the premier centers in the nation in his freshman season. After a fantastic year, he decided to come back to school and forego the NBA Draft. Couple that with the emergence of Ayo Dosunmu as an offensive superstar averaging 16.6 PPG last season and someone who has the clutch gene, the trajectory of the Illinois program has completely changed.
As for the rest of the group, Trent Frazier and Da’Monte Williams will both be back for one final season, providing a solid veteran presence in the backcourt. In the frontcourt, Giorgi Bezhanishvili remains a solid option to get some valuable minutes, despite a dip in production from his freshman to sophomore seasons that saw his average points drop from 12.5 to 6.8 and rebounds from 5.2 to 4.8 in a similar number of minutes.
Combo guard Jacob Grandison sat out last season after transferring in from Holy Cross and he’s a bit of a question mark in seeing what he can do for a power conference team, but he has potential to provide another option in the backcourt. Another one is Austin Hutcherson, who came in from Division III Wesleyan. He was a star two years ago as a sophomore there, averaging 20 PPG
As for freshmen, the team sees two four-star recruits coming in, guards Adam Miller and Andre Curbelo. Most likely, neither of them will become superstars right off the bat, but they can be a pair of guys who can provide depth to the team.
The bottom line with this group is this: Dosunmu and Cockburn are arguably the best 1-2 punch in the Big Ten, and maybe even the country. The defensive numbers can remain similar and still have the reputation of being a fantastic defensive team, but the offense will be the thing that decides this team’s fate. In conference play last season, they were 13th in the league in effective field goal percentage and ninth in offensive efficiency.
Underwood had one of the most efficient offensive teams in the nation in his lone season at Oklahoma State in 2016-17. If he can do that again, it’s easy to decide that a deep tournament run, and maybe even a national title, is in the cards for the Illini.
AJ Hoops 