3-2-1 RECAP: Cockburn Dominates as Illini Pick Up 83-71 Win at Grand Canyon

Three keys from Freshman center Kofi Cockburn's second straight double-double in route to Illinois winning at Grand Canyon 83-71.

There are two ways to look at what Illinois accomplished Friday night. On the one hand, the Illini walked out with an 83-71 road win in a game where they only connected on four three-point shots and the offensive contributions of Ayo Dosunmu (nine points and six assists in 3and Giorgi Bezhanishvili were practically nonexistent. 

On the other hand, Illinois (2-0) committed 17 turnovers and allowed Grand Canyon (0-2), a team that made only 2 of 19 three-point shots in its season-opening loss to D-II Davenport to knock down 8 of 19 from beyond the arc. 

Despite suffering from what appeared to be leg cramps late in this win, Kofi Cockburn used his massive size advantage to finish with 23 points and 14 rebounds in just 22 minutes of action. 

Kofi Cockburn is the first Illini freshman to record double-doubles in the first two games in 37 years (Efrem Winters vs. Vandy and Texas A&M, 1982).

Cockburn, 2019
vs Nicholls: 10 p, 11 r
at GCU: 23 p, 14 r

Winters, 1982
vs. Vandy: 17 p, 10 r
vs. Texas A&M: 14 p, 11 r

— Illini Stats & Notes (@IlliniStats) November 9, 2019

"The thing I love about Kofi is there's still so much he needs to improve on," Underwood said. "He puts a lot of fouls on people and allows our guards to drive the ball and makes them much more difficult to guard and allows us to get to the foul line. You have to know where Kofi is at at all times." 

For the second straight game, Andres Feliz led the Illini perimeter effort with 21 points including a floater in the lane with 44 seconds left out of a timeout to seal the win.

"I thought 'Dre had a matchup we liked and keeping 'Dre out of the lane is a problem," Underwood said. "He's got that little fadeaway and having a knack of getting exactly where he wants in the lane." 

Big nights from Cockburn (23 p, 14 r) and Felix (21 p, 6 r) led the way as the #Illini improved to 2-0 on the season.

🎥 Check out the highlights from Grand Canyon. pic.twitter.com/qeYXxzgmtd

— Illinois Men's Basketball (@IlliniMBB) November 9, 2019

Here are three major takeaways from this win for the Illini:

The Giorgi "process" is still ongoing and frustrating

After the season-opening win over Nicholls State Tuesday night, Brad Underwood said the process of Bezhanishvili figuring out the power forward position with Cockburn would "be a process". What is clear after two games so far is this process will be long and somewhat frustrating until the sophomore can find a rhythm on both ends of the floor. Against what was essentially a four-guard Grand Canyon lineup Friday night, Bezhanishvili looked out of place and fouled out after just nine points and six rebounds in only 17 minutes. The one positive from the Georgian's performance was he took to his coach's Tuesday night message of seeing "collisions at the rim" as he had four offensive rebounds. In future road tests 

Can the Illini count on winning games on the glass?

It's clear through just two games of the 2019-20 season that Illinois has solved its problem of rebounding from a season ago. For the second straight game, Illinois topped the 50-rebound mark and 20 offensive rebounds (10 of which coming from Cockburn and Bezhanishvili). 

Will the Illini be able to count on 20+ offensive rebounds in Big Ten play, probably not. However, it's clear that Underwood would like to assume his team will be a better offensive executing team by the time they travel to Maryland for the league opener on Dec. 7 but in the meantime, the size advantage of Kofi and Giorgi is too good to pass up. However, thanks to the effort and hustle of guards Feliz, Alan Griffin, and Da'Monte Williams, the Illini are also getting production out of sending four players to the offensive glass on every shot attempt. 

Griffin coming up big on Illini's bench

On a night where Dosunmu was off offensively, Trent Frazier wasn't all the way back with his shooting touch and Bezhanishvili struggled with foul issues, Brad Underwood had to turn to his bench for production. \
Enter the shooting and hustle of sophomore Alan Griffin. The 6-foot-5 wing player added 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting from beyond the three-point arc to uplift the Illini's second unit. Griffin, who had five offensive rebounds in the season opener, finished with three rebounds and probably more importantly, just one turnover in 18 minutes at Grand Canyon. 

"He was so good this summer and is going to be a big part of our growth," Underwood said. "I'll put Alan on shooting the basketball up against anybody in the country." 

Despite an unwillingness or inability to provide much offensive punch, Da'Monte Williams left this win Friday night with a +11 in his plus/minus category as the Peoria native added seven rebounds and just one turnover in 27 minutes.