Illini Center Kofi Cockburn Declares For 2020 NBA Draft

Cockburn’s declaration announcement doesn’t mention signing with an agent and therefore, would still be eligible to return for his sophomore season at Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Even without knowing what the NBA draft process will look like this summer, Kofi Cockburn has announced his intention to see where he stands in this year’s selection process.

The Illini center, who just completed his first season of college basketball, announced via Instagram Tuesday that he intends to declare for the 2020 NBA draft.

7’ Kofi Cockburn @kxng_alpha of Illinois, who won the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, is declaring for the 2020 NBA Draft. #Illini
🔶🔷 🇯🇲 🔶🔷 pic.twitter.com/f4SvXGAowH

— 𝒜𝓃𝒹𝓇ℯ𝓌 𝒮𝓁𝒶𝓉ℯ𝓇 (@Andrew__Slater) April 7, 2020

Cockburn was named the Big Ten Conference’s Freshman of the Year selection by both the media and coaches after averaging 13.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 53.2 percent from the field. The 7-foot, 290-pound center from Queens, New York via Jamaica was an unanimous selection to the coaches' All-Freshman team and was a third-team All-Big Ten pick by the media while garnering All-Big Ten honorable mention accolades from the coaches. Cockburn was the fourth Illini player in school history to win the league's freshman of the year award, following Cory Bradford in 1999, Brian Cook in 2000 and D.J. Richardson in 2010.

However, Cockburn’s announcement didn’t include the mentioning of hiring an agent and therefore, would make his playing eligibility at Illinois much more complicated.

According to a recent NCAA rule change, players are allowed to declare for the draft and hire an agent but that agent must be certified by the NCAA in order for his eligibility to be intact. Otherwise, the player and the university athletics compliance department must apply to the NCAA for amateurism eligibility reinstatement, which will require a comprehensive investigation and review of the athlete’s dealings with the agent/agency by the NCAA's academic and membership affairs department.

So, college underclassmen can declare for the draft, sign with an NCAA-certified agent and still retain their eligibility. Here’s the list of the 23 agents who have been certified thus far (there’s only one from one of the so-called big firms). pic.twitter.com/Io5pMSn4nD

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 31, 2020

Due to the ongoing development of the COVID-19 worldwide epidemic, the NBA season has been postponed for nearly a month and without a finish to the 2019-20 season, it is obviously unclear what the offseason calendar in professional basketball will look like at all.

Currently, Cockburn is the third Illinois player to declare his intentions to not return for the 2020-21 season after roster casualties include Alan Griffin and Tevian Jones deciding to transfer.

Cockburn finished the 2019-20 regular season second on the Illinois roster in scoring at 13.3 points per game and leading the Illini in rebounding at 8.8 boards per game. Cockburn had a dozen double-doubles, ranking fifth among all freshmen nationally and doubling the previous Illini freshman season record. He was third in the league and 23rd in NCAA in offensive rebounds per game (3.5) while shooting 53.2 percent from the field and leading the Illini with 44 blocked shots.

In a 78-76 win over Iowa in the regular season finale Sunday (which would turn out to be the final game of the 2019-20 season for both schools), Cockburn had 12 points and eight rebounds and preserved the victory by blocking the shot of Big Ten Player of the Year selection Luka Garza with one second left.