POST-GAME VIDEO: No. 12 Illinois 81, Northwestern 56

Illinois center Kofi Cockburn spoke to national, local and statewide media via Zoom video following the 81-56 win over Purdue on Jan. 7.

Cockburn, who had just two rebounds in 12 minutes of action during a first half that saw Illinois down by as much as 16 and behind 43-28 at the halftime buzzer, manhandled the Northwestern frontline in the final 20 minutes on his way to his eighth double-double this year.

Cockburn finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and according to his post-game media conference, several verbal assaults from his coaches throughout a seesaw performance by everybody in orange and blue.

“(Underwood) definitely got on me. I was playing with low energy in the first half and he got on me about being a better leader and coming out to play with energy that the other guys could feed off of,” Cockburn said. “He got on me but he knows I like that though and knows that is how you can get me going.”

Cockburn has registered a double-double in five of six Big Ten contests and is now averaging 20.0 points and 11.3 rebounds in Big Ten Conference play while shooting 70.8 percent from the field.

Illinois’ 25-point victory at Northwestern was its largest margin in Evanston since a 63-30 win on Feb. 19, 2000 when Illinois led 30-6 at halftime. Illinois is 5-1 in league play for the first time since the 2004-2005 season that ended with a trip to the national championship game.

Illinois will next play at State Farm Center, where they’ve won six straight league games, against Maryland (6-6, 1-5) as the Terrapins just received a 89-67 blowout home loss to Iowa Thursday night.