Tag: Kofi Cockburn

Johnny Davis named to Andy Katz’s Midseason 1st-Team All-Big Ten

Johnny Davis named to Andy Katz’s Mid-season 1st-Team All-Big Ten.

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The Big Ten conference features arguably the most star-power in all of college basketball this season, and most seasons for that matter. Today, Andy Katz took a swing at narrowing down a 1st-Team All-Big Ten list at the midpoint of the college basketball season.

Among those on Andy Katz’s list was Wisconsin’s sophomore guard Johnny Davis. The La Crosse, Wisconsin native has been one of the most valuable players in the Big Ten, if not the entire country this season.

The sophomore guard currently leads the Badgers in scoring with 22.3 points per game (5th in NCAA), rebounds per game (7.4), assists (2.6), steals (1.4), and free throws made (81).

Davis was joined on the Midseason All-Big Ten list by Jaden Ivey (Purdue), Keegan Murray (Iowa), Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana), and Kofi Cockburn (Illinois).

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Big Ten basketball does something no conference has done in the last 25 years

Big Ten hoops is doing something no conference has done in 25 years

The start of the Big Ten season and the non-conference slate as a whole has seen the stars shine. The Big Ten’s best have put together a number of statement performances, including Johnny Davis dropping 37 points in an upset win at Purdue, Kofi Cockburn torching Minnesota’s frontcourt for 29 points in a blowout win, and Keegan Murray leading Iowa to a needed home win over Maryland with a 35-point barrage.

In fact, the top tier of Big Ten performers are doing something no conference’s players have done in the last 25 seasons. Heading into Saturday’s action, the Big Ten had the top three scorers in D-1 college basketball. Murray leads the way at 24.7 points per game, with Davis and Cockburn following closely behind.

While we are nearly halfway through the college basketball regular season when looking at these scoring averages, no conference over the last quarter of a century has had the top three scorers after a minimum of two games had been played.

Aggregate NBA mock draft 2.0: Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith battle for No. 1

In order to help us get a better sense of where all of the projected top prospects in the class stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from ESPN, NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, Basketball News and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Since our last update, the players who have improved the most spots are Ismael Kamagate (Paris), Moussa Diabate (Michigan), Azuolas Tubelis (Arizona), Hugo Besson (New Zealand), Efe Abogidi (Washington State),  Iverson Molinar (Mississippi State), Justin Lewis (Marquette), Max Christie (Michigan State), EJ Liddell (Ohio State), and Ochai Agbaji (Kansas).

The most notable prospects making their debut on our rankings are Trevor Keels (Duke), Bryce McGowens (Nebraska), MarJon Beauchamp (G League Ignite), Keon Ellis (Alabama), Christian Koloko (Arizona), Wendell Moore (Duke), Blake Wesley (Notre Dame),  Josh Minott (Memphis), Zach Edey (Purdue), and Johnny Davis (Wisconsin).

Some of the top prospects who did not make the cut this time included Hunter Sallis (Gonzaga), Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (Tennesse), Kobe Bufkin (Michigan), Mouhamed Gueye (Washington State), Jahvon Quinerly (Albama), Adam Flagler (Baylor), Jaylin Williams (Auburn), Matthieu Gauzin (Le Mans), Isaiah Wong (Miami), Marcus Williams (Texas A&M), and Tyson Etienne (Wichita State).

Otherwise, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

Notre Dame slips to .500 with Big Ten/ACC Challenge loss at Illinois

Yes, there was a basketball game going on while a major football story was breaking.

Notre Dame picked up two wins in its first two home games of the season. It then lost two of three at the Maui Invitational. Now, it’s wondering where this season might be headed after dropping its Big Ten/ACC Challenge contest to Illinois, 82-72. All of this is happening just ahead of visiting a Boston College team that’s undefeated at home, which will be followed by hosting one of the country’s top programs in Kentucky.

The Irish (3-3) hung around for most of the first half before the Illini (5-2) went on a 10-2 run to extend their lead to 11. Though the Irish were able to cut that lead to seven by halftime, the Illini proved to be the better team during the second half. To the Irish’s credit, they brought a 15-point deficit down to five with just over three minutes left. However, that was as good as it got as the Illini made all the free throws they needed to put the game away.

All-American Kofi Cockburn lived up to his billing by leading all scorers with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field. Not far behind was Alfonso Plummer, who scored 21 and made all eight of his free throws.

South Bend native and freshman Blake Wesley continues to impress as he set a new scoring high for his young career with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting off the bench. Dane Goodwin scored 15 points, and Nate Laszewski added 13.

Oh yeah, and something happened with the football team right before this game tipped off. The Illini fans decided to let the Irish know in case they were unaware:

Kofi Cockburn returning to Illinois for his junior season

The Fighting Illini get a major piece back for the 2021-22 season:

The last major question surrounding the landscape of Big Ten basketball in 2021-22 has just been answered. Moments ago on his social media, All-American center Kofi Cockburn announced he is returning to Illinois to terrorize Big Ten bigs for a third season.

Cockburn averaged 17.7 points and 9.5 rebounds last season on an Illini team that had Final Four hopes but were upset in the second round by Loyola Chicago. Despite losing Ayo Dosunmu to the NBA draft, Illinois returns a pair of supremely talented guards in Andre Curbelo and Trent Frazier to pair with one of the top bigs in the nation.

With the return of the Big Ten’s best big, Illinois should jump to the top third of the conference in most preseason projections.

 

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

Did he stay or did he go? Tracking the biggest NBA draft decisions

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

All prospects who declared early entry for the 2021 NBA draft without foregoing their collegiate eligibility had until July 7 to withdraw.

While the official date from the league is not actually until July 19, the NCAA has mandated the deadline of July 7 for players who wish to play college basketball next season.

Prospects who declared as early entry candidates but were just “testing the waters” often opt to return to the collegiate ranks so as to improve their draft stock for the subsequent year instead. But there are several reasons why a player might be even more willing to return to college for another campaign than usual.

For example, seniors have the option to use another year of eligibility because of the massive impact of COVID-19. Others may be interested in playing another year of college in front of fans after last season was met with many restrictions.

Meanwhile, all NCAA athletes also now have the ability to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) for the first time. This offers an avenue to collect some money while still in college without needing to fully commit to turning pro.

Here are the latest updates about who is still testing the waters, who will be turning pro and who will be returning to the NCAA.

Celtics work out six more 2021 prospects including Miles McBride, Sharife Cooper

Boston seems to be raising the stakes in their pre-draft workouts in terms of prospect projections on Thursday.

The Boston Celtics upped the ante in terms of projected 2021 NBA draft stock in Thursday’s latest round of pre-draft workouts slated to meet with the team per reporting from Forbes Sports’ Chris Grenham.

Prior to today, virtually all the players invited by the Celtics to conduct pre-draft workouts with the team had been fringier players projected to be taken by teams in the middle of the second round to going undrafted, with many of them not hiring an agent to retain NCAA eligibility. The players from Thursday’s cohort of prospects are projected higher, from the mid-first round to the mid-second of this year’s draft.

Let’s review some basic information about each of the six prospects reported to be working out with Boston today.

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 4.0: Top 100 prospects pre-combine and lottery

Now that the early entry list is officially out and combine invitations have been sent out, the 2021 NBA draft class is starting to finalize.

Now that the early entry deadline has passed and combine invitations have been sent out, the 2021 NBA draft class is starting to finalize.

Last year, the NCAA tournament and the combine were both canceled due to the pandemic. That made evaluations much tougher for scouts and front offices around the league. This year, the pre-draft process feels somewhat normal again for top basketball prospects who are set to join the pros.

As a new class of players prepares to turn professional, here is how we would currently rank this class based on what we have seen from them so far, with some of my picks that are higher than other experts have them ranked.