Kofi Cockburn ( ; born 1 September 1999) is a Jamaican professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player who currently plays for

Niigata Albirex Niigata Albirex BB, formally Niigata Albirex Basketball, is a Japanese basketball club. It is based in Nagaoka, Niigata. Outline The club was founded in 1954 as the company team of Daiwa Securities, a Tokyo-based securities brokerage. In 19 ...

of the Japanese B. League. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's varsity sports. The University operates a number of athletic faci ...

Early life

Cockburn was born in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

, and in 2014, moved to

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

, to be with his mother, who had moved to Queens in 2009. In addition to his participation in basketball at a young age, Cockburn also played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, and ran in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

High school career

Cockburn first enrolled in high school at St. Andrew Technical High in Kingston Jamaican then Christ the King Regional High School in

Middle Village, New York Middle Village is a mainly residential neighborhood in the central section of the borough of Queens, New York City, bounded to the north by the Long Island Expressway, to the east by Woodhaven Boulevard, to the south by Cooper Avenue and the forme ...

. He played

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

(AAU) basketball for the New York (NY) Rens, and was teammates with his future

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

teammate Alan Griffin. During the summer of 2018 on the

Nike Elite Youth Basketball League The Nike Elite Youth Basketball League, also known as Nike EYBL, or simply EYBL, is a basketball circuit for teams of players aged 17 and under. The circuit was founded in 2010 and is composed of AAU travel teams. Both boys and girls play in the E ...

(EYBL) circuit with the NY Rens, Cockburn averaged 16.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 53.9 percent from the field. Prior to his junior year, Cockburn was selected to participate in the 2017

Basketball Without Borders Basketball Without Borders is a basketball instructional camp organized by the NBA in conjunction with FIBA. It presents itself as a “basketball development and community outreach program that unites young basketball players to promote the sport ...

Americas camp that was held in

Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of the Bahamas. With a population of 274,400 as of 2016, or just over 70% of the entire population of the Bahamas, Nassau is commonly defined as a primate city, dwarfing all other towns in the country. ...

. After his junior season, Cockburn was named to the World Team for the 2018

Nike Hoop Summit The Nike Hoop Summit is an international men's basketball all-star game sponsored by Nike, held once a year since 1995, except from 2001–2003, which features the USA Basketball Men's Junior Select Team against a World Select Team of internationa ...

. For his senior season, Cockburn transferred to Oak Hill Academy in

Mouth of Wilson, Virginia Mouth of Wilson is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community, in Grayson County, Virginia, Grayson County in the U.S. state of Virginia, just north of the North Carolina state line. The community lies in the Blue Ridge Highlands section of ...

, where he was teammates with fellow five-star recruits

Cole Anthony Cole Hinton Anthony (born May 15, 2000) is an American professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Listed at and , he plays t ...

and Cameron Thomas.

Recruiting

Prior to his senior high school season at Oak Hill Academy, Cockburn held 26 scholarship offers and narrowed the list of schools he was considering to 12, which included

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

, St. John's, Syracuse, and

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...

. Citing his relationship with Illinois assistant coach

Orlando Antigua Orlando Radhames Antigua Fernández (born February 20, 1973), nicknamed "Hurricane", is a former Dominican-American basketball player and is currently an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky under John Calipari. He is widely known as be ...

and the rest of the Illinois coaching staff, Cockburn committed to playing college basketball for

on 6 January 2019. Cockburn was a consensus four-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

and was considered a top 50 player in the 2019 class.

College career

In his debut for Illinois, Cockburn had 10 points and 11 rebounds to help defeat Nicholls 78–70 in overtime. The following game, Cockburn scored 23 points and pulled down 14 rebounds in a 83–71 win over

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

. Cockburn was named

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

player of the week on 25 November after setting a school freshman record for rebounds in a game with 17 to go along with 18 points in a win versus

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a Public college, public United States senior military college, senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one ...

. On 11 December 2020, Cockburn had 19 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks in a 71–62 victory over 5th ranked

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, Illinois' first win over a top-five program since 2013. At the close of the regular season, Cockburn was named

Freshman of the Year. He was selected to the Third Team All-Big Ten by the media and was Honorable Mention All-Conference according to the coaches. As a freshman, Cockburn was Illinois’ second-leading scorer and top rebounder, averaging 13.3 points and 8.8 rebounds per game while leading the Illini with 1.4 blocks per game. He shot 53.2 percent from the floor and 67.7 percent at the foul line. Following the season, he declared for the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecti ...

. Cockburn announced he was pulling out of the draft on August 1 and returning for his sophomore season. As a sophomore, Cockburn averaged 17.7 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, shooting 65.4 percent from the field. He was a Second Team All-American and First Team All-Big Ten selection. Following the season, he declared for the 2021 NBA draft and entered the transfer portal. Cockburn ultimately returned for his junior season at Illinois. He was suspended for the first three games of his junior season due to selling apparel and memorabilia. On 26 November 2021, Cockburn scored a career-high 38 points along with 10 rebounds in a 94–85 win against Texas–Rio Grande Valley. He was named to the First Team All-

. As a junior, Cockburn averaged 20.9 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. On 20 April 2022, he declared for the 2022 NBA draft, forgoing his remaining college eligibility.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 31 , , 27.4 , , .532 , , .000 , , .677 , , 8.8 , , .6 , , .5 , , 1.4 , , 13.3 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 31 , , 27.0 , , .654 , , – , , .553 , , 9.5 , , .2 , , .3 , , 1.3 , , 17.7 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 28 , , 30.7 , , .593 , , – , , .655 , , 10.6 , , .8 , , .8 , , 1.0 , , 20.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 90 , , 90 , , 28.3 , , .596 , , .000 , , .623 , , 9.6 , , .5 , , .6 , , 1.2 , , 17.2

References

External links

Illinois Fighting Illini bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockburn, Coffee 1999 births Living people All-American college men's basketball players Centers (basketball) Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players Jamaican emigrants to the United States Jamaican expatriate basketball people in the United States Jamaican men's basketball players Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Virginia) alumni Sportspeople from Kingston, Jamaica Sportspeople from Queens, New York Basketball players from New York City