Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Illinois Fighting Illini

The Big 10 will be going through some changes in men’s college basketball up top this season, as household names like Ayo Dosunmu and Luka Garza are off to the NBA. There is still plenty of star power though, as Juwan Howard has brought in an elite recruiting class at Michigan, our guy Trevion Williams is back for his swan song season at Purdue. and even the bottom half of the conference has useful fantasy options sprinkled throughout.

Big 10 slates are a grind, so getting a head start on info about this conference will serve you well in putting you above the rest of the field. Join me on this journey as we preview the Big 10 teams from a DFS perspective.

In this one, Illinois.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Illinois Fighting Illini 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 24-7 (16-4 Big Ten), second in Big Ten
Postseason: Lost in NCAA Tournament second round

Key Departures | Illinois Fighting Illini

Ayo Dosunmu (NBA draftee)
Adam Miller (transferred to LSU)
Giorgi Bezhanishvili (playing professionally)

Key Additions | Illinois Fighting Illini

Omar Payne (transferred from Florida)
Austin Hutcherson (transferred from D-2)
Alfonso Plummer (transferred from Utah)
Luke Goode (top 100 recruit)
Ramses Melendez (top 100 recruit)
Brandin Podziemski (4 star recruit)

Returners | Illinois Fighting Illini

Kofi Cockburn (17.7 PPG/9.5 RPG/1.3 BPG)
Andre Curbelo (9.1 PPG/4 RPG/4.2 APG)
Trent Frazier (10.2 PPG/2.7 RPG/2.7 APG)
Da’Monte Williams (5.5 PPG/5.3 RPG/1.7 APG)
Jacob Grandison (4.6 PPG/3.4 RPG/1.3 APG)
Coleman Hawkins (1.4 PPG)

Illinois Fighting Illini Outlook for 2021-2022

Experience seems to be the theme of the Big 10 this year, as many of their teams are taking full advantage of the additional year players were granted after the COVID-19 season. They have a total of five players using that “super senior” year, which includes Utah transfer Alfonso Plummer. Losing face of the program Ayo Dosunmu is a bummer for the fanbase but may not be as big of an impact as people might think.

Andre Curbelo was quite the enigma in DFS last year, as he would come in and drop 30-plus fantasy points with ease one game but then struggle to score 5 the next. Brad Underwood notoriously keeps a short leash on his players, and none was shorter than Curbelo’s. Despite his up-and-down production, he did earn the Sixth Man of the Year Award in the Big 10 and was an All-Freshman Team selection as well. His assist rate was sky high at 34.6% which led the conference. The turnovers were frustrating last year but you have to cut the kid a bit of slack as he was only a freshman. I would expect him to cut down on his turnovers and be much more consistent overall. He is an electric shot creator who makes his teammates better and will thrive in a big way in Year 2.

Kofi Cockburn is also back and ready to lead Illinois deep into the tournament. There was a viral video going around during the Summer of Kofi just cooking random kids during a pickup game, and he was even hitting triples which was exciting to see. Cockburn was seventh on KenPom’s POY rankings as a freshman and should be a threat to be a top-five sort of player this year. Efficiency wise, he was fantastic with the 10th-best offensive rebounding rate and the fifth-best fouls-drawn rate, and he was a 65% shooter from the field. It did just come out earlier that he will be suspended for three games to start the year for selling merchandise unfortunately. This is now allowed but apparently the transgression happened just a few days before it became legal to do under the new NIL deal.

Super seniors Trent Frazier, Da’Monte Williams and Jacob Grandison will all be viable fantasy assets for us during the season and are typically low-priced options who can eke out 20-25 fantasy points on any given slate. Frazier has transformed himself into a solid secondary scorer after being forced into a bigger role his freshman season when the team was in transition mode. A lot of kids would have given up after losing so much usage and transferred so I have a lot of respect for Frazier for gutting it out. He is nails on the defensive end and will contribute a lot from long range as a 36% shooter. Grandison shot 41% from deep a year ago and shouldn’t be slept on as an impact player for this team. Da’Monte Williams was one of my favorite Illinois plays a season ago because he was always in the mid 4k range on DK but did just enough in each category to pull 4.5-5x value. Williams shot 55% from deep last year on 64 attempts and was a top 10 player in offensive rating. He is an efficient player that is going to surprise some people this year.

Transfer Alfonso Plummer has a reputation for being a streaky shooter but when he is on, he is definitely on. We have seen Plummer start games knocking down 6 triples in a row at times. He is a career 40% shooter, which is impressive on his large volume. He will be an instant offense guy off the bench and while he is reliant on scoring to make value, he is still viable due to his pure jumper. Austin Hutcherson averaged 20 PPG and shot 39% from distance at the D2 level but has been dealing with injuries over the past season so we will have to take a wait and see approach on his minutes early on. Luke Goode is the player most likely to be in the rotation out of three main freshmen they’re bringing in. He has good size and is yet another pure shooter having knocked down 40% of his 178 three-point attempts his senior year of high school.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams, top 100 players and top 25 impact freshmen for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

This team can flat-out shoot the basketball. They’re going to be a fun team for DFS and will play to their strengths. They can surround big man Kofi Cockburn with three snipers at all times while Andre Curbelo initiates the offense and keeps everyone fed. I actually like this team a lot more than I thought I would and will be talking about them a lot during Big 10 slates.