John Calipari has done the offseason better than any coach in college basketball this year. At least you can say that about the transfer portal.
He might not be done yet.
All-American Illinois big man Kofi Cockburn posted on social media this week that he will be making an announcement about his future on Friday.
Widespread speculation is that Cockburn will either return to Illinois or announce a transfer to Kentucky.
The Wildcats could add one of the nation's top players. But UK already has former West Virginia big man Oscar Tshiebwe waiting in the wings after he has been with the program for many months following his own transfer.
Here Cats Illustrated staff members share takes on how Cockburn and Tshiebwe could conceivably coexist.
Justin Rowland: Before Cockburn even became a talking point around here I felt like you could assume Oscar Tshiebwe would be at least a solid big man for Kentucky. But Cockburn as a possibility has always represented an upgrade. We're talking about a legitimate National Player of the Year candidate. The 7-foot, 280-pound big man was 18 and 10 last year for Illinois, shooting 65% from the field for an excellent Illini team that was probably one of three favorites to win last year's tournament at the start of it. I think everyone expects Tshiebwe to be as good as he has been. We've seen him look good before and you don't go to Kentucky, typically, unless you're ready to grind and take it to the next level. If Cockburn picks Kentucky my assumption is he will play right around 27 minutes per game, because that's how much he played both years at Illinois. That alone would leave Tshiebwe 13 minutes per game. They might play together, seldom, and there could be some games when Cockburn is in foul trouble or UK has breathing room and Tshiebwe gets up to 20 or 25. If Cockburn picks Kentucky this is just going to be a really big team and they will probably almost always have a true center on the floor. That will impact pace but given the shooters Kentucky should have the floor is going to be spread and they'll be able to go to work and hammer the glass.
David Sisk: If Kofi Cockburn ends up at Kentucky it’s going to be interesting to see how John Calipari handles the roster and handles playing time. I’ll admit that I don’t know how he will do that. My first answer is that playing at Kentucky is like social Darwinism. Only the strong survive. However I would think Cockburn and Oscar Tshiebwe are the alphas in the room. Maybe they can play together at the same time. They are both big dominant men with their back to bucket. That would certainly be an overpowering duo inside, although there wouldn’t be much spacing, and that would eliminate most driving lanes. Maybe they play twenty minutes apiece, because I also can’t see either one going to the four or stepping out past the high post. One advantage is that either one of these guys command a double team and this team seems to have an array of deep ball shooters. No matter what, I just don’t see this being a high paced offense that gets out in transition if they are on the floor together, but it would certainly be one that controlled the paint.
Jeff Drummond: I would be somewhat skeptical of having both Kofi Cockburn and Oscar Tshiebwe on the roster if not for the fact that John Calipari has already proven -- several times -- that he can figure this kind of situation out. The big difference here, however, is that it's frontcourt guys rather than backcourt guys. With the exception of the 2015 season, Cal hasn't had to balance two similar big men very often. It's a nice "problem" to have, though. Nobody is going to turn down having two All-American caliber big men on their roster. It will be interesting to see how it plays out, and whether this will lead to UK trying to use both Cockburn and Tshiebwe on the court together. I'm not sure that would be a good thing, given the direction college basketball has been trending and the way Cal has built this roster to play more of a modern, perimeter-oriented style. It could also be a challenge on the defensive end of the floor trying to play both of those guys against smaller, quicker teams. One thing is for certain: both of those guys are going to expect to play a lot. Dare I say "Bring back the platoons" once again?
Travis Graf: If Kofi ends up at Kentucky, I believe you’ll see he and Oscar possibly start alongside each other, then stagger minutes from then on out. At the same time, Kofi is honestly much further ahead of Oscar in terms of readiness at this point, so Oscar might just get 20-25 minutes off of the bench. I expect both to play about 25 minutes per game and it would be absolutely demoralizing to get one winded or one in foul trouble, then have another strong brute who would automatically be the strongest player on the court take his place immediately. I’m not a huge fan of playing them both together for more than maybe eight minutes per game at most, but that lineup wouldn’t be terrible spacing wise if you had three knockdown shooters on the perimeter.