Cockburn sidelined, Illinois drops second straight

Nothing comes easy in the Big Ten, especially without one of the league’s best players.

Kofi Cockburn didn’t make the trip to Maryland because of a concussion he suffered earlier in the week, and Illinois found out the hard way that replacing 20+ points and 10+ rebounds isn’t easy.

The Illini dropped their second straight in conference on Friday night, 81-65, this time at the hands of the Terrapins in College Park.

Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk started in place of the injured Cockburn after providing great defensive minutes off the bench on Monday against arguably the nation’s best frontcourt duo in Trevion Williams and Zach Edey. He immediately made an impact assisting on Illinois’ first basket of…