text: The 2019–20 season was the freshman year of highly ranked center Kofi Cockburn. The Illini started the season slow in the first game, barely beating Nicholls State 78–70 in overtime. During the ACC–Big Ten Challenge, Illinois played Miami where they lost 81–79 after they mounted a huge comeback before a charge was called against Dosunmu on the game's final play. The next game they traveled to College Park to play against #3 Maryland. The Illini led by 14 at the half, but Maryland outscored Illinois 34–19 in the second half and won the game by an Anthony Cowan free throw. The Illini next played #5 Michigan at the State Farm Center. They would beat the Wolverines 71–62 to improve to 7–3 on the season. Over the next 12 games, the Illini went 10–2, including Dosunmu's game-winning shot during their second matchup against Michigan to give Illinois a 64–62 lead with half a second left on the clock. Illinois would finish the season with a 21–10 (13–7) record which would be good enough for 4th in the Big Ten. They would also finish ranked 21st in the AP Poll and 22nd in the Coaches Poll.
  The 2020–21 season that Underwood finally had mostly his recruits running the team and it certainly showed on the court. After much deliberation, Ayo Dosunmu returned to Illinois for his junior season instead of going to the NBA. He, along with Kofi Cockburn, helped make Illinois into a top-10 team. They went 16-4 (0.800) in the B1G conference but had a worse record than Michigan (14-3, 0.824), and therefore did not earn even a share of the title. This title was disputed as Michigan had failed to play three extra games because of COVID protocols, and only one loss in those three games would have given Illinois the title; Illinois had beaten Michigan by 23 without leading scorer Ayo Dosunmu in Ann Arbor. The team went on to win the Big Ten tournament title, however, after a hard-fought, overtime 91–88 win over OSU. Illinois became a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the 4th time in school history.  They were upset by Loyola-Chicago in the 2nd round and finished the season 24–7. Dosunmu became the first player in Illini history to earn 1st-team All-America honors by the AP. Cockburn was named to the AP All-American 2nd-team.