Champaign - If you hear a ruckus coming from the Ubben Basketball Complex, the culprits are likely the two biggest and physically imposing Illinois players on the roster, Giorgi Bezhanishvili and Kofi Cockburn. These guys are having fun playing basketball.

Listed at 6-foot-9, sophomore forward Bezhanishvili isn’t the tallest player on the team, but his 235 pounds is practically straight muscle. Head coach Brad Underwood said at Illini Basketball Media Day that Bezhanishvili is one of the most conditioned athletes he’s ever been around and that Bezhanishvili can bench and squat “the building.”

There’s no deception about his partner in crime’s height and weight on paper. It all holds up in person when you first get up close to Cockburn, a freshman center. Underwood said the seven-footer now weighs 286 pounds and is down to nine percent body fat.

The combination of Bezhanishvili and Cockburn will help the Illini “look better in the airport and on the court” according to Underwood, but they’re also going to more than likely provide the most laughs as well. The two international players have already built a strong personal relationship, and to Bezhanishvili that’s what matters in the end.

“The ball will stop bouncing for all of us one day. Every basketball player that plays basketball,” Bezhanishvili said. “Every single one, I promise you, the ball will stop bouncing and what do you have after? You have the relationships that you built with the guys.

"For me to have such a great guy like Kofi to build a relationship with him, to think I’ll be able to in 10, 15 years be able to call Kofi and be like ‘Kofi, let’s go somewhere and let’s do some fun stuff’ I think I’ll be able to do that and that’s so, so much bigger than all this stuff, all this basketball stuff. We hang out off the court and have fun and have a great time and just build memories with him.”

When Cockburn was going through his recruitment, he said his passion for the game had waned. The whole process can be overwhelming and it took a toll on Cockburn. But when he came on his visit to Illinois and first met Bezhanishvili, he was reminded why he loves basketball.

“That’s what it’s all about. Like me coming here, first of all, I thought it was just like come in here and do what I do, but Giorgi showed me a different way,” Cockburn said. “He showed that you should come here, you should have fun and never lose sight of what your main goal is and that’s why I play basketball. I play because I love it and feel like going through my process it kind of shifted and Giorgi just reminded of that. He’s very passionate, he just loves the game and tries to spread love all the time.”

Underwood believes Bezhanishvili and Cockburn’s relationship started in the summer. Bezhanishvili was “grabbing” Cockburn and bringing him to the weight room in the mornings to show how much work you have to put in.

And Cockburn willingly went along because he already respected Bezhanishivili. With Bezhanishivili being an international player who’s had success at this level, Cockburn sees a potential blueprint for how he can do the same. Their relationship and built mutual respect for one another is starting to show on the court too, Underwood said.

“They’re both, and let’s face it, they’re both dynamic personalities,” Underwood said. “They’re big personalities, so they attract each other and they draw and yet we’re starting to see that chemistry on the court and the little idiosyncrasies and understanding when one’s open and when one’s not, and we’re starting to see that chemistry that we all see off the court, we’re starting to see that on.”

What that on the court tandem will look like is still the major question. Both players excel in the paint, but having two back to the basket players sharing the paint has proven to be more than outdated in today’s style of basketball. That’s why Underwood has brought up several times of Bezhanishivili playing more from the perimeter in games.

For this frontcourt pairing to work, of course, it means that Bezhanishvili needs to be an offensive threat from that spot. This can mean him attacking more from the perimeter, which Underwood mentioned, or Bezhanishvili stroking it more from deep. Three-point shooting was a struggle for him a season ago, but Underwood and Bezhanishvili both agree Bezhanishvili has done as much as he can to improve it. What Bezhanishvili really needs to do from the wing is make his defender guard him, which will then set up their action.

“Yeah, I think it’s not just a threat shooting, we need to see his ability to drive it,” Underwood said. “And if people don’t want to guard a guy, we got actions. We got to go screen with Giorgi and go have Ayo or Trent be the passer because they’re coming off a ball screen clean because nobody is guarding Giorgi. There’s a lot of things we’ll do to do that, but Giorgi has worked extremely hard shooting the basketball and we’ll see an improved shooter.”

“Definitely a lot of high-low action, pick and replace,” Bezhanishvili said of what his pairing on the court with Cockburn can look like. “Probably Kofi sets the screen, probably at the top of the key and he rolls and I replace and we go into high-low action, right away high-low action, we’re just playing the spread with him being in the pinch. You know, all kinds of different stuff like 4-out-1-in me being out, just playing basketball.”

Before all these different plays and game plans to fruition, Cockburn first needs to get fully adjusted to the college game. He isn’t so worried about the offensive side of the ball, citing that he knows he can score the ball. The defensive end and getting acclimated to that side of the court is his top priority at the moment.

“It’s really hard,” Cockburn said on adjusting to playing defense at the college level. “I don’t want to give too much credit to myself. I have a great staff around me. They’ve shown me film. They’re on me about it. They make sure to hold me accountable and I like I said earlier, I’m a quick learner so I’m listening and I look and I try to do my best at all times.

“Offense is offense. You’re going to do good on offense, but it’s what you do on defense that really matters so that’s why I really focus on. I know I can score the basketball so now I just want to work on being the best speaker, the best communicator to help us get the ball back on defense.”

Bezhanishivili believes he and his Shaq-sized teammate can be the best frontcourt pairing in the Big Ten.

“Why not?” Bezhanishvili said. “I had a great year last year, gained a lot of experience and now having a guy like Kofi, one of the best freshmen coming in in the entire nation, why not? Why not to prove something and be one of the best frontcourts in the nation. I don’t see why not.”