Brad Underwood worked on several different plans this spring and summer for his 2020-21 Illinois men’s basketball team.

With Ayo Dosunmu, but without Kofi Cockburn. With Cockburn, but without Dosunmu. With neither of them.

The Illini coach was going to be prepared for whatever shape his roster might end up being with his top two players feeling their way through an unprecedented NBA draft process. That Dosunmu and Cockburn both opted for another season in orange and blue meant Underwood and Co. could basically just run it back.

Those individual decisions from first Dosunmu and then Cockburn on consecutive days on the final day of July and the first day of August also took some of the guesswork out of projecting a starting lineup for Illinois come the 2020-21 season (whenever that might be). In reality? There’s probably only one spot up for grabs.

Still not enough to stop me from mapping out a starting five for the season opener the week of Thanksgiving. Or the week after. Maybe early January. Just consider that particular detail still to be determined.

Trent Frazier

Frazier’s role changed throughout his first three seasons at Illinois from go-to scorer out of necessity during his freshman year to more floor general this past season. Underwood’s decision to put the ball in Frazier’s hands as the team’s de-facto point guard in 2019-20 worked. While Frazier had his least productive, least efficient individual offensive season, the offense flowed with the 6-foot-1 guard initiating. His abilities as an on-ball defender don’t hurt either. Plus, not every Big Ten lineup has a guy who has scored 1,119 career points, tied for 41st so far in Illinois history.

Ayo Dosunmu

Epitome of a no-brainer. Dosunmu was Illinois’ best player in each of the past two seasons. That’s a mantle he still carries heading into year three. Just because Frazier wound up as the Illini’s “point guard” didn’t mean the ball was kept out of Dosunmu’s hands. Illinois’ “mass movement” plays got Dosunmu the ball in motion — where he’s arguably his most dangerous — and ready to utilize ball screens and create for himself. Those actions worked. Repeatedly. Career scoring note, part II: Dosunmu is only 60 points away from becoming the 51st Illini player to reach 1,000 career points.

Austin Hutcherson

Will Hutcherson wind up in what will likely be the lone contested (heavily at that) starting spot? Allow me to make the case for the Illini’s Division III transfer. Illinois’ glaring weakness in 2019-20 was its three-point shooting, which at 30.9 percent was the third-lowest in program history. Hutcherson shot 41.3 percent in his two seasons at Wesleyan (Conn.), and at an athletic 6-6 adds a bit more size and length to the lineup than, say, freshman guard Adam Miller would.

Da’Monte Williams

Underwood gave up all pretense and started a four-guard lineup when the early Big Ten games began last December. That put the 6-3 Williams at what is nominally the “power forward” spot and continued Underwood’s tendency of playing a guard in that role. See: Jordan, Aaron. Williams’ defensive versatility — aided in the fact he has a near 7-foot wingspan — makes that choice work. His willingness to do all the little things and make the hustle plays endears him to Underwood, too.

Kofi Cockburn

Cockburn, like Frazier, Dosunmu and (I feel strongly about it) Williams, is a lock to be in Illinois’ starting lineup this coming season. The only way the 7-footer isn’t is if something beyond his control happens. Dosunmu was Illinois’ best player, but there’s an argument to be made Cockburn was, in a way, the most important. His presence brought about a complete transformation of Underwood’s offensive and defensive scheme. A transformation that yielded an NCAA tournament caliber team.

All that said, Underwood would be (and has been) the first to say it doesn’t matter who starts. That group of five, though, could put Illinois in a good place in the opening phases of the game. The ability to bring Miller and Andre Curbelo off the bench gives the Illini arguably one of the best backcourt groups in he country. Giorgi Bezhanisvhili, Jacob Grandison, Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk and Coleman Hawkins provide versatile frontcourt options.

It’s Underwood’s deepest team. A top-10 team in the country even. Now about the 2020-21 season actually happening … fingers crossed.

Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).