There was an interesting take on this at IlliniBoard that essentially boils down to this being a covid thing.
This is the TL;DR version. Typically, the NBA draft is in late June and the deadline to withdraw is prior to the NCAA transfer portal deadline. This year it's reversed with the transfer deadline being July 1st and NBA Draft withdrawal July 7th. In order to be able to transfer without being required to sit out a year, names had to be in by 11:59 pm yesterday. The thought is that Kofi put his name in to keep the no-sit transfer rule in play in the event we didn't have a spot for him if he comes back, and that others who have put their name in both the portal and the draft are doing the same thing. They're hedging their bets.
I know some will scoff at this at being too optimistic. It might be, but I thought it was still worth sharing.