CHAMPAIGN — Ayo Dosunmu gathered his team around him at the conclusion of pregame warmups Saturday afternoon at State Farm Center.
It wasn’t an atypical sight.
Dosunmu is one of Illinois’ captains, and the Illini always gather before heading back to the locker room one final time before tipoff.
What was different was the time Dosunmu spent in the middle of the huddle talking to his teammates.
He urged his teammates to have the proper respect for Wisconsin coach Greg Gard and a rather experienced Badgers team.
“I wanted to let my teammates know, ‘Yo, they’re for real. We’ve got to come out here and play hard. Don’t underestimate them because a lot of people aren’t talking about them,’” Dosunmu said.
That wasn’t the only message Dosunmu had for his team, though.
The junior guard also told Kofi Cockburn and Trent Frazier to be ready to make some shots.
Cockburn on the receiving end of ball screens.
Frazier from three-point range. Assist numbers the preseason Illini All-American guard could pile up.
“I’m going to get me a triple-double,” Dosunmu told his teammates.
Then he did.
Dosunmu hauled in the clinching rebound with just more than 90 seconds to play. Two more in the final minute finished off his 21-point, 12-rebound, 12-assist performance.
More than enough when combined with Cockburn’s 23 points and 14 rebounds for No. 12 Illinois to claim a 75-60 victory against No. 19 Wisconsin.
Dosunmu’s triple-double was just the third ever in Illinois history. Mark Smith — no, not that Mark Smith — had the first on Feb. 1, 1979, with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists against Minnesota. Sergio McClain was next with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists against Michigan on Jan. 13, 2001.
“Any time you see someone record a triple-double, it’s an accomplishment that is not an individual accomplishment,” Dosunmu said. “I give credit to my teammates. Everyone did their job — Kofi, especially, sprinting out of every ball screen. They made shots and shot it with confidence. I thank the Lord also for just giving me the ability to come out here and accomplish this. To be the third player in program history is definitely an accomplishment.”
Cockburn was the first to put it out there that Dosunmu had called his triple-double shot. It’s something Cockburn expects every game because of the way Dosunmu works — and the Chicago native seemed on track for one multiple times earlier this season — but seeing it come together was different.
“I never doubted him, but it’s hard to get a triple-double in college basketball,” Cockburn said. “It’s incredible, man. He trusts himself and is confident enough to make that shot or make that play. When I see him doing it, I’m just excited for him. He told us he was going to get that (Saturday), and he came out and did it.”
Brad Underwood said he didn’t know Dosunmu had hit triple-double territory until immediately after the game. What the Illinois coach did know, however, was something like that was certainly a possibility by what he saw from Dosunmu in practice the previous two days.
Dosunmu struggled for what was really the first time this season in Illinois’ overtime win Tuesday at Indiana. He scored a season-low 10 points and wasn’t all that efficient doing so on 2 of 11 shooting.
“I felt pretty good about the likelihood we were going to see a pretty good Ayo Dosunmu,” Underwood said. “There’s not many times Ayo’s going to have two bad games or subpar games. It wasn’t that he was subpar. He was taken out of it — his first foul out (at Indiana).
“I also know a lot of times I judge our practices on how Ayo is. Ayo works his tail off all the time, but he’s got another level he can get to that most people can’t. We saw that the last two days.”
Wisconsin was on the receiving end of a locked-in Dosunmu ready to bounce back from a disappointment.
Multiple Badgers figured out how hard it is to stop the Illinois guard either one-on-one in the half court or in transition. Or keep him off the boards. Or stop him from making plays for his teammates.
“He’s a pro,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “Guys want to know what life is like at that level, they just saw it. He’s big. He’s improved. He’s stronger. Just standing next to him on the floor, his body has changed so much. … Ayo is one of the best guards in the country. You obviously saw all the things he can do and how he helps his team so much.”
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