CHAMPAIGN, Illinois – After flirting with the milestone most of the season – and the end of last season against Iowa – Illinois Junior Guard Ayo Dosunmu finally captured his first triple-double career.
Dosunmu finished with 21 points, the career record with 12 rebounds and the career record with 12 assists in Saturday’s 75-60 victory over No. 19 Wisconsin at the State Farm Center. It is the first triple-double for an Illini player since Sergio McClain had 10 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists on January 13, 2001, against Michigan.
Wisconsin, the proud owner of a meat grinder defense that entered the game ranked 9th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency, had no answer for Dosunmu. He attacked the hoop at will, often crossing Badger’s defender, who had a chance to defend the All-American guard’s preseason. Dosunmu advanced in the transition from defensive rebounds and attacked the edge with authority.
He put the ball inside for the big man Kofi Cockburn, who joined Dosunmu firmly in the discussion for being an All-American this season. Cockburn released Dosunmu’s passes for an easy dive that No. 19 Wisconsin had no hope of defending. Cockburn double-double in the first half alone.
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Dosunmu’s monster game came after a rare night in Tuesday’s victory against Indiana, where he had 10 points out of 2 out of 11 shots and failed for the first time in his career.
This was a recovery performance of epic proportions – and more. Dosunmu recorded only the 11th triple-double in Division I men’s basketball this season.
This is the fourth time this season that Dosunmu has recorded at least one double-double in a game. He had 28 points and 10 rebounds in the season’s opening win against North Carolina A&T, 18 points and 12 rebounds at Duke on December 8 and 22 points and 11 rebounds in his loss to Rutgers on December 20.
Dosunmu was brilliant in distributing the ball on Saturday. He gave a pass to Trent Frazier in the corner during the first half, when a defender broke free from Williams to cover Cockburn for an easy 3 points. In two consecutive goals in the second half, Dosunmu dazzled with his pass. First, he did what appeared to be a forbidden passage in the transition – or at least a pass that hardly looked like – then found Cockburn in the day’s pay for an oop-ally buried in Wisconsin Nate Reuvers.
He came close to registering a triple-double this season, including a 27-point game, 7 rebounds and 8 assists against Ohio on November 27, in the third game of the season. He had 22 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists in the previous game against Chicago State.
Dosunmu has recorded double-digit rebounds four times this season and has had at least six assists five times. He had 17 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists at the end of last season against Iowa.
The only other time that Dosunmu recorded double-digit assists in his career was on January 21, 2020, in a victory in Purdue, where he registered 11 assists.
No. 12 Illinois (13-5, 9-3) has won four consecutive games and continues to position itself to be in the mix of a Big Ten championship behind the performance of its two star players and a group of players who are coming up on their own.