For the first time in 15 years, two basketball players from Illinois were nominated for the All-Big Ten First Team. Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn received the honors on Monday from both coaches and media with Dosunmu a unanimous choice of the First Team. Illinois Senior Guard Trent Frazier also received an honorable mention to the All-Big Ten from coaches and the media.
The last pair of Illini teammates to receive first team honors at all conferences were Dee Brown and James Augustine, who were voted first team by coaches in 2006. Only two other teams from Illinois since 1966 featured two members of the first team of the ten largest: the 1983-84 team (Bruce Douglas and Efrem Winters) who won the Big Ten and advanced to Elite Eight and the 2004-05 team (Brown, Deron Williams and Luther Head) who won the Big Ten and finished as runner-up in the NCAA tournament.
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Garza wins Dosunmu as Player of the Year B1G: Dosunmu, who was named Sporting News First Team All-American on Tuesday, has an average of 20.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists and is the only player in the past 11 seasons to have an average of at least 20 points, six rebounds and five assists. The four previous players to do this were Evan Turner (National Player of the Year 2010), Ricky Menard and Penny Hardaway (1993 First Team All-American). Illini junior is one of the five finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, awarded to the best point guard in the country, and one of 10 semifinalists for the Naismith College Player of the Year trophy.
Dosunmu is also known as one of the best college basketball players, with his heroism in closing helping Illinois win final games this season against Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern and Ohio State. Illinois coach Brad Underwood gave his junior star tremendous support as the Ten Player of the Year and National Player of the Year, although Luka Garza of Iowa won the Player of the Year with the Big Ten.
“Damn, I don’t know who’s better,” said Underwood last month. “I mean, literally, I know that guys have more advertising and more marketing and more this and that, but the numbers don’t lie and productivity doesn’t lie and victory doesn’t lie. I don’t know who the hell someone thinks is better than him right now. “
Year of improvement of Cockburn: Cockburn, who was named a second All-American team by Sporting News on Tuesday, improved his game dramatically as a second year, averaging 17.3 points (No. 5 Big Ten) and 9.6 rebounds (No. 1 Big Ten), while hitting 66.5 percent of the field (No. 1 Big Ten). He is one of the finalists of the Kareem Abdul Jabbar Prize, awarded to the main center of the country, and one of the 15 semifinalists of the Madeira Prize, awarded to the best player in the country. A potential All-American too, Cockburn is one of the main reasons for Illini’s turnaround over the past two seasons (29-11 Big Ten).
“As I said, he is the best big in the country,” said Dosunmu last month. “We really didn’t get into (the Americans’ conversation). We are focused on winning the national championship, winning the Big Ten championship / But if you are watching the game, of course, he is the best big in the country. If there’s anything important about it, any list, or I don’t know, then definitely Kofi deserves consideration or he deserves to be there. But we are not really concerned with that. We are concerned with going out and winning. “