Illini’s Ayo Dosunmu Named First-Team All-Big Ten
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- For the first time in a decade, Illinois basketball has a first-team All-Big Ten Conference player.
Ayo Dosunmu, the Illini’s sophomore guard and leader, was named to first-team all-conference honors by the league’s voting media. The announcement was made Monday afternoon on the Big Ten Network. Dosunmu, who returned to Champaign for his second season of college basketball for what he called “unfinished business”, led the Illini in scoring at 16.6 points per game and in assists at 3.3 per game.
Dosunmu is on pace to become just the second player in school history to lead the team in scoring in back-to-back seasons as a freshman and sophomore since Cory Bradford in 1999 and 2000.
Dosunmu becomes the first Illini player to earning All-Big Ten first team honors since Demetri McCamey in 2010. With the leadership of the Chicago native guard, Illinois (21-10, 13-7) is poised to have the double-bye in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament for the first time in program history and will likely earn a bid in the upcoming NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013.
Dosunmu was a second team pick by the Big Ten coaches are replaced on the first-team list by Maryland point guard Anthony Cowan Jr. The media and coaches had four consensus first-team selections: Iowa's Luka Garza, who was also named the league’s player of the year, along with Maryland sophomore Jalen Smith, Michigan State senior Cassius Winston and Penn State forward Lamar Stevens.
Dosunmu hit game-winning or game-clinching shots in road wins at Wisconsin, Michigan and Penn State while also dazzling the home crowd in late-game moments in wins against Indiana and Iowa as well.