Unbearable: No. 2 Baylor Outclasses No. 5 Illinois 82-69

Before this season started, Illinois junior guard Ayo Dosunmu tried to whoever would listen that this Illinois team hasn’t done anything yet to warrant the preseason hype.

Wednesday night’s result against the second-ranked team in the nation proved the preseason All-American was exactly right in his assessment.

In its first major challenge of the 2020-21 season, No. 5 Illinois got poor performances out of most of its star power and couldn’t recover from Baylor’s second-half push to leave Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis with anything other than a 82-69 loss.

“We obviously know Trent (Frazier) isn’t going to have a night like that with six turnovers. Kofi (Cockburn) is not going to have a night like that. (Adam Miller) isn’t going to shoot like that, 2 of 11. No way,” Illinois forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili said. “(Ayo Dosunmu) isn’t going to have nights like this. So, we just have to clean up those little mistakes that against a team like Baylor can be big problems.”

Illinois (3-1) better hope the words of Bezhanishvili come true as well as Illinois’ dynamic duo of Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn struggled to get any consistency and Baylor’s second-half adjustments led by Presbyterian transfer Adam Flagler led to a runaway win for Scott Drew’s squad.

“I thought Flagler for them was instrumental coming off the bench and giving them a lift,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said.

“It was a frustrating night. We’re not going to win many nights when Ayo goes 6 of 18, Adam Miller goes 2 of 11 and Trent has six turnovers. That’s a tough night for our guards.” - Illinois head coach Brad Underwood

Flagler had 11 of his team-high 18 points in the second half to counter the disappearing act of Jared Butler, a preseason third-team All-America selection by several publications, as Baylor (3-0) shot 54.5 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes of play.

With the loss Wednesday night in the Jimmy V Classic, Illinois (3-1) has still yet to ever beat a team ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the Associated Press poll away from its home arena.

Dosunmu was constantly hounded and bothered by a rotation of quick guards that Drew had at his disposal to run at the preseason first-team All-America selection as the Chicago native was 6 of 18 from the field. When Dosunmu got chances to score at the rim, he went an astounding 3-for-8 on layup attempts.

Baylor constantly switched defenders on Illinois’ offensive action and seemingly refused to give Dosunmu, who still finished with a team-high 18 points in 38 minutes, more than a couple clean looks all evening.

“Ayo better get used to this (type of defense) because Ayo is going to see that all year long,” Underwood said. “They switched everything and jumped him on every ball screen so most teams don’t have that kind of firepower to do that. They do.”

Cockburn, who had double-double efforts in each of his first three games during the Illini MTE last week, didn’t come close to his normal results due to early foul trouble. Cockburn picked up his second foul with 11 minutes left in the first half forcing him to watch the remainder of that half with as many points and rebounds as personal fouls.

Illinois was able to cover for Cockburn’s absence with the offensive game of Bezhanishvili as the junior had 13 of his 15 points in the first half on a night where he would reach double figures for the first time in 14 games dating back to the 79-62 win at Purdue on Jan. 21, 2020.

Baylor has now won 13 straight non-conference games and returned four players recognized as All-Big 12 Conference selections from a 2019-20 roster that finished 26-4 overall and spent five weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP poll.

The number five ranking for Illinois is the highest for the program since owning the top spot in the final poll of the 2004-05 regular season and Wednesday night’s game marked the first of what is slated to be six games against Top 10 programs, including two within a week as they also travel to play at No. 6 Duke on Dec. 8 for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchup.

Before that trip to Durham, N.C., Illinois will get a weekend test from Tennessee-Martin Saturday for a 8 p.m. tip.