Illinois Basketball: Takeaways from Illini’s failed comeback effort against Miami

Illinois needs much more from Dosunmu

Projected NBA draft pick Ayo Dosunmu was always obviously going to be the key to a successful season for Illinois basketball and that is even more apparent after Monday night.

Dosunmu ended the night with a stat line of 12 points, four assists, two turnovers, and two steals. He was perfect from the charity stripe on a pair of free throws and shot 0-for-4 from the 3-point line. The biggest issue—more than any missed shots or bad passes—was the lack of energy that Dosunmu came out with, which clearly spread to his teammates.

Out of the seven Illinois basketball players who played at least 15 minutes, Dosunmu was the only one who didn’t grab a single rebound.

We don’t pick on players at Busting Brackets, we simply analyze them, and just because Dosunmu played poorly overall doesn’t mean he didn’t have positive moments. Dosunmu made two free throws to bring Illinois within 7 points. He followed that up immediately with a steal and layup with 2:16 remaining that left the Illini trailing 80-75. So for all of the issues with Dosunmu’s play, he was a big part of the reason his team was in a position to win in the first place.

Dosunmu would commit a turnover on a charge call—drawn by none other than Chris Lykes (!!)—that sealed the win for Miami. One can debate if the referee made the right call—on what clearly looked like a charge to this writer—but what is not up for debate is the fact that Dosunmu could have passed to someone else or pulled up for a jumper rather than drive straight into a thicket of defenders, looking for a foul call.

This was a tough loss for Illinois entering an extremely tough matchup with No. 3 Maryland. But hopefully, this humbling loss was the wake-up call that Illinois basketball needed.