Ayo Dosunmu is college basketball's Greatest Showman
Illinois's star has proven time and time again that he performs at his best in the brightest moments.
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As the opening credits of the The Greatest Showman roll, Hugh Jackman’s P.T. Barnum waits below the crowd for the performance to begin.
“Ladies and gents this is the moment you’ve waited for.”
The whispers begin. The anticipation builds. The crowd — stomping its feet in unison as the song builds — ripples with excitement.
“Don't fight it, it's coming for you, running at ya. It's only this moment, don't care what comes after.”
Barnum makes his way to center stage, feeding off the energy of the crowd as the moment builds.
“Your fever dream, can't you see it getting closer. Just surrender 'cause you feel the feeling taking over.”
The crowd reaches a fervor as the performance escalates and the chorus roars. Barnum, being the electric performer that he is, declares his arrival.
“This is the greatest show!”
Illinois’s Ayo Dosunmu is college basketball’s P.T. Barnum, its most electric performer, its Greatest Showman.
Nobody else in the sport has consistently delivered in the biggest moments for as long as he has. As Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde wrote last week, he loves the big moment and bright lights.
They are the moments every player relishes in pretend settings—in the backyard, in the practice gym. Not everyone has that same eagerness in reality when a game is on the line and the world is watching. Ayo does.
He’s been delivering in crunch time for so long that it would be a surprise if a game came down the wire and Ayo didn’t come through for the Illini. Ayo with the ball in his hands in a close game brings the same level of comfort as your favorite blanket or fleece sweatshirt. It’s a warm, fuzzy feeling that everything is going to be okay.
It’s rare for a college basketball player to reach the level of being a Single Name Star like a Jimmer or Zion. Ayo has reached that level, and if the last couple of weeks are any indication, his star will only continue to burn brighter. Let’s recap his last two weeks.
On February 6th against Wisconsin, Ayo turned in a monster 21-point, 12-assist and 12-rebound performance to notch the first triple-double of his career and the third in Illinois program history.
Six days later, he saved the Illini from what would have been a horrible loss to a bad Nebraska team. Ayo poured in 31 points, including the Illini’s final 10 points of regulation and the first five of overtime. To cap it off, he iced the game by crossing up Trey McGowens before sinking a deep jumper to seal the overtime win.
Even on his off nights he still finds ways to deliver. In the midst of a lackluster performance by his standards, Ayo still showed up in winning time against Northwestern. He stepped into a three with under two minutes to play to increase Illinois’s narrow lead to five. Then he proceeded to cut Northwestern’s throat with a deep bomb from 30 feet to stretch the lead to eight and all but seal the deal.
And just because the Ayo Hype Train hadn’t gained enough steam heading into the weekend, he turned in his second triple-double of the season with 19 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds in a thrashing of Minnesota that took the Minnesota At The Barn voodoo magic and stuffed it in a dumpster.
All of that happened in just the last two weeks. That doesn’t even include his heroics last year against Wisconsin and Michigan or earlier this season against Indiana or Ohio.
Thanks largely in part to Ayo’s heroics, Illinois has now won seven straight and climbed back into the top five of the AP Poll. In the conversation of Gonzaga and Baylor vs. The Field, the Illini are making their case for the Field.
As of Sunday, Illinois is one of four teams in the country that rank in the top 10 of both offensive and defensive efficiency at KenPom. The other three? Gonzaga (duh), Baylor (duh) and Michigan (duh again). They are an elite team on both ends of the floor and have deservedly thrust their name into the national title conversation.
Illinois checks all of the boxes of a title contender. They have shooters all over the floor, a big man in Kofi Cockburn that dominates the paint on both ends, and roster continuity that has led to the best defensive team that Brad Underwood has ever had.
Ultimately, though, their national title aspirations will likely boil down to Ayo. That’s not to discredit the rest of the roster, but winning in March is about having Dudes.
And Ayo might be the baddest Dude in the country.
Every year when we reach this particular point in the season, a familiar topic of conversation arises in the national discourse across podcasts, columns, tv hits, Twitter prompts, you name it. They all ask the same thing:
Who could be this year’s Kemba Walker?
Of the teams with actual national title hopes, Ayo is the clear frontrunner. On Saturday, Jay Bilas said as much on College Gameday, citing Dosunmu’s insane stat-line (he’s one of just 18 guys to average 20 PPG, 5 APG and 5 RPG over the last 30 years) and clutch gene.
Before March arrives, Illinois might have as tough of a closing stretch to the regular season as any team in the country. A road trip to East Lansing to face a mediocre Michigan State team should be a relatively stress free night, as will hosting Nebraska just two days later.
The last three games are going to tell us a lot about Illinois’s big game chops though. Within a seven-day stretch that begins on the penultimate day of February, the Illini will have to trek through road games against Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio State to wrap their Big Ten slate.
Those games — especially the ones against Michigan and Ohio State — will have layers upon layers of postseason implications. They could very well determine how the Big Ten title race shakes out as the trio sits comfortably atop the standings. That, in turn, will affect seeding for the Big Ten Tournament, which has shown that even a single seed line can make a huge difference depending on how the matchups shake out. And lastly, those games will have huge NCAA Tournament seeding implications. Both Michigan and Ohio State are in line for 1-seeds, while Illinois is currently the top 2-seed on Bracket Matrix.
From now until April, the spotlight is on. Players, coaches, media, alarming handsome bloggers with newsletters, and that guy in the office that usually annoys you but you kind of actually miss talking ball with at the water cooler are going to be chomping at the bit for March Madness this year.
It’s highly unlikely that Ayo Dosunmu will return to Illinois for his senior season, especially since it was a bit of a shock that he even came back for this season. This final Big Ten stretch and the subsequent NCAA Tournament will assuredly be his last dance as a college athlete.
If the last couple of weeks (although it’s really been his entire career) are any indication, Ayo is going to be ready to come through on the biggest stage. Ladies and gents, this is the moment you’ve waited for.
This is the greatest show, and Ayo Dosunmu is college basketball’s Greatest Showman.
See you next Monday. Enjoy the hoops.
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