(670 The Score) Amid a strong season, Illinois found itself facing a measure of adversity after a loss at Michigan State on Feb. 23. Star guard Ayo Dosunmu suffered a broken nose in that loss and would be out for at least a bit as the Illini chased a Big Ten championship.
What happened afterward made coach Brad Underwood proud. With Dosunmu out for three games, Illinois reeled off wins against Nebraska, then-No. 23 Wisconsin and at then-No. 2 Michigan as an array of other players stepped up and took on bigger roles.
“In a roundabout way, it galvanized us,” Underwood said on the Mully & Haugh Show on Monday morning. “And I think it gave guys confidence. To see (Andre) Curbelo, to see Adam Miller, they stepped into a lot of the same assignments that we give Ayo on the offensive end. We’ve known what Trent Frazier is capable of. Trent can be an elite scorer, and he stepped up and did that through that stretch. Then to see Giorgi (Bezhanishvili) yesterday, people forget that Giorgi set a freshman scoring record (at Illinois), broke Deon Thomas’ record with 36 in a game as a freshman. And he’s a guy that’s very, very capable. And then really all month, in the last month or six weeks, Da’Monte Williams has hit big shot after big shot after big shot. Again, he’s a guy that’s stepped into that role and had to be a big-time playmaker and a big-time shotmaker. We’ve got some alphas on our team. We’ve got guys that aren’t afraid of the moment, and it gave those confidence. Now you put Ayo back in the picture, it makes for a very confident team.”
Illinois finished 16-4 in conference play in the regular season, then won the Big Ten Tournament championship with an overtime victory against Ohio State on Sunday. That led to the Illini landing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, which they open against the 16th-seeded Drexel Dragons on Friday.
“We’re not done,” Underwood said. “That’s all we’ve talked about. Ayo Dosunmu leads that charge. He came back to play in this tournament, and we’ll ride his coattails.”