Now part of two turnarounds, Dosunmu set to be honored by Illini
Bulls rookie Ayo Dosunmu probably felt like he truly arrived in the NBA when he was the subject of some awkward trash talk from coach Billy Donovan.
"When I got home last night from here, I flipped on the TV and Illinois was playing at Minnesota," Donovan said Wednesday at the Advocate Center. "And I heard that was the best start in the Big Ten for (Illini coach) Brad Underwood. And I asked him why he couldn't help him get off to a better start last year?"
The answer is because the Illini lost to Rutgers in their second game, but that hardly matters now that Dosunmu has launched his pro career.
"I don't think he knew where I was quite going," Donovan said of his joke. "And then when I got it out, he just kind of laughed. He said, 'I got you.'"
Dosunmu will return to Champaign on Thursday to become part of the Illini's Honored Jerseys program during the game against Maryland. The 6-5 guard spent three years at Illinois and helped lead the team to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013.
"The best thing (about his time at Illinois), I would say accepting the challenge of when I came into the program, we weren't that good record-wise," Dosunmu said. "So to be a part of changing the culture, that's something that's very exciting."
Now he's trying to help the Bulls make the one-year rise from missing the play-in tournament to the top seed in the Eastern Conference. It's easy to imagine a scenario where the rebuilding Bulls billed Dosunmu and Coby White as a backcourt of the future. Instead, they represent the depth of talent as the second-team guards.
"Me and Coby, we played together at USA Basketball, so we pretty much have good chemistry together," Dosunmu said. "Of course, it's something that can continue to grow. Him coming back from his shoulder injury, me being a rookie.
"But that's what makes our team special. We have a lot of good people who look to be unselfish, look to make the right play, look to go out here and play for each other."
Plenty of NBA observers called Dosunmu the steal of draft night when the Bulls chose the Chicago native with the No. 38 overall pick in the second round. It turned out to be true, or close to it. Dosunmu ranked 15th among rookies in points scored through Tuesday's action, and he's shot 52.8% from the field, an impressive number for a guard.
"I've known Brad for a while," said Donovan, a longtime college coach at Florida. "Brad and I after the draft talked a lot about Ayo, and Brad's got an enormous amount of respect for him. Everything Brad and I talked about as it relates to Ayo, he was 100 percent on point in all the things he says he was as a competitor and as a team guy and as a worker."
Quizzed about his time in Champaign, Dosunmu said his favorite spot on campus was Chipotle.
"You know college, there's not a lot of good food there," he said. "So you've got to find something and make it home."
Dosunmu always gets a warm welcome at the United Center. A South Side native who played at Morgan Park High School, Dosunmu recalled watching Derrick Rose lead the Bulls to the Eastern Conference finals during his MVP season in 2010-11.
"Me being from Illinois, a lot of people here recognize me," Dosunmu said. "I love to show love to those people because this is a blessing. Every day I wake up and come here, I always feel blessed because I'm doing what I love in my home city.
"So when I go out to restaurants, I try to just show love to pretty much anybody I see, always have warm welcomings, always be polite because that one interaction I can have with one person could be a life-changer."
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