Illinois Basketball: Ayo Dosunmu has made history for the Illini

History has been achieved as Illinois basketball star Ayo Dosunmu has made the AP All-American First-Team.

Why is this history? Simple, there have been exactly zero Illinois basketball players make the AP All-American First-Team in the history of the program. Now there is one and his name is Ayo Dosunmu.

It is hard to believe that there hasn’t been a single Illinois player earn first-team honors. You would think the title team in 2004-05 would have had someone on it. They didn’t, though.

The last Illinois player to even make an All-American team was Dee Brown in 2006. He earned second-team honors that season. During the 2004-05 campaign, both Brown and Luther Head made the second-team and Deron Williams was third-team.

In 2003, Brian Cook make the third-team. Before Cook, it was Frank Williams who donned the third-team in 2001. You have to go back to 1990 to find Kendall Kill who was also on the third-team that year. Weirdly enough, Illinois didn’t have an All-American the year they went to the Final Four in 1989.

I could continue on, but you get that while Illinois has had a lot of All-American players, there have been gaps in the history. The biggest gap of them all has now been filled, as Illinois has their first AP All-American First-Team player in Ayo.

Illinois isn’t done with just Ayo making an All-American team. His right-hand man, Kofi Cockburn, earned the honors of second-team as well. This is a great feat considering he joins such a prestigious, heralded, group of players in Illinois history.

As an Illini fan, I am witnessing something special with this team. We have two All-Americans and the first every first-team player in program history. Let’s continue enjoying the ride and, maybe just maybe, we will also have our first national title as well.