From when he first started playing basketball, Ayo Dosunmu never has forgotten the advice his father, Quam, gave him.
“Be efficient and do a lot of other stuff besides scoring,” Ayo Dosunmu recalled. “Rebound, assist, play defense. Do whatever you can to help your team win.”
It’s apparent Dosunmu took his father’s advice to heart. The 6-foot-3 junior guard excels in every facet of the game.
Dosunmu, the Daily Southtown 2016-17 Boys Basketball Player of the Year, averaged 22 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and two steals for Class 3A state champion Morgan Park (26-6).
Nick Irvin has coached some of the area’s great players, among them Wayne Blackshear, Marcus LoVett and Charlie Moore. He said Dosunmu doesn’t take a back seat to any of them.
And Dosunmu still has a year left to further enhance his skills and build his resume.
“Ayo is the best player in the state,” Irvin said. “He can do it all. Score, rebound, set his teammates up. He plays great defense and he’s a leader. There’s nothing he can’t do.”
The one thing Dosunmu couldn’t do was play March 18 in the state championship game.
Dosunmu suffered a fracture in his left foot March 17 during the Mustangs’ state semifinal win over Springfield Lanphier.
With four minutes remaining in the first quarter, Dosunmu landed awkwardly on his left foot. Initially, he didn’t believe it wasn’t anything serious. That is, until he stood up and put pressure on the foot.
“There wasn’t a lot of pain,” Dosunmu said. “But when I got up, I couldn’t move well laterally. Right then, I knew I couldn’t go.”
Most observers at Peoria’s Carver Arena gave the Mustangs little chance of advancing after seeing Dosunmu helped off the court.
He later would sit on the bench with a bag of ice wrapped around his left foot, supporting his teammates.
“I was hoping it would get better,” Dosunmu said. “But when we got X-rays, it showed a slight fracture. It was disappointing.”
He acknowledged how difficult it was not playing in the biggest game of the season.
His teammates, however, provided the proper medicine to help alleviate some of the physical and mental pain.
“It was real tough going down,” Dosunmu said. “There was only one thing that could help that feeling and that was winning the state championship. The will my teammates had to win was something else.
“Down 11 points, they kept fighting till the end and pulled it out. I’m proud of them.”
Dosunmu is bummed at the prospect of not playing basketball for the next month. He’s the type of kid who stays an hour or so after practice to work on his game.
His motivation is simple: to be great.
For now, he’ll listen to the doctors and allow the fracture to heal properly.
The down time will allow him to sift through the dozens of college scholarship offers. He considers Butler, Creighton, Illinois, Northwestern and Xavier among his top choices.
Dosunmu confirmed the coaching change at Illinois could impact his decision. The Illini hired Brad Underwood on March 18 after firing John Groce.
“Any time a school has a coaching change during the recruiting process it’s not really good,” Dosunmu said. “I had a pretty good relationship with the previous Illinois coaching staff. Now you have to start over.
“But I haven’t eliminated anyone. I’m still going through the process.”
Irvin believes the best still is yet to come from Dosunmu.
“He had a great year this year,” Irvin said. “But Ayo is going to be even better next year. He’s going to get bigger and stronger. No one will be able to stop him.”
Twitter @disabato
