CHAMPAIGN — With anticipation mounting and the NBA Draft entry deadline approaching, Illini guard Ayo Dosunmu announced on Thursday that he is returning to Champaign for his sophomore season.

“I stayed home to help Coach Underwood turn the Illinois program around,” Dosunmu said in an announcement video he released on Twitter. “We beat some ranked teams this season. We tasted some success. But we didn’t dance. And Illinois needs to dance.”

“We are building. We will be better. I will be better, and that starts now. New hashtag: Unfinished business.”

After losing to the Iowa in the second round of the Big Ten tournament back in March, Dosunmu told Illini Inquirer that it was a failure not to make the dance.

“I go here to make the NCAA tournament. We didn’t, we failed. So now, what we gotta do is we’re gonna have to do this again,” he said.

And boy, should Illinois be thrilled to have him for at least one more season.

Dosunmu was the first-ever true freshman to lead Illinois in scoring, as he averaged 13.8 points per game. He also led the Illini in assists at 3.3 per game, while ranking second in steals and third in rebounds.

Dosunmu was an All-Freshman Team selection in the Big Ten, and he also earned all-conference honorable mention honors.

There’s no doubt that he could have tested the NBA waters and landed himself a guaranteed contract, especially with that becoming more and more common for players to attain in the second round.

According to ESPN’s latest prospect rankings for the draft, Dosunmu was the No. 43 overall player on the board and the fourth-ranked point guard available. But there is clear value for Dosunmu to return and improve his stock.

“I feel like I can get stronger. I have to just work on my game, my all-around game. Bigger, stronger is the main thing,” he told Illini Inquirer at the Big Ten tournament. “I feel like when I get bigger and stronger, I’ll be hard to stop.”

If he is successful in that effort, Dosunmu could very well be a lottery pick in the 2020 draft class. According to NBADraft.net, he is currently projected to go No. 8 overall in their 2020 mock draft.

Illinois has not had a player drafted since Meyers Leonard was selected 11th overall in the 2012 draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. He is the only Illini product who has been picked since James Augustine (No. 41) and Dee Brown (No. 46) went in the second round of the 2006 draft.

With Dosunmu staying put, that seven-year drought will be the longest Illinois has had since 1995-2001, which occurred after Deon Thomas (‘94) and before Frank Williams and Robert Archibald (‘02).

But the Illini couldn’t be happier for that streak to live on for one more year, as they look to end a different streak first. And that’s a six-year absence from the Big Dance.

