Champaign – Some players are just different and it’s blatantly obvious.

The way the player carries himself, the way they talk and the way they handle "the moment" are the tells you should be looking for.

Freshman Ayo Dosunmu illustrated these tells in the final two minutes of Illinois’ 79-74 upset win over No. 9 Michigan State. The win was the first Top-10 win for the program since it defeated No. 1 Indiana in 2012.

Dosunmu possessed the ball at the top of the key as the Illini fans rose to their feet. Coming off a go-ahead three-pointer the possession before, it was clear this was Dosunmu’s shot to take.

Everyone in the State Farm Center knew it, his teammates knew it, the coaches knew it and Dosunmu knew it. With two minutes to go, it was closing time.

“I just try to be a closer. Late game, the last four minutes that’s really where I try to close out the game,” Dosunmu said. “At the end of the day, I feel like when it’s four minutes and under, it’s time for me to close.”

Dosunmu pulled the ball out with seven seconds on the shot clock. He crossed over to his right, stutter-stepped to set up his defender and launched the game-deciding three.

Back-iron and down.

The moment proved to not be too big for the young star, and it’s because he thrives in it.

“It’s just the way I was raised,” Dosunmu said.

For Illinois head coach Brad Underwood, it’s because "the moment" is where Dosunmu's always been.

“It’s just an inner confidence. When he’s not in the classroom, he thinks about basketball all the time,” Illinois head coach Brad Underwood said. “And it’s a confidence of being in the moment. He’s played against the best players in the country and he’s had such success.

“He’s a young man that’s not afraid to take the shot and miss it and there’s not a lot of guys that are willing to do that. And when you get that guy; he’s in that position now where, yeah, you ride that horse and he’s going to come through.”

Illini fans created a sound that could’ve been heard on the other side of campus at Springfield Avenue. Dosunmu’s teammates rushed him once Michigan State called a timeout, elated by his defining moment. For a split second, Dosunmu gave himself a chance to celebrate, pointing at his left arm, which signified the “ice” in his veins.

And after he gave himself that split second, Dosunmu composed himself. When players from the bench rushed him, he almost seemingly rejected their embraces and told his team to “calm down.”

It’s not every day you see that level of maturity from a player that just hit a shot of that caliber, at that moment, against the No. 9 team in the country – let alone from a freshman – but Dosunmu isn’t your everyday collegiate basketball player.

The clock hadn’t struck zero yet and Dosunmu wasn’t going to let his late-game heroics get in the way of the final result he sought after.

“The final buzzer had not sounded, and he knows that,” Underwood said. “There’s a tremendous poise that Ayo has. One: he’s not afraid to take the shot. Two: he knows when you make it, there’s a lot of game left… He’s got a maturity to him that’s beyond his years.”

Dosunmu and the Illini did get the result they desired by hitting their free throws down the stretch and by locking down the Spartans on the other end.

When Illinois got the game-ending defensive stop, it was Dosunmu who possessed the ball, deservingly so, as the final buzzer rang.

What happened next for Dosunmu was a dream come true. The Orange Krush decimated the chairs separating them from the court, making sure nothing stood between and storming the hardwood.

The team and student section met at center court and the celebration of the program-changing win began.

“That’s a hooper’s dream,” Dosunmu said. “Being from Chicago, that’s a hooper’s dream storming the court.”

Of course, when Dosunmu walked into the media room for his post-game press conference, he deflected the credit and attention away from his 24-point performance. Instead, he credited his teammates, his coaches and his fans – all which played pivotal factors in the game – for the Illini’s win.

But what he ended up revealing is what everyone had already suspected in the first place because of the tells.

Ayo Dosunmu is just different.