Poll thoughts: Illinois survives, somehow

Apparently, the coaches who vote in the ESPN/USA Today poll didn't see much of Illinois this past week. Allow me to provide a refresher. Last week, Illinois lost to Ohio State at home -- no shame in that -- but followed that loss with a dreadful 49-point performance in a loss to the lowly Indiana Hoosiers in Bloomington. IU has been playing better, sure. And yeah, it's never easy to win on the Big Ten in the road. But the Illini have now lost four of their last five games. Two of those losses have come to unranked teams. The AP voters looked at that recent performance and excluded Illinois from the poll. The coaches, on the other hand, apparently didn't get the memo.

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