CHICAGO (AP) – So much for the 29 straight wins the Fighting Illini piled up over the last four months, their double-digit victory margins and their dazzling shooting stats.

One loss – and on a last-second shot, at that – and top-ranked Illinois isn’t quite so impressive anymore.

“The radio talk shows in Chicago this morning make me sick,” Purdue coach Gene Keady said Monday. “They’re upset Illinois didn’t go (unbeaten). That’s ridiculous. Twenty-nine and one is unbelievable.”

It’s not just callers in Chicago who are dogging the Illini, though, after Sunday’s 65-64 loss at Ohio State spoiled their bid for a perfect season. Illinois kept its No. 1 ranking in this week’s poll with 48 first-place votes and 1,725 points, but 22 voters went for North Carolina, a team with three losses.

Some are wondering whether Illinois could lose out on a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament if it doesn’t go deep in the Big Ten tournament, which begins Thursday at the United Center. Illinois has a bye in the first round, and plays the winner of Michigan-Northwestern on Friday.

“It’s hard for people to realize, but this is not going to impact them greatly. They did not turn into mere mortals today, nor were they invincible before,” Minnesota coach Dan Monson said. “They weren’t going to get carried away if they went undefeated and they’re not going to collapse if they didn’t. I think you’re going to see business-as-usual Illinois on Friday.”

The Illini were trying to become the first team to go through an entire season undefeated since Indiana in 1975-76, and their start was the best since UNLV opened 34-0 before losing in the 1991 Final Four. They hadn’t lost since falling to Duke in the NCAA regional semifinals last March, and had a margin of victory of almost 19 points. They routed then-No. 1 Wake Forest and snapped Wisconsin’s 38-game home winning streak, the longest in the country.

But the Illini never really got a powerhouse’s respect, with plenty of skeptics wondering when – not if – they were going to lose.

“Everybody’s waiting for us to lose, saying they think we’re not the best team in the country,” Dee Brown said last month after the Illini beat Wisconsin for a second time. “Watch TV, they’ll show you, they’ll tell you. The No. 1 team? It’s not us.”

Part of it is Illinois’ makeup. The Illini don’t have a big inside presence, making them seem vulnerable to teams that do like Kansas (Wayne Simien) or North Carolina (Sean May). They have a multitude of weapons with all five starters averaging in double figures, but no one “star.”

They don’t even have a cool nickname like Michigan’s Fab Five or the Flyin’ Illini, the school’s last Final Four team.

The Big Ten doesn’t help much, either. The conference isn’t as strong as it was a few years ago, when it had two Final Four teams in back-to-back seasons. Only Illinois, No. 13 Michigan State and No. 23 Wisconsin are ranked, and the conference will be fortunate to get five teams in the NCAA tournament.

Compare that with the ACC, which has three of the top five teams in the country. Or the Big East, which has five teams in the top 25.

“Illinois was doing something that so few have done,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I still love that team. I still think they’ve got a chance to make a big-time run in every tournament they play in.”

And, ultimately, that’s the only thing that matters.

Since the start of the season, Illinois has had the same goals: be the Big Ten champions, get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and win the national title. Matching the 1975-76 Hoosiers would have been an added bonus, but it was never the Illini’s priority.

They insisted they weren’t overwhelmed by the attention that grew with every victory, and they scoffed at the notion they should lose a game before the tournament to reduce the pressure.

But Sunday’s loss leaves them little choice but to refocus.

“I hope they got a taste of defeat and what it feels like. We haven’t had that in 12 months or whatever it was, since the Duke game,” coach Bruce Weber said.

“Maybe we need to taste that again. Be humbled a little bit. Maybe it’ll do some good. I hope it will.”