Illinois is a top-10 team again for the first time since March 2006.

Take a second to drink that in.

That was when Dee Brown was still complementing his cornrows with an Illini orange headband, James Augustine was still crashing the boards at Assembly Hall and Bruce Weber was still the new guy in town.

While it’s early in the season, Illinois’ relevance, at least for the short term, has been restored.

The AP college basketball poll ranked the 10-0 Illini men’s basketball team at No. 10 in the country Monday after the Illini traveled to a hostile environment in Spokane, Wash., and defeated then-No. 10 Gonzaga 85-74 on national television. Illinois now joins Indiana, Michigan and Ohio State as the four Big Ten representatives among college basketball’s 10 best teams.

“Anytime you can win it continues to build credibility and kind of philosophy and where you’re going and how you’re building it,” head coach John Groce said. “We try our very hardest … not to change disposition regardless, but I do think it certainly has created an excitement.”

Soon after the excitement had cooled from the Gonzaga game, the Illini were back to work. Groce held a film session in Spokane the next morning to prepare for Tuesday’s game against Norfolk State, and the players wasted no time exposing the elephant in the room. Last year, No. 15-seeded Norfolk State upset No. 2-seeded Missouri in the NCAA tournament, which particularly worries senior guard D.J. Richardson.

“They busted my bracket pretty good,” Richardson said. “I had Missouri beating them, and then when I watched the game I said, ‘Wow, they’re pretty good.’ They’re an experienced team.”

On a lesser scale, Illinois will try to avoid becoming the next Missouri. Staying away from a letdown will be the theme of the week, as the Illini play the 6-5 Spartans before turning to an undefeated Eastern Kentucky team Sunday. Then it’s off to play the Tigers for the Braggin’ Rights Game in St. Louis.

Norfolk State and Gonzaga share a similar on-paper advantage over the Illini in the inches department. The Spartans are the 10th-tallest team in the nation, which Groce said could create problems for the Illini on the boards. On Saturday, Illinois handled a much-bigger Gonzaga team, equaling the Bulldogs with 11 offensive boards and losing the overall rebounding differential by just four.

They assuaged the Bulldogs’ size mismatch on defense by mixing in a zone that created turnovers and limited penetration.

“It throws the other team out of their rhythm,” Richardson said of Groce’s liberalism with switching defenses midgame. “It makes them feel uncomfortable and throws something at them they weren’t prepared for.”

The Spartans have suffered through their share of struggles this season — already with an early stretch of four straight losses to the likes of Loyola (Maryland), Missouri-Kansas City, Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State — but they’ll ride into Champaign on a four-game winning streak. After the Illini’s near-collapses against Western Carolina and Gardner-Webb, it wouldn’t be out of the realm for Norfolk State to keep the game close. Illinois has played down to its opponents at times, which is a characteristic that Groce hopes the Gonzaga win will weed out.

That nagging quality to sink to other teams’ skill levels isn’t something new. It was commonplace in the late Bruce Weber years, especially last season, when the Illini also started the season 10-0 before tail-spinning into oblivion.

But neither Groce nor the players talk about last year’s failures. They don’t use it as motivation or as a teaching tool. It’s simply never brought up. Instead, Groce chooses to preach maturity about the team’s success after an emotional victory like Saturday’s.

“Obviously, we’re going to know about rankings and stuff from people telling us and tweeting us and whatnot,” senior guard Brandon Paul said. “It’s a good feeling to be up there. It’s not something we’re going to focus too much on. We don’t want to worry about that so much then come into the next game and not play as well a couple nights ago.”

Ethan can be reached at [email protected] and @AsOfTheSky.