Tyler Griffey slowly walked off the court with his head down, orange jersey already off, wearing only his sweat-drenched orange cutoff.

Just when it couldn’t seem to get any worse for Griffey and his Illini teammates, it did. If the crushing blowout defeat at Wisconsin two Saturdays ago signaled the derailing of the Illinois bandwagon, last Thursday’s loss at home to Northwestern was a flaming crash and burn.

The 68-54 loss was maybe the most demoralizing of Griffey’s Illini career, quite an accomplishment for a senior class that has made a habit out of submarining high hopes.

For the second straight outing, Illinois was never in the game, Northwestern quickly building a double-digit lead that the Illini only cut below 10 momentarily late in the second half.

The Wildcats got whatever shot they wanted on offense, repeatedly gouging Illinois for drives, backdoor cuts and threes. The once solid Illini defense had more holes than a Michael Bay movie. The offense was, if possible, worse, creating very few open looks against a Northwestern defense that entered the game allowing more points per game in conference play than any team in the Big Ten. Where is the execution and poise the Illini displayed during impressive nonconference victories? Where is the confidence and loose play? The toughness and togetherness? The preparation, focus and passion?

After watching Illinois’ play sputter to a grinding halt in recent weeks, it was surreal to watch No. 13 Butler and No. 8 Gonzaga face off in Saturday night’s marquee matchup. It feels like years ago that we watched the Illini control Butler in winning the Maui Invitational before marching into Spokane, Wash., and knocking off the Zags.

We are no longer watching that same Illinois team. It’s as if the Illini players have had their abilities sucked away, Monstar style, and only look like the same players from two months ago.

In the news conference following the Northwestern loss, John Groce was as subdued as I’ve ever seen him. His head often resting on his left hand, Groce spoke in softer tones, the intense stare that we’re so accustomed to now peppered with uncertainty.

The first-year head coach said the Illini simply must play better, giving few specifics on how they would do that. He didn’t anticipate doing anything drastically different to prepare for Nebraska on Tuesday.

“We’re not gonna jump off a cliff or anything like that,” Groce said, adding that in the practices leading up  to Northwestern his squad’s offense looked as good as it has all season.  

But the Illini are on a different sort of cliff now after yet another eyebrow-raising loss has raised the “fraud-alert” to Threat Level Five. They now stand 14-5 and 1-4 in the Big Ten. In a different year, that wouldn’t be cause for much concern, but the conference is absolutely stacked and leaves little room for error this season.

Illinois will travel to Nebraska on Tuesday in a game it must win given that the schedule after the Cornhuskers looks like this: No. 5 Michigan, at No. 18 Michigan State, Wisconsin, No. 2 Indiana, at No. 9 Minnesota. The Illini will almost surely not be favored in any of those games. There is a very real possibility they could finish that stretch 2-9 in the Big Ten (hell, given how they’ve been playing recently, there’s no reason to think they will beat Nebraska either).

Illinois would have to finish with seven straight wins to get to .500 in the conference, usually the benchmark of teams that find themselves on the right side of the NCAA tournament bubble. This season, an 8-10 Big Ten record might do it, especially considering the strength of Illinois’ nonconference resume.

But what once seemed like a lock is far from it.

Daniel is a senior in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter

@danielmillermc.