Time to empty the notebook while hoping the freezing rain doesn’t strand me in Detroit:

The Illini lost a game today that by no means hurts their resume in the grand scheme of things. Michigan has defeated Duke and UCLA and coach John Beilein has a team that should be a terror in coming years. So, the question on the minds of fans is whether Illinois breaks into the rankings based on a win at No. 9 Purdue and the overall body of work.

Beilein played the good host and happy winner when he was asked whether Illinois was a top-25 team.

“They’re pretty good,” he said. “Now, we’ve played good teams as well. Look at their numbers and the Purdue game and I would say yes.”

Bruce Weber’s thoughts?

“I hope so but I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. You have to earn it and we’ll see. Whatever happens, the most important thing is that we have to get better and get ready for Indiana.”

Illinois has two wins over ranked opponents and its two losses are against No. 23 Michigan and No. 20 Clemson. The Illini won’t get in just for beating Purdue. Usually teams in the rankings have to lose to make room for newcomers. So, let’s take a look at how the lower teams in the Associated Press poll fared last week:

25. Butler (safe)

24. Ohio State (lost at Minnesota)

23. Michigan (lost to Wisconsin, and if the Wolverines fall out don’t count on Illinois getting in)

22. Xavier (safe)

21. Minnesota (lost to Michigan State, beat Ohio State)

20. Clemson (safe)

19. Baylor (lost to South Carolina)

18. Louisville (lost to UNLV)

17. Arizona State (lost to California)

16. Gonzaga (lost to Utah)

And remember, West Virginia and Marquette were next in line based on last week’s voting. Neither lost, making them just as likely to move into the poll as Illinois. …

Back to the game. How about the first-half dunk by Chester Frazier that took everyone by surprise. It made me recall some preseason comments by players who said that Frazier had some extra energy thanks to fresh legs and was even dunking in practice.

So on Sunday he’s leading a fastbreak with defenders in pursuit, and just when you thought he was going to be fouled trying to lay the ball in, the 6-2 guard took off and jammed the ball in traffic, prompting an eruption on the Illinois bench.

“I was amazed,” forward Dominique Keller said. “I’ve seen Chester do that same exact dunk on Mike Davis in practice. He told us this year he was going to get someone, and we were just playing like ‘He ain’t ever going to do that.’ When he did it, everybody jumped up and down. I was in shock. I couldn’t even move.” …

Alex Legion seemed to handle the emotion of his return to the Detroit area without problem. He made four of 10 shots and scored 10 points. The fans used minimal energy to boo Legion, who previously signed with the Wolverines before asking to be released from his letter of intent.

The student section delivered most of the jabs while Legion’s mother sat in a seat directly across the aisle.

“I expected that,” he said. “It’s college basketball and you expect fans to rag on your team.”

Legion has started to blend nicely into the offense. Weber keeps talking about practice performances when Legion rattled off one 3-pointer after another.

“I thought he was fine,” Weber said. “He made a couple of shots and gave us a little lift. I said it would take five or six games and each game he seems to be a little better. … I’m waiting for the game he goes 6-for-6 like he does in practice. I think that will come.”

Legion had a collision with Michigan’s Zack Novak that opened a nasty cut on Novak’s head, requiring six stitches. Blood poured from the gash immediately and it took a couple of minutes to clean up the droplets from the court. The fans used the occasion to boo Legion some more but he said it was accidental.

“I was trying to cut and I think we butted heads,” Legion said. “A lot of people think I elbowed him. I got a little messed up, too.” …

Weber had feared Michigan getting off to a hot start shooting from the perimeter. The Wolverines did so, and it helped open up more for their offense. With defenders crowding shooters closer in the second half, they repeatedly beat Illinois off the dribble and created easy baskets.

Without meaning to single out players, Weber used Trent Meacham as an example.

“He’s been so good for us and then he misses a couple of shots and breaks down defensively,” Weber said. “Everybody seemed to break down defensively and that bothered me. But some of it is (Michigan’s) system. … They exploit any kind of weakness you have.”

Meacham agreed.

“No question, I was pretty bad,” he said. “But we still had a chance at 62-62 and we just fell apart. Their crowd got into it and they got some easy baskets. Defensively we had some lapses and didn’t stick to our principles of what we’ve done all year. And that’s the game right there.” …

Reserve center Richard Semrau didn’t play against Michigan after seeing only 13 total minutes in the previous three games. Weber continues to site his late return from the holiday break but the issue on Sunday was that he was a poor matchup for the Wolverines small, quick lineup.

“I told Richard I haven’t given up on him,” Weber said. “I addressed Richard after. I said ‘You’ve got four days to get your confidence back and get back in the mix.’ ” …

Check out the Big Ten standings. We’re less than a week into the conference schedule and only Michigan State and Wisconsin are undefeated. These teams are going to beat each other up for the next two months. …

Weber said Frazier played with a strained groin, alhthough it didn’t show. And Mike Davis was battling what Weber called “tonsilitis.” Said Weber: “You could tell in his play. He couldn’t get the big layups to go down.”