NCAA Basketball: Most baffling voter choices in February 13 rankings

Now that the NCAA basketball rankings are officially out for the week of February 13, a couple of teams stand out in the latest polls.

The latest round of NCAA basketball rankings looks like they make quite a bit of sense, as long as attention is only paid to the top of the rankings. Although, there is also an argument against Purdue only falling a couple of spots despite the Boilermakers losing yet another Big Ten conference contest.

Where the voters seem to have really missed the boat is the teams that are still not yet ranked in the Top 25. Both Illinois and Northwestern should absolutely be ranked. But neither got enough votes yet.

NCAA Basketball: Most baffling voter choices in February 13 rankings

Let’s take a look at Northwestern’s resume first because it’s honestly insane that the Wildcats aren’t ranked yet. Yes, they managed to handily defeat then top-ranked Purdue. That improved their record to 18-7 and 9-5 in the Big Ten.

Northwestern is now second in the Big Ten. They will almost certainly be an at-large team once March Madness gets rolling. And yet, they couldn’t get more than 96 votes for the Top 25 rankings? That sounds legitimately crazy this late in the season.

Illinois’ resume is remarkably similar to Northwestern’s. No, they don’t have a win over Purdue, but their latest game did see them defeat a Rutgers team that was in the Top 25 last week. They are 18-7 and 8-5 in the Big Ten and in fourth place in the conference.

It’s hard to argue that either one of these Big Ten teams aren’t amongst the best NCAA basketball teams in the country. That the AP is claiming neither of them are seems baffling indeed.

Yes, it seems likely that both teams will be ranked if they can take care of business this week, but the NCAA basketball rankings seem off with those of these teams on the outside looking in.