Besides, they went down to Purdue and didn't let down. I don't know if that's the case. The people who rank teams look at their entire seasons. A win over Kentucky doesn't hurt their case either. You have to look at the long term, not individual games, especially when you win on your own floor like Illinois did.
People have that in their minds when they vote.
In many cases these votes come down to nothing more than popularity. The one beauty of college basketball is everybody is equal at tournament time. I bleed Carolina blue, but my question is about another ACC team. The Yellow Jackets sit a half-game out of third in the ACC, have a better record than Virginia and Wake Forest, and have wins over Kentucky, UCLA, Virgina and Maryland. Remember, they play in the toughest conference in America.