Northwestern went on the road and beat the No. 7 team in the country. But apparently that wasn't enough to get the Wildcats back into the AP top-25 rankings.
Chris Collins' team might have scored the biggest win in program history when it beat Wisconsin on Sunday night in Madison, but it still resides in the "others receiving votes" category, checking in as the de facto No. 28 team in the country when the new AP poll was released Monday.
That likely stems from an ugly home loss to Illinois from earlier last week. The Fighting Illini are the second-worst team in the Big Ten, and losing to them at home — even without leading scorer Scottie Lindsey — was likely enough in the minds of many voters to keep the Cats from reclaiming a spot in the top 25.
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Regardless, Northwestern, which seemingly guaranteed its inclusion in the NCAA tournament with Sunday's win, will have another opportunity to impress this week. The Cats take on the 23rd-ranked Maryland Terrapins on Wednesday in Evanston.
Aforementioned Wisconsin dropped in the rankings but not drastically, falling from No. 7 to No. 11 after getting an eight-game win streak snapped by Northwestern.
Purdue, which beat Indiana last week in Bloomington, stayed at No. 16.
Maryland, which lost to Penn State and beat Ohio State. dropped from No. 21 to No. 23.
Big Ten
Over in the coaches poll, Wisconsin dropped five spots from No. 5 to No. 10, Purdue climbed two spots from No. 18 to No. 16 and Maryland dropped two spots from No. 22 to No. 24. Northwestern was in the "others receiving votes" category in this poll, too, the de facto No. 27 team in the country.