Rewards standings before the tournament games and after them.

Commentary: Indiana was #1 in both polls, and Rewards thought they had the best season as well - both before and after the tournaments were completed. However, there was plenty of disagreement with where teams placed in the polls near the end of the regular season and where Rewards thought they should be. Only 5 of Reward's top 25 weren't invited to either the NIT or NCAA tournaments, so it is not like Rewards was way off here, and with regards to the top 10, it wasn't too bad there either. Seton Hall was #4 in the AP, and #2 in the UPI, but somehow they weren't invited to the NCAAs, or, they simply accepted to stay closer to home and play in the NIT, but they did win the NIT tournament, and moved up from #6 to #3 in the final Rewards rankings. St. John's, who lost to Seton Hall in the NIT championship game, moved up from #21 to #14 in the final Rewards ranking with its three NIT post-season wins, and Holy Cross moved up from #22 to #18, benefiting from its 2 NCAA tournament wins. Kansas' two wins over Kansas State in 1953 pushed them above KSU in the polls, but the Jayhawks had one more loss than KSU, and so their Reward's rating was effectively lower; KSU's regular season win over Indiana (82-80) also bolstered their average win value, which is a significant contributing factor in the computation of that final Reward rating value .