Rewards standings before the tournament games and after them.

Commentary: Rewards matched the top five in both polls, except it had #2 Marquette ranked below then #3 Pennsylvania. #7 Western Kentucky was only ranked #21 by the Rewards system, and since they reached the Final Four in 1971, the voters were more informed about that team than their 20-5 record, strength of schedule/wins, etc, indicated. NIT runnerup Georgia Tech moved up from #51 to #42, and St. Bonaventure's three NIT wins elevated them a dozen spots in the final rankings (moving from #30 to #18). By virtue of its 4 NCAA wins, Western Kentucky finished the season as Rewards' #11 team, and NCAA runner-up Villanova jumped up from #13 to #10 (even with a relatively high number of losses: 7).