("26T" in the "before" page implies that these teams received votes in the UPI poll, but the total number of votes was not listed.)

 

Rewards standings before the tournament games and after them.

Commentary: Rewards matched the top ten in the polls fairly well, as well as the next fifteen spots. Rewards had Duke as #7 (#6 in both polls) because of their large number of losses, and even after defeating everyone in the NCAA tournament, including then #1, and undefeated, UNLV, they still only moved up to #4 after all the games were done. Alabama was one of the few top 25 teams that ended up positioned very differently in the regular season polls than in the Reward rankings, since the Crimson Tide's 9 losses forced Rewards to have them fairly low (#28) though they ended up as #19/#16 in the polls. (They did make the "sweet sixteen", so perhaps the pollsters' assessment was more in line with their ability than what Rewards determined.) UCONN was tied for 34 in the AP poll, and #38 according to Rewards, but their two wins as a #11 seed put them into the "sweet sixteen status" as well, and moved them up to #27 in the final Rewards ranking. Eastern Michigan also elevated itself from the #47 position to #38 in the final Rewards ranking by making the sweet sixteen. Creighton was also a #11 seed, and 39th in the AP poll, garnering a few votes in the UPI as well, but Rewards had them as the #34 team, and after they defeated the #6 seed (New Mexico State - ranked as #15/#17 in the polls) they finished as #30 in the final Rewards ranking. #15 seeded Richmond pulled off one of the largest NCAA tournaments upsets ever when they defeated #2 seed Syracuse, who was the 7th or 8th best team in the country, depending upon which poll you looked at, and that win moved the Spiders up to #64 (from #81) in the last Reward ranking. NIT champion Stanford also moved (up from #82 to #72) after their five postseason wins.