EVANSTON – One of the best seasons in the history of the program now has a new accomplishment – a spot in the rankings.

On Monday morning, Northwestern men’s basketball cracked into the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in 2022-2023, slotting in at No. 21. This comes after the team has received votes in the poll over the last three weeks in the midst of a five-game winning streak, including an 80-60 victory over Iowa at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Sunday evening.

It’s the latest in a men’s college basketball season (Week 15) that the Wildcats have ever appeared in the AP Top 25.

This marks the first time that the team has been ranked since late December 2020 and early January 2021, when a 3-0 start to Big Ten play earned them the No. 19 ranking. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the good times didn’t last as they quickly fell out of the rankings soon after as they endured a 13-game losing streak.

Things are much different this season Chris Collins’ team has been building momentum as the season has gone along. Northwestern is 8-2 in their last ten games as they now have won 11 Big Ten contests, the most since the 1930-1931 season, including four victories against ranked opponents.

Among those was a February 12 triumph over No. 1 Purdue at Welsh-Ryan Arena, their first-ever victory over a top-ranked team in the AP poll. They also defeated Indiana twice when they were ranked, doing so in Bloomington on January 8 and last Wednesday in Evanston.

At the moment, the Wildcats are a full game ahead of the Hoosiers for second place in the Big Ten.

The Wildcats have four games left in the regular season, with three of them coming on the road.

• Thursday – at Illinois – 8 p.m.
• Sunday – at Maryland – 11 a.m.
• Wednesday, March 1 – vs Penn State – 8 p.m.
• Sunday, March 5 – at Rutgers – 6:30 p.m.