College basketball rankings are a wildly inexact science. No matter your level of engagement, your objectivity, your ability to tap into a trusted hoops-watching hive mind, there’s no chance of getting it all right.

This is all a setup to say that it shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise that Illinois (7-3) wasn’t able to find its way back into the AP Top 25 this week after falling to No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday. The Illini, who were (unofficially) ranked at No. 35 going into last week, moved up – again, unofficially – to 30th after battling and nearly bumping off the Vols.

Meanwhile, at least one college basketball expert thinks more highly of Illinois. Big Ten Network analyst and NCAA correspondent Andy Katz ranks the Illini at No. 21, dropping them only one spot from the previous week and noting the significance of their efforts: “The Illini were within a whisker of pulling off an upset of No. 1 Tennessee,” he wrote.

Katz had placed Illinois as high as No. 15 the week before its overtime loss at Northwestern, moving the Illini to No. 20 despite noting that they “shouldn’t get punished too much” for being tripped up by the Wildcats.

Happy, Illini fans? Just remember that this “inexact science” thing works both ways. (Who’s to say Katz is any more right than AP voters?) As hopeful as Illinois backers may be that this team will continue to mature in a hurry, start sinking shots and make a scorched-earth run through March, the reality is that the Illini are a 7-3 team whose only win of significance is over a good-but-not-great Arkansas squad.

Just remember that the journey is half the fun. Even if the Illini had managed to topple the Vols, we can’t know where they’ll be three months from now. Let’s not quibble too much about the subjective ranking of a talented-but-quite-young team in December when the goal is to be the last man standing in April.

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