Iowa's recent hot streak was still not enough to earn the respect of AP voters

Outside of Arizona and Michigan at the top of the men's college basketball world, few teams have been hotter than Iowa.

After a tightly contested win over Northwestern, Iowa pushed its winning streak to six games and currently holds an 18-5 (8-4 Big Ten) record.

Iowa also moved into seventh place in the Big Ten Conference standings behind five ranked teams and UCLA.

Even with Iowa's recent hot streak, AP voters still do not think they are worthy of a spot in the Top 25 rankings.

Iowa was snubbed in the most recent AP Top 25 rankings

After Bennett Stirtz single-handedly carried Iowa to a victory over the weekend with a 36-point outburst, everyone thought Iowa was a lock to jump into the top 25 rankings.

We were wrong.

Iowa was snubbed from the most recent AP Top 25 rankings, but did receive a lot of votes.

The Hawkeyes received 69 votes to enter the rankings, just behind Alabama (72), effectively ranking them No. 27 in college basketball.

For some unknown reason, BYU, which has now lost four of five games, including being upset by Texas Tech and unranked Oklahoma State, clung to a spot.

Iowa is also behind a six-loss Louisville squad that barely beat a bad Wake Forest team and men's basketball blue blood Kentucky, which narrowly escaped Tennessee, and has seven losses.

No one really knows how the AP voters pick their ballots but with an 18-5 overall record, Iowa should undoubtedly be in the rankings.

The good thing is that the rankings do not really matter until Selection Sunday, and Iowa can keep proving voters wrong by continuing to win.

The Hawkeyes have two great opportunities to add to their resume with games against Purdue (February 14) and Nebraska (February 17), and could easily be ranked at this time next week.