Why they've played really well down the stretch. 5 of their 8 losses came early Missouri, Georgia, Gonzaga & Maryland (all by Dec. 4th) add Indiana on Dec. 17th? 3 of the 5 are or were ranked teams.
They have wins against us, @ Louisville, @ UConn, @ WVU, vs. Marquette and vs. Pitt. They are 2nd in the Big East.
A really strong argument can be made that they were still trying to find themselves after the loss of Abromaitis during the period where they were tagged with the 5 losses.