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WASHINGTON, D.C. - For a small-conference school like Boston University, saying "yes" is the only way to respond to this invitation.
But for the second-straight year, BU coach Dennis Wolff is probably wishing he could have circled "regrets only."
With the sting of last year's 28-point first-round National Invitation Tournament loss still lingering, the Terriers one-upped themselves Wednesday night as they were blown out by Georgetown University, 64-34, at the MCI Center in a game that, as hard as it is to believe, could have been a lot worse.
"This is the second consecutive year that we've really ended on a sour note after a pretty good season," said Wolff, who endured another NIT drubbing after watching his team drop an 80-52 decision last March at the University of Rhode Island. "I think that game kind of summed up everything that's progressively gotten wrong with our team."
While the Terriers - namely seniors Rashad Bell and Chaz Carr - can hang their hat on a program-first fourth-straight postseason appearance, the only house they have to go home to is one made of bricks.
The 2,797 fans inside the 20,600-seat MCI Center heard the rattle of the BU rim more than the swish of the net. The Terriers (20-9) were 13-of-55 from the floor (23.6 percent) and an abysmal 1-of-13 from the three-point line. BU's number of made field goals (13) was only three more than the Hoyas' (18-12) number of three-pointers (10). The last of those treys came from seldom-used (1.4 minutes per game) big man Sead Dizdarevic, as Hoya coach John Thompson III emptied his bench for the final 10 minutes.
"I don't know ... if we're not executing, playing a bit tentative, not shooting good." Carr said. "The past few weeks haven't gone our way, we haven't practiced the way we want to practice. But that's how it goes sometimes."
Things looked to be going well for the first five minutes, as the Terriers stifled Georgetown's star players - freshman Jeff Green and junior Brandon Bowman - with a strong 2-3 zone. An emphatic dunk by Bell actually put the Terriers up 9-7 with just over 12 minutes left in the half.
But that would be the end of anything emphatic for BU. The Hoyas ran off
13 straight points on their way to a 27-4 run, most of them coming on backdoor cuts for easy slams by Green or three-pointers by Darrel Owens, both of whom finished with 17 points.
The Terriers seemed resigned to settling for fadeaway threes by Carr (five points), wild scoop layups by Bell (14 points) or off-balance jumpers by Shaun Wynn (six points). Things got so bad that Bell, who had attempted exactly zero three-pointers all season, heaved up two shots from behind the arc.
Sufficed to say, neither one found the bottom of the net.
But it was not only poor shooting that cost the Terriers a chance at their first post-season win since 1959. When the NIT's big brother, the NCAA tournament, kicks off today, it's safe to assume there will be a few high seeds that will not look as impressive as the resurgent Hoyas did on Wednesday, as Georgetown shot nearly 45 percent from the field (52 percent in the first half when the starters played).
In his first season, Thompson (the son of the legendary Hoya coach and former head man at Princeton) has revived a struggling program that, in 2003-04, missed the post-season for the first time since 1974. With a little help from a Big East third-teamer in Bowman and a promising rookie in Green, Thompson and his Princeton-style offense should be a force in the other postseason tournament next year.
"That feels good, because that's a good team. The score doesn't indicate that, but they're well-coached and they make it hard for you to score," Thompson said. "Teams that are playing now, no matter what tournament they're playing in, are very good teams."
But on Wednesday, BU did not look like one of those "very good teams." After weeks of being "worn down," according to Wolff, the Terriers ran into a team that starts a pair of 6-foot 8-inch, 200-plus-pound behemoths on the front line. One of those forwards is the Tracy McGrady-like Bowman, who despite his size, put the ball on the floor on numerous occasions, leaving the smaller (or larger, in the case of Omari Peterkin) BU defenders helpless.
"We all know what the situation is in college basketball, in those power conferences," Wolff said when asked how Georgetown compares to three-time America East champion Vermont. "If us or Vermont had to play in the Big East or play the schedule they had, the results would be different. On a given night, as good as Vermont is right now, I think they'd have a hard game with them [Georgetown]. But over the course of the season there's a clear difference in the leagues."
The game spelled the end of a career for Bell and Carr, the two winningest Terriers in school history. After four 20-win seasons and four postseason appearances, BU's top dogs didn't close out their careers with the finest of nights, combining to go 7-for-29 from the floor and 1-for-9 from the arc.
"You can't look down on [85 games]," Bell said of his BU career. "I don't think too many teams can win 20 each season, so that's pretty good to look upon ... but we still weren't able to close it out the right way."
"It's very difficult for them right now," Wolff said of his two seniors. "And nobody - least of all them - wanted to have their careers end like this; Chaz in particular, who's struggled shooting and struggled with his game.
"But unfortunately you don't get everything when you want it in your life."
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