Hokies, Terrapins Plow Into Postseason

The Virginia Tech basketball team was disappointed to find out it was headed to the National Invitation Tournament (see F5), but after losing in the first round of the ACC tournament, Maryland expected as much. The Terrapins will play at Minnesota in the first round of the NIT at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday in a game televised nationally on ESPN. Should the No. 5 seed Terrapins win, they would play the winner of the game between top-seeded Syracuse and eighth-seeded Robert Morris.

Maryland is making its third appearance in the NIT in four years. The Terrapins (18-14) had no formal media gathering last night at Comcast Center. Maryland lost six of its last eight games.

Over the past month, the Terrapins lost three games in which they led by double digits. The latest meltdown occurred in Thursday's ACC tournament, where Maryland squandered a 15-point first-half lead in a 71-68 loss to Boston College.

Maryland Coach Gary Williams has said he will use the NIT to gain experience for his six freshmen and to give senior James Gist an opportunity to shine as he pursues a professional career.

Minnesota (20-13) finished sixth in the Big Ten under first-year coach Tubby Smith, who led the Golden Gophers to the Big Ten Conference tournament semifinals. Senior guard Lawrence McKenzie leads Minnesota in scoring, averaging 12.2 points.

Virginia Tech and Arizona State were No. 1 seeds in the 32-team NIT, the traditional consolation prize for the best teams left out of the NCAA tournament. The other top seeds announced last night were Ohio State and Syracuse, and all had their gripes with not playing elsewhere next week.

The Hokies (19-13) open Wednesday night against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular season champ Morgan State, which earned an automatic berth under a rule that rewards teams from smaller conferences who lost in their league tournaments.

Arizona State (19-12), which had perhaps the strongest r¿sum¿ of any team that didn't get picked for the NCAA tournament, gets Alabama State for its opener. Ohio State (19-13), which played in the national championship game a year ago, will play UNC Asheville, and Syracuse (19-13) gets a first-round date with Robert Morris.

The Orange entered last week's Big East tournament on the brink of an NCAA bid, but lost what amounted to an elimination game to Villanova, which earned the last NCAA tournament at-large berth.

"After last year, we probably had to win two or three games," Boeheim said after the 82-63 loss to Villanova. "We had to keep winning and I don't think one win would have been enough. . . . In my mind and their mind, if they're not in the NCAA tournament it's not a good year."

Also in the NIT field is two-time defending NCAA champion Florida (21-11), which lost eight of its final 11 games and was bounced early from the SEC tournament. The Gators are a No. 2 seed and will play San Diego State in the opening round.

If everything holds, they would get Arizona State in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden, and with the Buckeyes on the other side of the bracket, a rematch of last year's NCAA title game is possible.

Other first-round games in Ohio State's portion of the bracket are California against New Mexico, Dayton against Cleveland State and second-seeded Illinois State against Utah State.

Also in Virginia Tech's section are Virginia Commonwealth, Alabama-Birmingham, Nebraska, Charlotte and second-seeded Mississippi, which will play UC Santa Barbara in the opening round.

There was some concern that a new postseason tournament set up by the Gazelle Group, which runs the 2K Sports College Hoop Classic and the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic, would snap up the best teams left out of the NCAA tournament.

NIT committee chairman C.M. Newton lauded the NIT's quality and depth the past couple of seasons, including an entertaining final two rounds last year in which all four No. 1 seeds advanced to New York with West Virginia beating Clemson in the championship game.

"I think it's viewed as a real basketball event again," he said. "It's not the national championship, there's only one road to the Final Four and we all understand that. But it's a very good invitational championship for those teams."