National Invitation Tournament

Coppin State's basketball team has been selected for the National Invitation Tournament, making it two straight years that the Eagles have been in a postseason tournament. Coppin, a National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament team last season, will play at Southwest Missouri State on Thursday night (8:05) in Springfield, Mo., in the first round of the NIT. (Article, 5C)

Sorry, but if I want to watch San Diego State or Saint Mary's or especially Creighton play basketball, I'd subscribe to ESPN MiniU or whoever carries those games. On Moaning Monday, the day after national semi-holiday Selection Sunday, there is weeping and gnashing of teeth concerning overlooked mid-majors who failed to get at-large bids to the Big Dance. Just four of the 34 at-large berths went to the mids, with the rest going to the big guys from the six largest conferences. But let's take note: Maryland was one of those iffy major conference teams.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Maryland took the court with every intention of proving it was a better team than last year, different from the squad that lost at Miami in overtime and, for the first time in 11 years, went to the National Invitation Tournament instead of the NCAA tournament. It definitely wasn't like last year. No. 14 Maryland @No. 1 Duke Wednesday, 9 p.m., ESPN, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM

COLLEGE PARK -On a brisk evening, as rain soaked the ground and a mist masked the horizon, a breeze passed through campus. It seemed to touch everyone. "It was one of the best moments of my life," said junior guard Greivis Vasquez, who's prone to extremes but didn't seem to be overstating his emotions this time. "Once I saw Maryland get up there, I threw my clipboard down, jumped up and screamed as loud as I could," said Dave Neal, the team's emotional backbone and lone senior. "It was a great feeling for me," coach Gary Williams said.

COLLEGE PARK-- --Five years after coaching Maryland to the national championship, not much has changed for - or about - Gary Williams. At 62, he still can be combative and thin-skinned, and he usually is at his best when things appear at their worst. A little more than a month ago, his Terrapins were 3-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and seemed destined for their third straight appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. Williams was once again being skewered on radio talk shows and Internet message boards.

MINNEAPOLIS -- While the National Invitation Tournament is a losing proposition financially for teams such as Maryland that are sent on the road, the Terrapins got something in return during Tuesday's victory over Minnesota in the opening round at Williams Arena. Maryland gained the satisfaction that comes with winning, something the Terps hadn't experienced since a visit to Wake Forest three weeks ago. The team's freshmen also gained more experience in the 68-58 win, and they'll likely get more when Maryland (19-14)

COLLEGE PARK -- Five days after an emotional Maryland basketball team learned its place in the postseason was in the less-prestigious National Invitation Tournament, disappointment still lingered at Comcast Center. Maryland coach Gary Williams said yesterday that today's 11 a.m. home game against Manhattan will not fill the void of missing the NCAA tournament, and part of his challenge is getting his team excited to play in this one. Manhattan @Maryland NIT, today, 11 a.m., ESPN, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM Line: Maryland by 12 1/2

The Maryland women's basketball team will take part in the inaugural preseason women's National Invitation Tournament next season.The Terps, who finished 15-13, will play Virginia Tech (25-4), the Metro Conference winner, Nov. 15 at Cole Field House.The 16-team preseason NIT will replace the eight-team postseason tournament, which became obsolete with this year's expansion of the NCAA tournament from 48 to 64 teams.Each game in the tournament, including the quarterfinals on Nov. 17, the semifinals on Nov. 20 and the championship game on Nov. 22, will take place at home sites, which will be determined in later rounds by attendance.

To answer your question, no, it is not too much to ask a team that has won a national championship to reach the NCAA tournament in more than half of the next six seasons. That is Gary Williams' fault. He raised that bar. Without 2002, or the Final Four in 2001, he would have much more reasonable expectations to live with. That's what separates the disappointments of Ralph Friedgen's Terps football program from those of Williams' men's basketball program. Friedgen actually buys himself some slack for not taking them into Florida State territory.

It may be of little consolation for Maryland basketball fans who watched the men's team stumble and bumble its way to the finish line and play its way out of the NCAA tournament, but two-time defending national champion Florida was just as sorry down the stretch. The Gators lost eight of their final 11 and received the same consolation prize as the Terps, a berth in the National Invitation Tournament.

Haven't we seen this movie before? Early March. Maryland sitting on 18 wins with two regular-season games left. That's the picture right now, and it happened to be the situation a year ago, when the Terps whiffed on their final two and then were bounced in the first round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, resulting in a snub by the Big Dance and an invitation to the bridesmaid's ball, the National Invitation Tournament. So what will it take to convince the NCAA tournament selectors this time?

To answer your question, no, it is not too much to ask a team that has won a national championship to reach the NCAA tournament in more than half of the next six seasons. That is Gary Williams' fault. He raised that bar. Without 2002, or the Final Four in 2001, he would have much more reasonable expectations to live with. That's what separates the disappointments of Ralph Friedgen's Terps football program from those of Williams' men's basketball program. Friedgen actually buys himself some slack for not taking them into Florida State territory.

MINNEAPOLIS -- While the National Invitation Tournament is a losing proposition financially for teams such as Maryland that are sent on the road, the Terrapins got something in return during Tuesday's victory over Minnesota in the opening round at Williams Arena. Maryland gained the satisfaction that comes with winning, something the Terps hadn't experienced since a visit to Wake Forest three weeks ago. The team's freshmen also gained more experience in the 68-58 win, and they'll likely get more when Maryland (19-14)

It may be of little consolation for Maryland basketball fans who watched the men's team stumble and bumble its way to the finish line and play its way out of the NCAA tournament, but two-time defending national champion Florida was just as sorry down the stretch. The Gators lost eight of their final 11 and received the same consolation prize as the Terps, a berth in the National Invitation Tournament.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- As the Maryland players sat around their quiet dressing room at Charlotte Bobcats Arena, Thursday night's disheartening 71-68 loss to Boston College in the opening round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament turned into Friday morning's disturbing reality for most members of a team bound for the National Invitation Tournament. With the exception of senior center Bambale Osby, who doesn't want his career as a Terp to end just yet, the NCAA's consolation tournament might stand for Nominal Interest There.

College basketball's postseason landscape shifted yesterday with the introduction of a 16-team men's tournament that will compete with the National Invitation Tournament for teams left out of the NCAA tournament's 65-team field. The new tournament, called the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), raises the possibility that schools could have to decide in March between competing bids from the NIT and CBI. Except for the championship round, it will be a single-elimination tournament played at campus sites.

They've spent the past two seasons as the most successful Division I basketball programs in the state, but Coppin State and Towson State never got to test their skills against each other. Next season, that will change.Mark the afternoon of Dec. 12 as the date Coppin will make the brief trip north to play Towson at the Towson Center. The game, which recently was agreed to by Coppin coach Fang Mitchell and Towson coach Terry Truax, will be the first of a home-and-home series. The Tigers will travel to the Coppin Center during the 1993-94 season.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Maryland coach Gary Williams and freshman guard Greivis Vasquez - perhaps the two most parallel personalities within the program - handled the Terps' loss to Butler in the second round of the NCAA tournament in a similarly frustrated fashion. Neither will be able to let it go anytime soon. "It's something that I'm going to watch all year," Vasquez said. "I'm going to go farther next year. "I'm the type of guy, I want something better than this," he said. "People are going to say we had a great season, the freshmen did pretty good, put the team in the tournament.

COLLEGE PARK-- --Five years after coaching Maryland to the national championship, not much has changed for - or about - Gary Williams. At 62, he still can be combative and thin-skinned, and he usually is at his best when things appear at their worst. A little more than a month ago, his Terrapins were 3-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and seemed destined for their third straight appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. Williams was once again being skewered on radio talk shows and Internet message boards.