IT ALL ENDS HERE

All season long, members of the Terrapin men's basketball team confidently asserted that, one way or another, they would find a way into the NCAA Tournament. Last night, though, the Terps learned that not even the postseason's second-tier tournament wanted them.

For the first time in nearly two decades, Selection Sunday went by without a mention of the Terps, who were passed over by both the NCAA Tournament and NIT — a shocking development for the 2002 national champions and 2010 ACC regular-season co-champions.

With their season officially over — the Terps turned down an invitation to the CBI last night — an ACC-best streak of 17 consecutive postseason appearances finally came to an end.

"After 19 wins and beating Penn State, Florida State and Clemson, it's disappointing that we're not at least in the NIT," coach Gary Williams said last night in a release. "We played right with Duke for 35 minutes and got a win in the ACC Tournament; it's kind of surprising we weren't selected."

The team had forsaken any hopes of making the NCAA Tournament after its loss to Duke in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals Friday night, presuming its likely destination was the NIT.

The tournament's selection committee, though, disagreed. With only 18 at-large spots available after 14 teams had automatically qualified following regular-season conference championships, the Terps were squeezed out from contention in favor of teams such as Northwestern and Mississippi.

"We had a very hard at-large pool," NIT committee chair C.M. Newton said on ESPNU last night, "and we got very selective."

An NIT invitation would have assured the Terps' spot in March's runner-up tournament for the fourth time in seven years, affording the team's younger players at least one more game of development.

But with last night's snubbing, this year's team likely will be remembered for an even more dubious accomplishment: missing the postseason altogether. The Terps last had to consider such a fate in 1993, when they finished 12-16 overall and 2-14 in the ACC in Williams' fourth season at the helm. Even with an improved record, though, postseason participation then would have been impossible: The program was barred from postseason play for two years due to self-imposed sanctions following infractions by former coach Bob Wade.

This year, for the first time since those sanctions were imposed, Williams' season will have ended at the ACC Tournament.

"We worked very hard to get to where we were with 19 wins this year," said Williams, who will begin his 23rd season next year. "We're looking forward to the start of next season."

ceckard@umdbk.com