Among the negative things you could say right now about Virginia coach Pete Gillen, whose team is in the midst of a rather spectacular meltdown, is this: The man is wordy.

After the Cavaliers' most recent loss, 82-80 Saturday to Georgia Tech, Gillen said, "Right now we're having trouble beating good teams."

	It's been a frustrating February for Pete Gillen, Keith Jenifer and the Cavs.

Drop one word, and Gillen would have been right on the money. Right now, the Cavaliers are having trouble beating teams.

Good teams, bad teams, it makes no matter. Virginia can't beat anyone -- the best explanation for why it is headed to the National Invitation Tournament barring the unexpected. Something unexpected like, say, the Cavaliers beating Duke or Maryland this week. The No. 3 Blue Devils come to Charlottesville, Va., on Thursday. Virginia then travels to College Park on Sunday to become Maryland's final victim, er, opponent at soon-to-be-defunct Cole Field House.

Trivia question: Has a team ever been ranked No. 5 in the country in February -- and not made the NCAA Tournament a month later? We don't know and we're not looking it up, but the Cavaliers could do it.

Virginia stumbles into the final week of the regular season having lost seven of its last nine games, a stat that ought to choke the NCAA Tournament selection committee like a chicken bone. The Cavaliers have lost to good teams like Duke, Maryland, N.C. State and Wake Forest -- but they also have lost to bad ones like Clemson and Florida State, then suffered a ridiculous loss Saturday against the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech has improved as much as anyone in the ACC since December, but the game was in Charlottesville, and the Jackets are 13-15 for a reason, that reason being they're not terribly good.

But then, neither is Virginia.

The Cavaliers repeatedly had chances to close out Georgia Tech, but missed all four of their free throws in the final minute. Two of those free throws were the front ends of a one-and-one, including one by 90-percent foul shooter Roger Mason with the Cavs leading by six points with 57.2 seconds left.

The other two misses were by Travis Watson with 18.8 seconds left and the Cavaliers clinging to an 80-79 lead. Watson is a 71.6-percent foul shooter, but he already had missed the front end of a one-and-one in the final minute. Besides, with the Jackets frantically clawing away, did Virginia really want its center handling the ball in the backcourt, with an NCAA Tournament bid in the balance?

According to Gillen, Virginia did not. He said the plan was for Watson to set a pick for Mason, but with Mason double-teamed, Virginia senior Chris Williams inbounded to Watson.

"They didn't do what we said," Gillen said, a brutally honest assessment that surely went over better in the press room than the locker room. "They did it their way."

Having an experienced point guard would have helped, but redshirt sophomore Majestic Mapp was sitting on the sideline for the second straight year with a knee injury. In his place, freshman Keith Jenifer has played admirably for a freshman -- but not good enough for an NCAA Tournament hopeful -- while the bulk of the responsibility has fallen to Mason, a natural shooting guard.

And so Watson found himself with the ball on the inbounds pass, and soon he found himself at the line -- and he missed both foul shots. The Jackets then got the ball to shooting guard Marvin Lewis, whose open 3-pointer from the top of the key was good with one second to play. You can understand why the Cavaliers let Lewis get so open. He had only hit four of his previous five three-pointers.

"Our fault as players," Mason told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "We didn't do our job, I didn't do my job, and that's how I'm looking at it. The coaches can only do so much. We as players have to play, and we didn't execute and we didn't make free throws at the end."

The Cavaliers will get more chances. If they don't beat Duke and/or Maryland this week, though, those chances probably will come in the NIT opener against, say, Richmond.

Games of the Week

Saint Joseph's at St. Bonaventure Thursday: Realistically, only one of these teams has a decent shot at the NCAA Tournament. Like, the winner of this game. Rutgers at Georgetown Saturday Another solid victory -- especially on the road -- would make the Knights that much harder for the NCAA Tournament selection committee to ignore. Boston College at Syracuse Sunday Ditto for the Eagles. Virginia at Maryland Sunday Cavs' last (NCAA Tournament) stand?

BC's bubble
It was a glorious opportunity: a nationally televised game on an otherwise slow night, a Top 25 opponent, with a rowdy crowd for the last home game of the season.

And Boston College blew it.

With the Eagles' uninspiring 75-61 loss Monday to Connecticut, they also cost themselves their last good shot at an NCAA Tournament berth. With an RPI of 49, Boston College still might get in -- but now it surely will have to win Sunday at Syracuse, then make some noise in the Big East tournament.

"We'll find out what we're about," Eagles coach Al Skinner said of the uphill climb facing his team. "I know what we're capable of. Hopefully we can meet those expectations."

They haven't met them for two months. In 15 games since Jan. 5, the Eagles are 6-9 -- the ugly truth behind an otherwise respectable 18-10 record, including a 7-8 mark in the Big East that could drop to 7-9 Sunday. Some years, the Eagles could finish two games below .500 in the league and still get into the NCAA Tournament, as four Big East teams have done before (BC in 1985, Providence in '89, Villanova in '91 and Seton Hall in '94).

But probably not this year. At least five league teams (Pittsburgh, Miami, Connecticut, Notre Dame and Syracuse) are clearly more NCAA-worthy than the Eagles, and two others (St. John's, Rutgers) look to have better resumes right now, too.

The Scarlet Knights (18-9, 8-6; No. 55 RPI) are the anti-Boston College, having won seven of their last nine games -- the losses coming at Notre Dame and at Pittsburgh -- including wins against Connecticut, Notre Dame and Miami.

Boston College, meanwhile, wobbles into a must-win game at Syracuse with a 4-6 mark in its last 10 games. Skinner is putting on a brave front.

"I don't feel at all uneasy about my club," he said.

He may be the only one.

A-10
Despite its sickly ninth-place ranking among all leagues in the conference RPI, Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli swears the Atlantic 10 "won't be a one-bid league" -- even if Xavier gobbles up the league's automatic NCAA Tournament bid as A-10 tourney champion.

If he's right, it could come down to his team's game Thursday at St. Bonaventure. The Hawks and Bonnies look to be the Atlantic 10's best shots at getting a second team, along with Xavier, into the NCAA Tournament.

Some lines on their resumes are nearly identical: Saint Joseph's is 17-9 overall and has an RPI rating of 72. St. Bonaventure is 16-9, with an RPI of 71. But there are differences, and those differences don't clear up matters any.

Saint Joseph's is a healthy 11-3 in league play -- but an anemic 4-6 against top-100 RPI teams with No. 44 Penn as its best victim. St. Bonaventure is only 8-6 in the league, but a more respectable 5-6 against the RPI top 100, including a win against No. 15 Connecticut -- but then lost to Saint Joseph's in January.

To make it as easy as possible for the NCAA Tournament selection committee to take a second A-10 team -- assuming Xavier wins the conference tournament, which is no safe bet -- whoever wins Thursday night at St. Bonaventure needs to build on that by winning a few games in the A-10 tourney, too. That would give whoever it is at least 20 wins and, probably, an RPI in the 60s.

Would that be enough? Tough call.

Around the East