It never happened.

Can you believe that? In my four years at Boston University, the basketball team never once made the NCAA tournament.

I think there’s a part of me that will always be angry at Terrier basketball for not giving me that one chance to root for my home school in the NCAA tournament.

However, lucky for the rest of you, it’s a virtual guarantee that because I suffered through four years of near-continual disappointment and angst, the Terriers will arrive at the Big Dance next year.

And it’s not just because I have bad luck with my favorite sports teams.

There are — believe it or not — positives to take from this season.

This is a young team with a strong nucleus. You can see it when the team’s out there — Corey Lowe, Tyler Morris and Carlos Strong are freshmen with incredibly high ceilings.

I’m not the world’s biggest Scott Brittain fan yet, but he shows flashes of rebounding and scoring.

To make a long story short, this team has a very good chance to be much better next year than they were this year. So if you’re not like me and you’re going to be attending BU next year, you can be optimistic.

But if there’s one thing I can take from this up-and-down basketball campaign, it’s that I can refocus my rooting efforts. The truth is when the two colliding Terrier sports powerhouses (hockey and men’s basketball) collide, it’s hard to know where to focus your Boston brainwaves.

If the Boston Five were to fall in the tournament chase early, it’s good they did it now. The fact is I don’t really know how I could have concentrated on the Hockey East playoffs if I had to deal with our basketball team’s championship game in Vermont.

Plus, I had to think of the emotional investment I would have had in the team had we won the America East. I mean, after all, I’m going to be on my way to Jamaica next Sunday.

And the last thing I want to have to remember (other than anything at all) is what time the Terriers are playing in the NCAA tournament.

So at least I can now concentrate my mental efforts on the team that actually could win the national championship.

On that note, I’m not really a big fan of our first-round matchup against the University of Vermont. After the way we played against them last time, it seems like a tough draw.

It’s almost as if I wish we’d play a better team. For whatever reason, the scarlet and white have a tendency to play to the level of their competition — and I’d much rather have that competition be a team like Boston College.

But anyway, like it or not, these playoffs are hugely indicative of how our team will perform down the road to the Frozen Four.

At the end of the season, it’s always important to have momentum going into the Big Dance on ice. With a team like ours that’s tied so many games, that winning feeling needs to become embedded in the team’s style of play.

Particularly with the way the Terriers have played in their last two games, the Hockey East championship becomes even more vital.

Losses to the Catamounts at home and Northeastern University on the road represent a downward trend for the Terriers, who should have yoinked the momentum from the Beanpot victory and ridden the success train all the way to No. 1.

Apparently, my logic just hasn’t played out.

I know many of you might be questioning my emphasis on this tournament. After all, last year’s team won the Hockey East only to be crushed by the monsters from BC.

Last year’s team, however, was much different than this year’s. This year’s team has a lot of the same talent, but an improved Johnny Curry between the pipes and a little less goal-scoring power.

What we do have, though, is a great defense. And that, as the old sports adage goes, wins championships.

A good defense is always an inherent quality. Thus, the Hockey East tournament gives us an opportunity to pull our offense together for the Big Show.

So look at this upcoming weekend as a preview of things to come. If the offense starts clicking and Curry and his defense continue to hold opponents to low scores, you might be looking at the future national champions.

Of course, it might be that none of this comes true and we just get crushed by Vermont.

At least I’ll be on Spring Break.

Anthony Flum, a senior in the College of Communication, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].