VESTAL, N.Y. — No one can blame Marques Johnson for what transpired during the final seconds of the BU men’s basketball team’s 64-61 loss to the University of Vermont. At the foul line with a chance to tie the game with 9.5 seconds remaining, Johnson did his best to become the hero that the Terriers desperately needed.

But he never should have been in that situation in the first place. And when the second of his two free throws bounced harmlessly off the rim and into the hands of Vermont’s Ryan Schneider, it provided a fitting end to a season that never quite felt right.

“We’ve been disjointed all year,” said BU coach Dennis Wolff. “We’ve had injuries, suspensions, and it’s not an easy thing in college basketball, or anywhere, to not have consistency — and we really haven’t had that.”

And while Johnson has shown flashes of being a brilliant shooter and a creative ball-handler — and has been rewarded with more playing time down the stretch — the fact remains that in a perfect world the freshman wouldn’t have been on the court at all. Johnson had attempted just two free throws on the entire season before he stepped to the stripe with the Terriers’ season on the line, and he was averaging only 1.5 points in a little over 10 minutes per game on the year.

But the freshman’s presence on the line was a glaring testament to just how strained the Terrier roster has been all season long.

The woes started before the season began, when freshman Tyler Morris — a recruit that Wolff said he considered to be just as talented as rookie sensation Corey Hassan — went down with an ankle injury in a preseason practice.

Morris was joined on the injury list by sophomore Matt Wolff about a month later, while freshman Ben Coblyn was hurt for much of the first half of the season. Add in a midseason suspension to sophomore forward Tony Gaffney and two late suspensions to freshmen Ibrahim Konate and Brendan Sullivan, and the Terriers were never able to put together a consistent lineup on which they could rely.

Yet the loss of so many players did much more than simply put a strain on the Terriers’ normal rotation. It forced players such as Hassan, Kevin Gardner and Shaun Wynn to perform in a way that they were either not yet ready, or simply unable, to perform. And for most of the season, it showed.

Take Wynn for instance. The senior co-captain had a breakout year his sophomore season, averaging 8.2 points per game while playing the phenomenal defense that has been his calling card throughout his career.

But this season Wynn was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. And though he excelled in his role as a leader he was asked to do more than that: to become a go-to scorer for a team that had lost its three leading scorers from a year ago. Wynn has never been a go-to scorer in college and didn’t take to the role, so despite continuing to dish out assists, play solid defense and do all the other little things that made him a preseason All-Conference selection, his 7.8 points per contest looked like a disappointment on paper.

“Shaun is a very honest, hard-working player, and I think we asked him to do more this year than he’s done in the past,” Wolff said. “When he was a sophomore and we had a lot of other guys that was a good spot for him, and now he’s got to kind of change his role, and sometimes for guys that’s a little bit harder.”

That shift was easier for Gardner, who led the team with 14.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per game despite averaging only 4.4 points and 4.1 rebounds previously in his career.

“Kevin Gardner has had, and I think everybody saw it again today … the biggest first-year to last-year improvement of any player I’ve coached,” Wolff said.

Yet with no support behind him, Gardner could only do so much, as the team’s entire scoring load was thrust upon him and Hassan. And though the two should be lauded for combining for almost half (43.6 percent) of BU’s offensive output on the year, there were times — especially early in the season — when their struggles were apparent.

But for the Terriers, it was a situation that could not have been avoided. Injuries took their toll, and young players such as Hassan, who will undoubtedly become a phenomenal scorer in the next three years, were not always ready to take their place.

Meanwhile, Wolff should be lauded not only for helping both the old and young players mature so rapidly in such a short period of time, but for not shying away from suspending players despite its implication on an already shorthanded team.

And though this season ended in disappointment, in retrospect it could be considered a success. If these Terriers go on to win a league title in the next three years, the foundation for it will be traceable back to this season, and, more specifically, back to Gardner and Wynn.

“I knew that if we lost today it would be KG’s and Shaun’s last game,” Hassan said. “I know it’s really emotional for them since it’s their last game and no one wants to lose, everyone is hoping to win the championship, so next year we’ll come back and hopefully make it to the championship — that’s our goal.”