A loss is a loss, but there's more to this story

It was a perfect script, really. Tufts down by one point to one of the top teams in the nation, 13.6 seconds left, ball in the hands of the conference's best shooter, a clear lane to the basket, and an ideal chance to shock everyone.

It was perfect, all except for the ending.

Because in a perfect world, senior guard Mike McGlynn's shot would have fallen, or the rebound would have bounced left instead of right, or the officials would have seen a foul and sent someone to the line. In a perfect world, David would have beaten Goliath.

Saturday's semifinal against Williams had all of the major features of the Jumbos' season: excitement, intensity, and -- most importantly -- unpredictability.

When Tufts' preseason started with the quitting of three prominent players, some began to raise questions about team chemistry and missing pieces. And when the season began with a slew of injuries to players like junior Eric Mack and freshman Dan Martin, visions of the 2001-2002 season, when the team was hampered by injuries all season long, began to surface.

So it came as somewhat of a surprise when the team that started the season with so many question marks ended the regular season with the third seed in the NESCAC playoffs, hosting a first round game for the first time ever.

It similarly came as somewhat of surprise when the Jumbos dominated Middlebury in that first round game, a team they had lost to not more than a week before.

And so, it was again somewhat of a surprise when Tufts' found itself with a chance to upset the third-best team in the nation on Saturday afternoon.

It was a surprise, of course, to everyone but the players.

"It probably surprised a lot of other people, but it didn't surprise us," senior co-captain Brian Shapiro said. "We were really prepared, whereas last time (against Williams) we only had one day to prepare before the game."

But maybe it shouldn't have been much of a surprise to anyone that the Jumbos stared an upset straight in the eye. After all, they had done it before. On Jan. 31, the team knocked off Amherst, then the eighth-ranked team in the nation.

"I knew we could do it, but would we do it, I wasn't sure," coach Bob Sheldon said. "All week long we told them that they just needed to believe in themselves. Because we matched up well against (Williams). We battled them. What else can you say?"

Because the script ended the way it did, there really is not much else that you can say.

"You want to be close at the end, those are the games you want to play in," McGlynn said. "But a loss is a loss just the same."

In the not so perfect, real world in which we live, a loss, ultimately, cannot be anything more than a loss. The Jumbos' season is over, no matter how close the game was, no matter how the script should have ended.

But, endings aside, nobody on the team would have wanted it to be any different.

"We had a great opportunity and we didn't back down," sophomore Craig Coupe said. "The only thing you can ask of yourself is to give yourself a chance, and we did. The shot just didn't go in. I don't have too many regrets about this game."

Because the truth is that there is no script in a basketball game, and any chance you get you have to give yourself. And if you are going to go down, the only way to do it is to go down swinging.

"If you're going to lose in your last game, this is the way to do it," Shapiro said. "We played the number three team in the country, had the ball with 13 seconds to go, down by one. It's good to have it like that, without actually winning."