Ship kept afloat

Many national pundits pegged Boston College as being dead in the water, its chances of making the NCAA Tournament slim to none, after the midseason dismissals of junior center Sean Williams and junior forward Akida McLain. But senior cocaptains Jared Dudley and Sean Marshall refused to let their final season go by the wayside.

"It was definitely a real up-and-down year, something they probably didn't want for their senior year, but, hey, it happened and they rolled with it," said sophomore guard Tyrese Rice. "They never looked back. They never put their heads down. They always stayed confident in knowing what they had to do for the team."

Dudley and Marshall helped the Eagles (20-11) overcome the distractions and obstacles to finish in three-way tie for third in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 10-6 record.

It was good enough to earn BC its school-record fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, and tomorrow the seventh-seeded Eagles will face 10th-seeded Texas Tech (21-12) in a first-round East Region matchup at 12:30 p.m. in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"We've gone through so much this season on and off the court that it feels good to be in this tournament," Marshall said. "With all the stuff we've had to overcome and all that we've been through, it's a lot of things that I haven't experienced since I've been here."

Now, as the winningest seniors in BC history with 97 wins (surpassing by one the record set last season by Craig Smith and Louis Hinnant), Dudley and Marshall hope to take their games to another level in this one-and-done phase of the season.

"You've got to ratchet it up," said Dudley, the ACC Player of the Year. "Defensively, you got to play every possession like it's your last one. It's your last go-round and you don't want it to end right here because we're more than capable of winning this game."

Asked if he felt any vindication in proving the pundits wrong, Dudley said, "It's always nice, but we always had confidence that we could make the tournament; we've done it every year since I've been here. But you really can't play for them, you've got to play for yourselves and it was one of the goals we had in mind and we accomplished it."

Asked about his impressions of Dudley, Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight told ESPN's "College Gamenight" crew, "I've seen him play a couple of times this season and I told our staff that he has the ability to play inside and out with finesse and strength as well as anyone we've seen." . . . While this is BC coach Al Skinner's first head-to-head meeting with Knight, the winningest Division 1 men's coach, it won't be the first time he has faced a Hall of Famer. Skinner has coached against Temple's John Chaney, Georgetown's John Thompson, Connecticut's Jim Calhoun, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. "There's been a number of guys," Skinner said. "I mean, what it is is a recognition of their success and what they've contributed to the game of basketball." . . . For the second year in a row, CBS will look to the Eagles to help raise the curtain on the NCAA Tournament, scheduling BC as the first game in Winston-Salem. Last year, the Eagles were first to play in Salt Lake City opposite Pacific. "I guess they must like us as an opening act," Skinner said.

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.