"Playing in the NCAA Tournament," the sophomore said this week at the ACC Tournament.

But what about having a winning record, or winning 20 games, Vasquez was asked? What about playing in the NIT if you're not chosen for the NCAA Tournament, possibly winning it?

"To play in the NIT is a loss," he said.

If that's the case, if the bar now has been set that high in Division I basketball, there will be more losers than winners in the ACC today. Many observers, including ACC commissioner John Swofford, expect five ACC schools to receive bids to the NCAA Tournament -- North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, Miami and Virginia Tech.

Maryland (18-14) probably will be bypassed. So, too,will Florida State (19-14).

"It's almost sad in a way," ESPN analyst Dick Vitale said. "It's the pressure of the thing. It's such a pressure-cooker.

"If you look at the beauty of the [NCAA] Tournament, the one negative is ... everybody wants instant gratification. And if you're a coach in a major conference and you're not getting into the big tournament, you become -- in the term used in the tournament -- on the bubble as a coach."

While nothing is certain until the selections are announced today, many believe the Hokies played their way into the NCAA field by beating Miami in Friday's ACC quarterfinals. Virginia Tech (19-13) was 9-7 in the league.

"I think what you hope for in a league like ours is that the balance that we have, and the competitiveness top to bottom, is rewarded rather than penalized when it comes to tournament time," Swofford said. "Last year, I think that kind of competitive balance throughout the league was rewarded with seven selections, the most we've ever had."

But as Swofford noted, the NCAA men's basketball committee changes year to year. The nature of the tournament selections, he said, changes.

Swofford also did a little lobbying. The Ratings Percentage Index used by the committee to judge teams, he said, has the ACC as the strongest conference. The ACC had a great winning percentage against nonconference teams, he said, and won the ACC/Big Ten Challenge again.

"There are a lot of things to sell," he said. "But ultimately when the committee members are in that room and breaking it down, they're not looking at leagues per se. They look at individual teams and groupings of teams that look alike."

FSU's Leonard Hamilton may not be on that coaching "bubble" in his sixth season. But if the Seminoles (19-14) are left out of the NCAA Tournament today, Hamilton will be 0-for-6 at FSU.

Hamilton calls the NCAA selection process flawed, saying there's too much "mystery" surrounding what is said and decided in the selection committee war room in Indianapolis. His solution: Double the NCAA field, adding one more round.

"That's the most logical way to take care of this rather than having 10 guys sitting in a room with mysterious criteria that no one really totally understands," he said. "Double the field, and then we're not sitting here with all this scrutiny about what is the criteria, [and] who's been left out.

"The NCAA has not kept pace with the number of quality teams we have [in Division I]. There's a bar set because we're locked in on 64, 65 teams. If you want to eliminate all of the stress, pressure, mystique, what have you, we have to consider adding more teams to the NCAA Tournament. I think that's only fair."

FSU guard Ralph Mims, a senior, said he considers his team worthy of an NCAA bid. It fought through injuries, he said. It made a late-season run.

"All we're asking for is a chance," Mims said.

And if FSU plays in the NIT for a third straight year?

"It will be a letdown," Mims said.

CBS analyst Billy Packer, who played at Wake Forest in the early 1960s, is an "old school" guy. He can recall basketball programs setting different benchmarks through the years.

"There used to be cutoffs where if you had a 20-win season, that was important, and if you were more than .500 in the conference," he said. "Then again, if you set those kinds of goals, maybe that's the best you ever do."

But Packer said Maryland's Vasquez and others set too high a goal if the cutoff for success is being in the NCAA Tournament.

"I think when a college player starts trying to analyze what makes the season, he's missing the reason why he's playing," Packer said. "If you're a college player, your deal should be I'm trying every day to make yourself the best player and take your team as far as it can go.

"And to wait for Selection Sunday to determine if you had a successful season or not would be kind of foolish."