PROVO — Kyle Collinsworth walked out of the Marriott Center after Senior Night — his senior night — a little unhappy.

A controversial 71-68 loss to Gonzaga will do that to a lot of people.

It’s not often that life hands you a do-over, but in Collinsworth’s case, he got it just two weeks later.

BYU men’s basketball team ended its home season Tuesday night with an 88-82 win over Creighton, advancing to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the second time in four years.

But Collinsworth, who was suffering from the flu and not made available to the media after the game, wasn’t thinking about that. Instead, the senior, who prepped at Provo High and set rebounding, assists and triple-double records at BYU, walked over to the BYU bench and sat down, soaking in the atmosphere of his home court the past four years.

One last time.

“This was better than Senior Night, as far as leaving was concerned,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “There was great energy in the building, and the guys felt a real support. Tonight was fun. I saw those three seniors with big smiles on their faces, joking around and looking forward to the next game. It’s a better way to finish your career.”

BYU’s season did not end with a trip to the NCAA tournament. It did not end with a conference championship, a tournament title, or a matchup against one of the Power 5 teams or one of college basketball’s blue-blood programs.

But maybe — just maybe, if the Cougars can get past Valparaiso in the NIT semifinals Tuesday at 5 p.m. MT — BYU can end its season with a championship. The winner will face the winner of George Washington and San Diego State in next Thursday's NIT championship.

“We are very excited. Most of us have never been (to New York), so that was our motivation,” said freshman Zac Seljaas, just a year removed from leading Bountiful High to back-to-back Class 4A state titles. “We’re excited to go to the NIT final four and keep playing. We had a disappointing loss in the (WCC) tournament, and now we’re in this and we want to keep going as far as we can.”

The Cougars are one of four teams still eligible for an NIT championship — an annual designation cheekily referred to as “the 69th best team in the nation,” even if that isn’t always the case, depending on the NCAA selection committee.

The Cougars wouldn’t still be alive if it weren’t for BYU’s young cubs stepping up at the right time. Seljaas scored a team-high 19 points on five 3-pointers Tuesday night in the first start of his career, stepping in for the ailing Collinsworth, who retreated to his man-cave after a 10-point, five-rebound, four-assist effort.

Likewise, Kyle Davis — who is likely to be the only senior on the team next year — showed the leadership and maturity that will be necessary in 2016-17 if the Cougars want to dethrone perennial powers Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s from the top of the West Coast Conference.

For one night in the Marriott Center, BYU and its near-sellout crowd of 15,525 caught a glimpse of the future — even as it took the time to celebrate its past.

“Every season, we get started and we get them together. We want them to have a special experience, and that experience is all predetermined by the fans, the media — you need to get to the NCAA tournament or win a national championship,” Rose said. “But there are so many other experiences you go through to make a season special.”

This year’s BYU team started in Spain, where it played three games against semi-pro and professional competition in Europe. They went as far away as Hawaii, where they went 2-1 but lost the only game many remember from the trip. The journey took the Cougars to Boulder, Colorado; Spokane, Washington; Malibu, California; and finally to Las Vegas, where their dreams of making the NCAA tournament officially ended.

“We want to go to New York and make the most of this opportunity,” Davis said. “Everything combined, and it made the whole team play really well.”

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The NIT isn't a big deal, but winning still feels good to final four-bound Cougars

No matter the spin, this much is true for college basketball: A deep run in the NIT, even to the point of winning the championship, is never better than making the NCAA tournament. <br> After beating Creighton, having qualified for the NIT final four in New York, the BYU Cougars still did not achieve their first priority. With a program of BYU’s stature, the goal every year is to make the NCAA tournament and anything less is a disappointment.

Life doesn’t always give you a second chance. But the second chance affords the Cougars by an NIT invitation is one they want to seize.

Fans, too, have taken notice.

“As much as they embraced the tournament, I think they’ve really embraced this team,” Rose said of the fans. “This group has so many side stories to it, and it’s been a really interesting group to coach. To know that you’ve got your team six months into the season, and these guys are still competing, still cheering for each other — and as a coach, that’s a great feeling.

“It’s a long season and a lot goes on. We all get on each other’s nerves. But right now, those guys are dialed in.”

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