A crestfallen Ashanti Cook left the floor of Madison Square Garden two weeks ago, knowing he had cost his team a shot at its first Big East tournament title in a decade.

Cook had the ball stolen away and walked on his team’s final two possessions, letting Syracuse freshman Eric Devendorf win the game on a feed from Gerry McNamara with nine seconds left.

“The Syracuse loss, especially with me having two turnovers, I don’t want to have that feeling again,” Cook says. “I felt like it was my fault.”

Yet for his first time as a Hoya, Cook went to sleep that night – even after bowing out of the conference tourney – knowing that his season would continue. Georgetown would live on to play in the NCAA tournament. He would have a shot at redemption.

“We had a 15-point lead against ‘Cuse, and they came back to beat us. We have to close out games,” he vowed on Selection Sunday. “That’s the key at this time in arch.”

Almost two weeks to the hour after the loss at the Garden, Cook and his teammates will take the court tonight in Minneapolis to show the college basketball world that Georgetown is back in the big leagues and ready to compete.

Sure, it’s been Roy Hibbert receiving the most attention – from opponents and the media. He led the Hoyas in scoring last weekend, putting up 17 and 20 points against Northern Iowa and Ohio State, after averaging just six points a night in three Big East tournament games.

And at 7-foot-2, it was hard to miss the sophomore center practicing among his teammates on Tuesday afternoon.

But it’s Cook who may surprise opponents with his solid defense and his success from the perimeter which, of late, has come at the most opportune moments for Georgetown.

It’s much easier for Cook to hide at practice than Hibbert. After all, Jon Wallace is the only player on the roster who’s not taller than him. (The senior has an inch on Wallace, who is 6-foot-1). Cook stays far from the cameras and the lights lined up along the baseline on the near side of the court. The sports information director has to call him over to talk to the press.

Cook had been sitting under a basket across the gym, talking – and undoubtedly joking around – with his younger teammates. His gait and his wide, sheepish smile are the hallmarks of the Hoyas’ class clown, whose sense of humor and affability won him the respect of teammates, who voted him team captain for the season.

“I really watched Ashanti take on more of a leadership role [at Georgetown] than in high school,” Brandon Bowman, Cook’s teammate at Westchester High School, said before the season. “He’s like a big brother figure on the basketball team.”

Cook and Bowman led Westchester to a state championship in 2002, their senior year. Four years later, they’re making a run at the NCAA championship.

“We have to [step up] in order for us to keep winning,” Cook says of himself and his fellow seniors, Bowman and Darrel Owens.

Then he quips: “You say that the seniors are supposed to lead the way, but we have just as much experience as the sophomores do.”

True, when considering the uncharted waters the program is sailing through right now. And it has a double meaning: It’s also the second year of Georgetown basketball under the motion-based Princeton offense of John Thompson III.

Soon enough, the topic of conversation gets back to the Syracuse game.

“You’re put in those situations to make plays,” Cook reflects, “and I didn’t make any plays during those two times. I just turned the ball over.”

But by this time on Tuesday, Cook has already played an integral role in helping Georgetown to earn it’s first-ever trip to innesota.

Four days prior, he may have come out a little too eager against Northern Iowa, picking up two fouls in the first 11 minutes and watching from the sideline for most of the remainder of the period.

“I picked up those fouls because I was a little too overaggressive on the defensive end,” he said after the game. “I had to sit out and learn from my mistakes in the first half. I pretty much just told myself, `Stay solid, stay in front of guys, and make it difficult. Don’t try and reach.’ That’s just what I did.”

While he may have faltered against the Orange, there’s no doubt he closed out against the Panthers.

He cleaned up his performance in the second half and proved the difference maker in the game, tacking on his team’s final six points. He sank four free throws and dropped in a breakaway dunk to seal the 54-49 victory.

And on Sunday, Cook chalked up 17 points and dished five assists against Ohio State after averaging 9.8 points and 2.4 assists in the regular season. He and Hibbert combined for the team’s first 18 points, giving Georgetown a balanced offensive attack and setting the tone for the rest of the game.

His teammates recognize Cook’s added effort.

“Ever since the Big East tournament, Ashanti’s been picking his game up,” Green says. “He knows it’s his senior year. He’s just leaving it out there on the floor.”

Yet even after all the excitement surrounding the first weekend of NCAA play, there’s still that one thing that’s been haunting the southern California native.

“It left a sour taste in my mouth and it’s still in the back of my mind too,” Cook says, reflecting on the ‘Cuse loss. “I don’t ever want to feel like that again. I just tell myself to go out and play hard every game.

“I tell myself that so I can not have any regrets, so I can look at myself in the mirror and say, `I tried my best.'”

He’ll try his best once more against Florida tonight.