ADAMS TWP — On Tuesday, Rob Carmody found himself moping around the house.

Normally, the Mars High School boys basketball coach would be at practice. But on this day, with his team's season over and the WPIAL playoffs just out of reach, he had too much time on his hands.

But all that changed at about 2 p.m. Wednesday when he got a phone call from Mars athletic director Scott Heinauer.

"He asked me if I was sitting down," Carmody said.

For a coach whose season had ended without a playoff berth, those words usually would be ominous. But the next words that fell fromHeinauer's lips brought Carmody and his team out of their melancholy: Mars was in the playoffs.

Valley, the team that had finished ahead of the Planets in Class AAA Section 1, was forced to forfeit its final five games because it used an academically ineligible player.

That vaulted Mars into the fourth and final playoff spot out of that section.

"It's not the way we wanted to get in, but we'll take it," Carmody said. "I feel bad for the kids at Valley, but we've been given an opportunity."

It's a second chance for a Planets team that battled through a difficult schedule.

Mars (12-11) lost to only two nonplayoff teams: Valley and Quad-A Pine-Richland.

The Planets will play Mount Pleasant (9-13) at 8 p.m. Friday at Hempfield High School in a preliminary game. If they win, they will face top-seeded Chartiers Valley Tuesday or Wednesday.

It doesn't matter to Carmody. The Planets live on.

"We are playing with house money," Carmody said. "We have new life."

And so does Steve Cress' career.

The senior spent what he thought was his final game breaking the school record for career points Monday night and was all set to turn in his uniform today.

Instead, he gets to slip it on at least one more time.

"I was speechless," Cress said. "At first, I thought it was a joke."

Even at practice, which was hurriedly put together Wednesday afternoon, the players — and even Carmody — expected Ashton Kutcher to emerge from around a corner to exclaim they had just been "punk'd."

Kutcher never came, so the Planets kept preparing.

Carmody and MountPleasant coach Tom Traynor exchanged game tapes late Wednesday afternoon.

"We're both in the same situation," Carmody said. "They expected to play Valley."

There are rumblings that Mars doesn't deserve this playoff spot.

The Planets were 11-12 overall and 5-7 in the section, but picked up an extra win because of the Valley forfeit.

Cress scoffs at those who think Mars is undeserving.

"I see their point, but we didn't do anything wrong," Cress said. "I feel bad for Valley. People will say we didn't deserve it, but I don't necessarily agree with them."

Mars will spend today preparing for Mount Pleasant while at the same time trying to come to grips with their second chance.

Cress said he believes it will help his team. There is no pressure.

"Ithink it's a lot easier now," he said. "I had a taste of what it was like to come to grips with my career being over. I don't want to go through that again."