Storm goes for No. 20 on Senior Night

If ever a Senior Night figured to amount to more than a quaint cliché, it's the celebration planned Saturday night at Carnesecca Arena for the group of 10 St. John's senior players and four student managers who will take their final bows in front of friends, family and - in marked contrast to recent seasons - a full house.

It's no small footnote that the No. 15 Red Storm (19-10, 11-6 Big East) will be going for its 20th win against South Florida (9-21, 3-14) before heading into the conference tournament and most assuredly the school's first NCAA Tournament bid since 2002. Add in the fact it is coming off a loss to Seton Hall, and St. John's figures to be one fired-up team.

"This is a big night for all of us," guard Paris Horne said Friday after practice. "We're not looking ahead to the tournament because you could easily lose that big Senior Night. That would hurt us a lot. We want to get back on the winning track. From us being freshmen, there has been a lot of sweat, blood and tears into this building on the floor at Carnesecca. So it's a special night for us."

When former coach Norm Roberts saw his six-year run end after last season, it almost seemed as if the entire program was going back to square one when Steve Lavin was hired after a seven-year hiatus from coaching. This season could have been an afterthought as he prepared the way for a whole new group of freshmen next season, but it has turned into a passionate revival.

Ask St. John's seniors to recall the lows they survived, and it seems all the losing simply blurs into a ball of frustration that has been set free by the successes they have achieved this season. As if to bury the past, the seniors asked to wear the black uniforms in which they are 0-5 for their final on-campus appearance. That's just one more wrong they plan to right.

"It shows how far we've come," forward Sean Evans said. "If we wouldn't have had such a great season we're having so far, who knows how our Senior Night would turn out, how many people would come, if it would even have the same emotion? It might be just like another game, but knowing these seniors stuck together through the thick and the thin and we overcame a lot of things, it's going to make Senior Night even more special."