Seniors’ final home game can generate huge emotions

It’s the week of the college basketball calendar when emotions can reach an all-time high.

Seniors, some of whom have spent four and five years on their college campus, play on their home floor for the final time. Senior Day (or Night), they call it.

Some schools, like UNO, have moved these festivities to earlier in the season to help stem some of the emotions. However, the emotion of a final home game doesn’t change. Everyone wants to end up a winner in front of their home fans.

Four area schools play their final home game later this week. The Privateers host Southeastern Wednesday night at 7. Twenty-five hours later, Tulane welcomes nationally ranked Cincinnati Uptown. On Saturday, LSU faces Mississippi State at the PMAC at noon, and at 5, it’s a massive Southland Conference showdown as Southeastern plays host to Nicholls.

All Senior Days/Nights are special in their own way, be it the special ceremonies, the interactions with family members who sometime travel extremely long distances for the event, or even the chance for seldom-used players to start in their final home game.

Twenty-five years ago this week, however, it was a Senior Day for the ages at Tulane, the likes of which may never be repeated.

On March 6, 1993, six Green Wave seniors played at Fogelman Arena for the final time. This wasn’t just any senior class, however.

These were the seniors that made a leap of faith to come to New Orleans in 1989 for a re-launched men’s basketball program. After a four-win season as freshmen, they went 15-13 as sophomores before helping take the Green Wave to uncharted waters as juniors – a 22-9 record and the school’s first conference championship and NCAA Tournament berth.

A second NCAA berth was still a week away when the final home game arrived. Tulane had already wrapped up another 20-win season, but came into the game looking to snap a three-game losing skid.

On this Saturday, Anthony Reed, G.J. Hunter, Matt Popp, Carter Nichols, Bret Just and Matt Greene would get the pre-game introductions, framed photos, hugs from family and standing ovations from the usual sellout crowd.

But there was more.

Reed, who would become a four-time All-Metro Conference selection the following week, had his No. 55 jersey retired during the ceremony.

Additionally, in appreciation for what the senior class had accomplished, No. 93 was retired as well.

After all this, there was still a game to play … and even more hoopla to come.

Reed entered the game in third place on the school’s career scoring list, but 21 points shy of Paul Thompson’s all-time record.

With 38 seconds left, on his final shot at Fogelman, Reed swished a short jumper to ascend to the top of the scoring list.

Coach Perry Clark called time out with 15 seconds left to allow Reed to get one final ovation. Reed took the game ball into the stands and presented it to his mother.

“Nothing means more to me,” Reed said after the game, “than making my mom proud. I’ve tried to do it by staying in school and getting my degree. So having my family here … made it great.”

When the clock struck zero, the scoreboard would show the 20th-ranked Green Wave had defeated the Bulls, 91-75. The win was the icing on the cake for a perfect afternoon Uptown.

The confluence of events on that Saturday afternoon will be hard to top, but perhaps we’ll see some similar great memories this week.