It will be an unusual Senior Day for the UC Bearcats, which befits this most uncommon senior class. UC's Bobby Brannen, D'Juan Baker, Ruben Patterson and Brent Petrus will be acknowledged as they prepare to play their ''final'' home game, and when it's over they'll trust the fans in the Shoemaker Center to return five days later and do it all again.
Those four will play their last regular-season home game when Saint Louis (20-8, 11-4) visits the Shoe this afternoon at 2, with No. 17 UC (22-5, 13-2) attempting to claim an undisputed Conference USA title. But the C-USA tournament - in which the Bearcats are assured of the top seed - will be contested on the same court starting Wednesday.
You say goodbye, and I say hello.
''It's not going to be our last game here,'' Patterson said. ''I know we have three more.''
UC does not have one of those been-here-forever senior classes. Coach Bob Huggins has coached Brannen for 123 games, but Petrus for just 24.
Brannen is the only one of the group recruited to join the Bearcats out of high school - Moeller, in his case. Baker and Patterson came from junior college to fortify the 1996-97 squad. Petrus crossed the hall from the football team to help save this season.
Huggins insists the farewell is no different with players who have been at UC a shorter time. He experiences the same feelings ''without question.''
There rarely is a player who reaches this point without some regret, and not just regarding the fact his college career is approaching a close.
A 6-3 shooting guard from Fort Worth, Tex., Baker would have liked to been more productive as a junior, less pained by knee tendinitis in the last month of his senior season. ''There's always things you regret,'' Baker said, ''but this has been a good season.''
Baker was among the NCAA's leading scorers in the season's first statistical report, after he produced 26 points or more in four of the first five games.
''He absolutely carried us early,'' Huggins said. ''Bake is a great kid - as nice a person, as thoughtful a person as you're ever going to be around.''
It was Patterson, a 6-6 small forward from Cleveland, whose scoring role Baker assumed in those early games. The first half of Patterson's senior season was claimed by an NCAA suspension, and he had to squeeze a whole lot of basketball into the past six weeks.
If only he'd been permitted to concentrate on just that.
Patterson lost his mother to a heart attack just last week and has had to play the past three games while dealing with the shock, pain and logistics of traveling to and from Cleveland to attend Charlene Patterson's funeral.
He said he could not escape the picture of his mother in the casket - ''It hurt so much'' - but has missed as little time as possible with his teammates and was a force in two of their past three victories.
''He's the most resilient person I've ever been around,'' Huggins said. ''There's a guy who's been knocked down so many times. He has matured so much as a person, as a basketball player in the past two years.''
A 6-4 quarterback - shooting guard - wideout - small forward from Elyria, Ohio, Petrus is the polar opposite of Patterson. For all the spectacle Patterson provides, from his 47 turnovers to his 23 dunks, Petrus has been as steady as a basketball player could be, especially one playing competitively for the first time in five years.
For every 26 minutes Petrus plays, he commits one turnover. For every 90 seconds on the floor, it seems, he contributes one extra possession for the Bearcats in the form of a rebound or loose ball he collected.
''He constantly gives you another chance to score,'' Huggins said.
After joining the basketball team to add depth to a team depleted by suspensions, Petrus played 34 minutes of UC's season-making victory over Massachusetts, when the Bearcats were without three starters, and produced six points and five rebounds.
That was Brannen's night, though. He scored a career-high 32 on UMass' huge front line, rescuing the Bearcats from a late six-point deficit to help force overtime.
Brannen has had nine double-doubles and ranks among the top 10 in C-USA in both scoring and rebound. His scoring has dwindled of late as teams focus more defensive attention on him and he plays with pain in his knee, but his senior year has been exactly what he would have wanted.
''I had a good time, got to stay close to home, see my family. I wouldn't have done it any differently,'' Brannen said. ''I heard it from everybody for two or three years, about not shooting enough, not scoring enough. To have a senior year like this is really nice.''
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