updated 1:33 p.m. ET Feb. 3, 2004

NEW YORK - College basketball programs facing record losing streaks and their worst conference finishes are usually consumed with talk of the coach’s future.

Not St. John’s. Its coach was already fired.

Despite matching the longest losing streak in school history and facing the prospect of failing to make the Big East tournament, St. John’s knows it will have a new coach next season.

Mike Jarvis was fired Dec. 19, six games into his sixth season. Since then the Red Storm have gone 3-9, including seven straight losses that matched the 0-7 record of the 1918-19 team.

All the losses were to Big East teams, leaving the Red Storm (5-13, 0-7) last in the 14-team league. Only 12 schools get to play in the conference tournament in March at Madison Square Garden, St. John’s home court.

With nine games left in the regular season, the fifth winningest program in college basketball will almost certainly finish under .500 for the fifth time since 1994-95. The previous 30 seasons produced 30 winning records and 29 postseason appearances.

With the last three coaches — Brian Mahoney, Fran Fraschilla and Jarvis — all having been fired, and the Big East expanding in 2005-06 to include national powers Cincinnati, Louisville and Marquette, the next hire could be the most significant St. John’s has faced.

“There is that feeling any time you replace a coach, especially with the tradition we have in basketball with the ups and downs of the past few years,” said Dave Wegrzyn, the third-year athletic director in charge of choosing the successor to interim coach Kevin Clark.

“The kids are putting in the effort but just haven’t had the ball bounce their way. I’m excited about the future.”

The seven-game losing streak, which ended with Saturday’s 71-55 victory over UCLA, had three games decided by six points or less.

Clark, who was Jarvis’ assistant, has kept the team that starts a sophomore backcourt competitive in most games. But there haven’t been any quality wins. Nothing like last season when star senior guard Marcus Hatten led the Red Storm to eight league wins, a victory over Duke and an NIT title.

And nothing close to the big wins when such stars as Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Walter Berry were leading St. John’s into NCAA tournaments on a regular basis.

“They have stayed together and you have seen growth all along,” Clark said of his team.

The Red Storm visit No. 7 Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the first of three games remaining against ranked teams. They play No. 6 Connecticut and No. 23 Providence in consecutive home games at the end of February.

Win or lose, Wegrzyn will be the center of attention as the search narrows. He can’t say he has any interest in coaches with other schools because that would be tampering.

“I am on a listening tour,” he said, smiling. “Basically I’m taking all opinions and I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised with the passion of the city and the people who want to see us succeed. That’s been a real silver lining for us at this point.”

Jarvis’ lack of a New York connection was a sore point with many St. John’s fans, especially as high-profile recruits left the area to play elsewhere. St. John’s has always been a real “city” school and when things are going good, the Red Storm are New York’s team.

“The person who is going to direct the men’s basketball program is going to have to be an ambassador for college basketball for New York City, that comes along with coaching at St. John’s University,” he said. “Those are some of the qualities we’re looking for and some I would expect the coach to have.”

Madison Square Garden has always been a big part of the St. John’s program, but could a season as tough as this one make a return a long shot?

“There’s no fear of that at all,” MSG senior vice president Joel Fisher said. “The history and tradition of St. John’s far outweigh one poor year and I have all the confidence in the world they’ll bring the program back to the prominence it had.”

One of the men most associated with that prominence is Hall of Fame coach Lou Carnesecca, who went 526-200 in 24 seasons, all of which ended with a postseason appearance.

Wearing one of his trademark sweaters, Carnesecca was his colorful self when asked about the program’s future.

After a derogatory remark about those who question the program’s future, Carnesecca simply declared: “We’ll be back.”

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