Ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, the house of University of New Orleans basketball coach Monte Towe needs new walls and floors and won’t be livable until the summer.

The once-cozy abode, located off the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, must be completely refurbished – Towe and his wife soon will shop for couches, tables and carpeting, not to mention a full array of electronics.

If you think damage to Towe’s castle, plus his team’s misfortune – a 2-7 record caused in part by season-ending injuries to one of the best players in the country, Bo McCalebb, and starting center Ben Elias – has the former North Carolina State guard hanging his head entering tonight’s UNO-Kansas University contest, think again.

Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse, with a live telecast on ESPN2 (Sunflower Broadband Channel 34). The game will be replayed at 10:30 on Channel 6.

“Next to Lou Gehrig, I am the luckiest guy in the world,” Towe said.

While recognizing the devastation caused by the Category Five storm that barreled Aug. 29 into Louisiana – “I’ve seen a lot of suffering and pain,” Towe said – the coach personally feels grateful.

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His Privateers lived through the disaster and have shown great perseverance in just playing games this season.

“When this first happened, first of all we didn’t know if we’d have a team or not,” Towe said. “We thought the university might close up one year. It became, ‘Now we’re going to have a season, but we need a place to go. It might be first semester or the whole year.’ We had to go somewhere.”

That place was University of Texas at Tyler, where the Privateer players enrolled in classes while also taking online courses from UNO – which canceled classes first semester, but will reopen for business in late January.

“When we first got to Tyler, the kids had no clothes, no bedding. All their stuff was back here (in New Orleans) and wet,” Towe said.

Still, the Privateers’ experience at Tyler was positive. Towe’s team even won two of its three “home” games, all before crowds of fewer than 800 fans.

“It was fine. Everybody was really nice, (but) it seemed we were displaced,” Towe said. “It just wasn’t our people. Our fan base is a solid 1,000. Every now and then one would drive to Tyler and show up and we’d say, ‘Nice to see you.’

“The way it’s worked out – I’m really excited for our seniors. They’re going to get back to New Orleans and play some (real) home games.”

The Privateers’ first game of the 2005-06 season in the Crescent City will be against Tulane on New Year’s Eve. That game was supposed to be played in the Human Performance Center on UNO’s campus, but construction delays have forced the contest to be moved to Alario Center in nearby Westwego, La.

The Privateers will return for good to their campus arena Jan. 12. The players’ dorm won’t be opened until Jan. 26. Until then, the players will reside at a hotel off campus.

“We think we have issues we deal with. Think of the issues they deal with on a daily basis,” KU coach Bill Self said. “It’s disappointing to go through everything they’ve been through. Monte has held the troops together. I’m sure it’s been rough but a character-building six months for them.”

KU’s athletic department stepped up to help, first moving a women’s basketball tournament from New Orleans to Lawrence and sending the UNO women’s program some equipment, shorts and T-shirts, and next getting a men’s game scheduled with the Privateers.

“We wanted to do what we could do to help,” Self said. “Larry Keating (senior associate AD) talked to ESPN and they said if we could get New Orleans on the schedule they’d the game on TV. We had to push back a game (against Northern Arizona) a year to do it.

“This will give them an opportunity to tell their story, hopefully generate more interest. Because the longer you are away from it, other things crop up, and some forget (the disaster occurred). People in that area will need help for many years. We need to make sure we don’t forget, and this is one way to bring attention to it, play New Orleans.”

KU will pay UNO $75,000 guarantee money for playing tonight.

“Monte is a great guy who I’ve known a long time,” Keating said. “After the hurricane and we were finally able to track him down, we said we thought there was a chance we’d be able to help out.”

For that, Towe is extremely grateful.

“I have never heard of a better guarantee than what Kansas is giving up for this game. Thank you to everybody at Kansas,” Towe said.

His players received a spiritual lift during the team’s recent trip to Towe’s home state of Indiana, where the Privateers fell to Purdue, 68-56, on Dec. 17.

Towe took the team to Converse, Ind., located 50 miles from Purdue’s campus in West Lafayette, the day after the game.

During a service at Converse Church of Christ, pastor Rob Schwarze delivered a stirring sermon entitled, “Good News of Great Joy.”

The pastor’s inspirational words, “Fight For Joy,” stood out to the Privateers players, who adopted it as their mantra for the rest of the season.

“The pastor talked about how you have to fight for joy,” Towe said. “Life isn’t going to be a pleasure cruise. It’s going to be a battle every day. He talked about how there will be affliction, and how there will be problems and situations. If you want to be happy, you have to fight for joy, and I think that fits our situation pretty well.”

Towe realizes his team has a fight on its hands against KU (6-4), which has won three straight games.

“They are right there with all those people,” Towe said, comparing the Jayhawks to Mississippi State, LSU, Purdue and Vanderbilt, who all have beaten the Privateers. “They are young, but they are good and young. They are growing up on the fly. We’ve been in some tough arenas already. This could be the best home court in the country.”

Towe comes armed with double-digit scorers in junior guard Wayne Williams and sophomore James Parlow – who average 14.9 and 13.0 points – and a team full of heart.

“We have respect for them, just that they were able to continue to have a season this year,” KU senior Stephen Vinson said. “At the same time, we’ve got to try to beat them. Definitely, there is admiration there.”

The Privateers will accept the good feelings of KU fans, but Towe realizes all the good feelings will end at 6:30 p.m.

“They treat you good until the ball goes up,” Towe said of opposing fans. “It’s the same ol’ deal.”

But not a typical season.

“I’ve been in basketball a long time,” said Towe, who started on N.C. State’s 1974 national-title team. “By far, it’s the most unusual year I’ve experienced. It continues to be unusual and probably will the rest of the season. Every day seems there’s a new issue of some kind.”