All these years later, even during a pandemic that he considers as dangerous as anything he’s ever faced — and the legendary St. John’s Hall of Fame coach fought in World War II — Lou Carnesecca hasn’t lost his sense of humor.

“I’m locked up,” he said jokingly in a phone interview with The Post. “I have to ask the warden for a pass.”

At the age of 95 and confined to his Queens home — his daughter Enes goes shopping for him and his wife Mary — Carnesecca is doing his best to make the most of a difficult situation. He’s reading a lot and catching up with old players and friends on the phone, while strictly adhering to stay-at-home orders that are in place through May 15.

“Thank God I’m fine. Good,” St. John’s all-time winningest coach with a 526-200 mark across 24 seasons said, when asked for an update on his health. “I’m worried like everybody else, but I’m fine. You got to be lucky, too. This thing is vicious.”

Just the other day, he received a letter from a team manager from the early 1970’s. Marco Baldi, who played for Carnesecca from 1985-88, called him and told him about the hardships he’s seen up close in Italy. His days are filled with reminiscing, recalling fond memories of his long coaching career.

It brightens up his day, at a time when there are mostly dark clouds, the coronavirus wreaking havoc on his city. Carnesecca expressed hope the world can get a handle on this virus that has yet to slow down. He feels fortunate, to have so many people in his life who are concerned about him, and to be in good health himself.

“Hey, they were a part of my life,” he said of his hundreds of former players. “In those days, they used to stay four years. They didn’t fly the coup after a year or two. You got to know them better. It’s wonderful, really. After all these years we’re still in contact.

“I tell them now that I should’ve played you more. And they agree with me.”

Carnesecca’s coaching career began at the high school level at St. Ann’s Academy (now Archbishop Molloy) in 1950, continued across 24 years at St. John’s and included three seasons at the professional ranks with the New York Nets of the ABA from 1971-73.

He led St. John’s to the 1985 Final Four and reached 15 NCAA Tournaments in his final 17 seasons, producing pros such as Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Bill Wennington, Jayson Williams and Malik Sealy, among many others. Since Carnesecca retired following the 1991-92 season, St. John’s has had a few big years — it reached the Elite Eight in 2000 — but hasn’t been able to recreate the sustained success that marked the Carnesecca era.

“Don’t forget, we got all city guys. I would say 85-90 percent of our guys were local,” he said. “Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, The Bronx. It was different.

“I never had to leave New York. I coached high school, college and pro, and never left New York. That’s a big, big plus. I knew the kids from the JV, I knew the coaches, I knew the area. So that was a big, big advantage.”

Without any games to watch, Carnesecca can’t help but follow the news closely. He’s riveted by the heroes who face the virus every day in local hospitals — “they deserve the accolades,” he said — and what is being done to slow down this terrorizing pandemic. He’s not quite old enough to have lived through the 1918 flu pandemic, but his parents told him horror stories of their experiences with it.

“I’ve been through a few things. The [Great] Depression. World War II. 9/11. President [John F.] Kennedy’s [assassination],” he said. “A lot of things have happened, but this is unbelievable. … This thing is going to go down as probably one of the worst [we’ve ever faced].

“This thing came so sudden, and wacked us, and it’s still wacking us. But I think we’re going to get control. We are trying. We got some pretty good minds working on it. We’re going to crack it.”