NEW YORK (AP) — In the lengthy and storied historical past of New York City basketball, no person wore it fairly like Lou Carnesecca.
The excitable St. John’s coach whose outlandish sweaters turned an emblem of his crew’s rousing Final Four run in 1985, died at 99 on Saturday, only a few weeks shy of his one centesimal birthday.
The college stated it was notified by a member of the family that Carnesecca died in a hospital, surrounded by family members. St. John’s stated the Hall of Fame coach “endeared himself to generations of New Yorkers along with his wit and heat.”
FILE – Lou Carnesecca coaches his St. John’s crew from the sidelines throughout their recreation towards Niagara in New York, on Nov. 23, 1991. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
Carnesecca was a treasured metropolis sports activities determine in his day, affection for “Little Looie” by no means wavering in a bustling city with scant persistence for its gamers, coaches, executives and homeowners.
He coached St. John’s for twenty-four seasons over two stints — making a postseason event every year — and have become the face of a college whose campus area in Queens would finally carry his identify. A statue of him was unveiled earlier than the 2021-22 season. When requested as soon as in a question-and-answer session with the varsity to explain St. John’s, Carnesecca stated: “house.”
It was house the place he coached St. John’s to 18 seasons of no less than 20 wins, and 18 NCAA Tournament appearances. It was house the place he completed with a 526-200 report and had 30-win seasons in 1985 and 1986. And it was house the place St. John’s turned a constitution member of the Big East Conference and a pillar of its success.
He was the coach of the yr 3 times in a league that started play in 1979 and rapidly asserted itself as one of many nation’s greatest. Among his star gamers throughout these early Big East years have been Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Walter Berry.
Carnesecca coached St. John’s to its fifth NIT title in 1989, though by then the event had lengthy been a poor cousin to the NCAAs. He entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, the yr he retired.
“I by no means scored a basket,” he stated at his induction, forgoing a sweater for a crisp swimsuit. “The gamers did every thing. Without gamers, you possibly can’t have a recreation.”
FILE – Former St. John’s head coach Lou Carnesecca speaks to the media after Rick Pitino was launched as St. John’s new basketball coach throughout an NCAA school basketball information convention at Madison Square Garden in New York, on March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Corey Sipkin, File)
He was an old-school coach, grounded in fundamentals. And by all of it, Carnesecca was a swirling, kinetic presence on the sidelines, arms flailing, legs kicking, shirt tails flying, all 5-foot-6 of him curled in exasperation over a missed shot or agonizing name. But his antics by no means crossed the road into chair-throwing fury.
Carnesecca was merely consumed by his gamers, a love for a recreation in his marrow, a lifetime spent in schoolyards, beat-up gyms and big-time arenas. He cherished the “odor of the sweat” and the “really feel of rubber burning” when sneakers met a varnished ground.
He remained the consummate gentleman in a sport populated by outsized egos, fierce recruiting wars and a relentless pursuit of the following contract. Mike Tranghese, a former Big East commissioner, as soon as known as him “our soul and our conscience” and “one of many giants of the sport.”
Carnesecca guided St. John’s to Big East Tournament titles in 1983 and 1986. His groups reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 1979 and 1991, and spent greater than 70 weeks ranked within the prime 10 of the AP Top 25. A banner denoting his 526 wins at St. John’s hangs from the rafters at Madison Square Garden.
FILE – Former St. John’s males’s basketball coach Lou Carnesecca smiles throughout a information convention to announce the hiring of his former participant and retired NBA basketball All-Star Chris Mullin, on April 1, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
He coached greater than 40 NBA draft picks, with Mullin, Jackson and Malik Sealy amongst 11 who have been chosen within the first spherical.
Despite all that, Carnesecca by no means took himself too famously. He all the time believed a tough loss ought to by no means get in the way in which of a glass of Chianti and fettuccini with a Bolognese sauce. He held clinics everywhere in the world, making buddies, providing toasts wherever he went. He was there with a form phrase in addition to a wisecrack in his breathy, raspy voice. His household tree could have gone again to Tuscany, however he may maintain his personal with the perfect of Borscht Belt comics.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone else in teaching like him,” longtime UConn coach Jim Calhoun as soon as advised the Hartford Courant. “Even if folks hate the Big East no person hates Looie. If you want basketball, you want Looie. If you want youngsters, you want Looie.”
Luigi P. Carnesecca was born on Jan. 5, 1925, the son of Italian immigrants. He grew up in Manhattan, in East Harlem, dwelling above the grocery retailer and deli owned by his father. He took his heritage significantly, rooting for such New York Yankees as Tony Lazzeri and Joe DiMaggio.
After a stretch within the Coast Guard throughout World War II, he turned the coach at his highschool — now the longtime basketball energy Archbishop Molloy. In 1958, he took an assistant’s job at St. John’s, his alma mater, the place he had performed baseball on a crew that reached the 1949 College World Series, however not varsity basketball.
He labored for eight seasons below Joe Lapchick, the teachings about humility and laborious work from the Hall of Fame coach lasting a lifetime. Carnesecca would later cross alongside to Mullin some recommendation he bought from Lapchick: “A peacock as we speak, a feather duster tomorrow.”
“I realized extra when Coach Lapchick cleared his throat than I may have at any clinic,” Carnesecca stated.
He succeeded Lapchick in 1965, the 20-win seasons piling up rapidly. But after 5 years, Carnesecca was not resistant to the siren music of the professionals. He coached the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association for 3 years, Rick Barry amongst his gamers.
Years later, throughout a 1982-83 season by which his St. John’s crew would end 28-5, Carnesecca mirrored on the stress of faculty teaching and his time within the ABA.
“I misplaced 50 video games teaching professionally — that was stress,” he stated. “I didn’t really feel like getting away from bed. My mom may coach this crew.”
His keep within the execs didn’t final lengthy. Carnesecca knew that was not his pure habitat. He stated he may give the identical halftime speech solely so many instances. He returned to St. John’s in 1973.
Winning seasons adopted in fast succession despite the fact that his metropolis was now not the recruiting magnet of generations previous. Top highschool gamers migrated south and west to campuses with gleaming arenas and didn’t want the industrial pull of New York to burnish their model.
When requested why he didn’t broaden his base in his search of gamers and enterprise past his metropolis’s 5 boroughs, Carnesecca knew he had loads of expertise in his neighborhood. He took a subway token — now a relic from bygone generations — out of his pocket.
“That’s my recruiting finances,” he stated.
By the 1984-85 season, Carnesecca and St. John’s captivated New York, a throwback to a time when faculties like City College and NYU mattered not solely within the Big Apple however throughout school basketball. The Redmen — their nickname years later modified to the Red Storm — performed powerful, pulsating video games at a packed Madison Square Garden towards Syracuse groups coached by Jim Boeheim, Villanova groups coached by Rollie Massimino and Georgetown groups coached by John Thompson and led by Patrick Ewing.
It was then the saga of The Sweater took maintain. Over the years, Carnesecca would recount his baffling entry into the world of style again and again like an embellished household story.
Essentially, St. John’s was preparing for a street journey to Pittsburgh in January and Carnesecca was below the climate. The constructing could be drafty, and his spouse thought it might be good if he wore a sweater. He discovered one which had been given to him by an Italian basketball coach. It was a brown pullover with broad turquoise stripes. It by no means made it into the pages of GQ.
“It is ugly, isn’t it?” Carnesecca stated.
No matter. Mullin hit a successful shot on the buzzer, and the coach had his fortunate attraction. He caught with the sweater. Along the way in which, St. John’s ended Georgetown’s 29-game successful streak and soared to a No. 1 rating.
But there have been additionally two lopsided losses to Georgetown in the course of the 16-2 run with the sweater — one when a grinning Thompson upstaged his standard rival by carrying a replica onto the court docket at a buzzing Madison Square Garden in what turned often known as “The Sweater Game,” which drew a large tv viewers in February 1985.
His luck exhausted, Carnesecca finally put the pullover away. He then went with a tan, snowflake quantity for the NCAA Tournament. St. John’s defeated Southern, Arkansas and Kentucky earlier than a victory over North Carolina State within the West Regional last despatched Carnesecca to the Final Four.
“When I’m going to my grave,” he stated, “this I’ll bear in mind.”
St. John’s headed to Lexington, Kentucky, together with two Big East compatriots — Georgetown and Villanova — and Memphis. St. John’s caught with Georgetown within the semifinals, down 32-28 at halftime. But the Hoyas pulled away to win 77-59, holding Mullin to eight factors.
“I believe we tried every thing,” Carnesecca stated of Georgetown, which then bought upset by Villanova in one of many sport’s nice championship video games.
After he retired, Carnesecca was succeeded by a parade of coaches at St. John’s, Mullin amongst them. Even into his 90s, some three many years out of teaching, Carnesecca would make his solution to The Garden when the Red Storm have been there. His gait could have been tentative however his thoughts and wit nimble, the gang roaring when the jumbo display panned in on him. The coach was at house.
“It’s going to be very troublesome to place the ball down, however the time has come,” he stated at his retirement when he was 67. “There are two causes, actually. I nonetheless have half of my marbles and I nonetheless have an exquisite style in my mouth about basketball.”
The college stated Carnesecca leaves behind his spouse of 73 years, Mary, in addition to daughter Enes and son-in-law Gerard, a granddaughter, and a niece and nephew along with prolonged household.
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A earlier model of this story corrected Carnesecca’s report at St. John’s.
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Fred Lief, a retired Associated Press sports activities author, was the principal author of this obituary. Former AP Sports Writer Paul Montella contributed to this report.
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