St. John’s basketball misplaced a legend on Saturday with the dying of former coach Lou Carnesecca. He was 99 years outdated.
Carnesecca coached St. John’s for twenty-four seasons. His profession in Queens started together with his first stint from 1965 to 1970, throughout which his groups earned three NCAA event bids as an unbiased. He then left for the ABA’s New York Nets, for whom he was head coach and normal supervisor from 1970-73. The Nets made the postseason in every of his three seasons.
Following the 1972-73 season, Carnesecca returned to St. John’s. The Redmen (now the Red Storm) performed for 3 extra years as an unbiased earlier than competing within the New York-New Jersey 7 convention for the subsequent three seasons. His groups made 4 extra NCAA tournaments throughout that span.
In 1979, St. John’s joined the Big East convention and have become a part of an acclaimed period which included John Thompson at Georgetown, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Villanova’s Rollie Massimino, P.J. Carlesimo at Seton Hall, Boston College’s Gary Williams and Jim Calhoun at UConn.
During his 13 seasons teaching within the Big East, St. John’s received 5 common season convention titles and two convention event championships. Carnesecca additionally earned Big East Coach of the Year honors 3 times.
With Carnesecca on the sideline in his signature sweaters, St. John’s made it to the NCAA event 11 instances and superior to the Final Four in 1985. (Villanova and Georgetown have been additionally within the Final Four that yr.) That 1984-85 squad had six gamers who finally performed within the NBA, together with Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Bill Wennington and Mark Jackson.
Carnesecca retired from teaching after the 1991-92 season, however he maintained an workplace on campus for greater than 30 years as an assistant to the college president. He was additionally a daily presence at St. John’s residence video games. Alumni Hall was finally named Carnesecca Arena. A statue additionally pays tribute to him there.
In his 24 seasons (none with a shedding report), Carnesecca compiled a report of 526-200. After his retirement, Carnesecca was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. A banner together with his identify and win whole hangs in Madison Square Garden, the place St. John’s performed a lot of its residence video games.
