He coached St. John’s for twenty-four seasons over two stints — making a postseason match every year — and have become the face of the college.
NEW YORK — Within the lengthy and storied historical past of New York Metropolis basketball, no one wore it fairly like Lou Carnesecca.
The excitable St. John’s coach whose outlandish sweaters turned an emblem of his crew’s rousing Ultimate 4 run in 1985, died at 99 on Saturday, just some weeks shy of his a hundredth birthday.
The college mentioned it was notified by a member of the family that Carnesecca died in a hospital, surrounded by family members. St. John’s mentioned the Corridor of Fame coach “endeared himself to generations of New Yorkers together with his wit and heat.”
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 endurance for its gamers, coaches, executives and house owners.
He coached St. John’s for twenty-four seasons over two stints — making a postseason match 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 college to explain St. John’s, Carnesecca mentioned: “dwelling.”
It was dwelling the place he coached St. John’s to 18 seasons of not less than 20 wins, and 18 NCAA Match appearances. It was dwelling the place he completed with a 526-200 document and had 30-win seasons in 1985 and 1986. And it was dwelling the place St. John’s turned a constitution member of the Huge East Convention and a pillar of its success.
He was the coach of the 12 months thrice in a league that started play in 1979 and rapidly asserted itself as one of many nation’s greatest. Amongst his star gamers throughout these early Huge 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 match had lengthy been a poor cousin to the NCAAs. He entered the Basketball Corridor of Fame in 1992, the 12 months he retired.
“I by no means scored a basket,” he mentioned at his induction, forgoing a sweater for a crisp swimsuit. “The gamers did every little thing. With out gamers, you possibly can’t have a recreation.”
He was an old-school coach, grounded in fundamentals. And thru 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. However 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 liked 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 subsequent contract. Mike Tranghese, a former Huge 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 Huge East Match titles in 1983 and 1986. His groups reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Match in 1979 and 1991, and spent greater than 70 weeks ranked within the prime 10 of the AP High 25. A banner denoting his 526 wins at St. John’s hangs from the rafters at Madison Sq. Backyard.
He coached greater than 40 NBA draft picks, with Mullin, Jackson and Malik Sealy amongst 11 who have been chosen within the first spherical.
Regardless of 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 mates, 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 might maintain his personal with the very best 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 informed the Hartford Courant. “Even when individuals hate the Huge East no one hates Looie. If you happen to like basketball, you want Looie. If you happen to like children, 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, residing 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 Warfare 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 School World Sequence, however not varsity basketball.
He labored for eight seasons underneath Joe Lapchick, the teachings about humility and onerous work from the Corridor 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 might have at any clinic,” Carnesecca mentioned.
He succeeded Lapchick in 1965, the 20-win seasons piling up rapidly. However after 5 years, Carnesecca was not resistant to the siren tune of the professionals. He coached the New York Nets of the American Basketball Affiliation for 3 years, Rick Barry amongst his gamers.
Years later, throughout a 1982-83 season during 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 mentioned. “I didn’t really feel like getting off the bed. My mom might coach this crew.”
His keep within the professionals didn’t final lengthy. Carnesecca knew that was not his pure habitat. He mentioned he might give the identical halftime speech solely so many instances. He returned to St. John’s in 1973.
Successful seasons adopted in fast succession despite the fact that his metropolis was not the recruiting magnet of generations previous. High highschool gamers migrated south and west to campuses with gleaming arenas and didn’t want the business pull of New York to burnish their model.
When requested why he didn’t develop 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 funds,” he mentioned.
By the 1984-85 season, Carnesecca and St. John’s captivated New York, a throwback to a time when faculties like Metropolis School and NYU mattered not solely within the Huge Apple however throughout faculty basketball. The Redmen — their nickname years later modified to the Pink Storm — performed powerful, pulsating video games at a packed Madison Sq. Backyard in opposition to 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 time, Carnesecca would recount his baffling entry into the world of vogue repeatedly like an embellished household story.
Basically, St. John’s was preparing for a highway journey to Pittsburgh in January and Carnesecca was underneath the climate. The constructing could be drafty, and his spouse thought it could 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’s ugly, isn’t it?” Carnesecca mentioned.
Regardless of. Mullin hit a successful shot on the buzzer, and the coach had his fortunate attraction. He caught with the sweater. Alongside the way in which, St. John’s ended Georgetown’s 29-game successful streak and soared to a No. 1 rating.
However there have been additionally two lopsided losses to Georgetown throughout the 16-2 run with the sweater — one when a grinning Thompson upstaged his standard rival by sporting a reproduction onto the courtroom at a buzzing Madison Sq. Backyard in what turned generally known as “The Sweater Recreation,” 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 Match. St. John’s defeated Southern, Arkansas and Kentucky earlier than a victory over North Carolina State within the West Regional ultimate despatched Carnesecca to the Ultimate 4.
“Once I’m going to my grave,” he mentioned, “this I’ll keep in mind.”
St. John’s headed to Lexington, Kentucky, together with two Huge East compatriots — Georgetown and Villanova — and Memphis. St. John’s caught with Georgetown within the semifinals, down 32-28 at halftime. However the Hoyas pulled away to win 77-59, holding Mullin to eight factors.
“I feel we tried every little thing,” Carnesecca mentioned 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 Backyard when the Pink Storm have been there. His gait could have been tentative however his thoughts and wit nimble, the group roaring when the jumbo display screen panned in on him. The coach was at dwelling.
“It’s going to be very troublesome to place the ball down, however the time has come,” he mentioned at his retirement when he was 67. “There are two causes, actually. I nonetheless have half of my marbles and I nonetheless have a beautiful style in my mouth about basketball.”
The varsity mentioned 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.
Fred Lief, a retired Related Press sports activities author, was the principal author of this obituary. Former AP Sports activities Author Paul Montella contributed to this report.
