St. John’s basketball misplaced a legend Saturday with the passing of former coach Lou Carnesecca. He was 99 years previous.
Carnesecca coached St. John’s for twenty-four seasons. His profession at Queens started together with his first stint from 1965 to 1970, throughout which his groups earned three NCAA event bids as an impartial. He then left for the New York Nets of the ABA, the place he was head coach and normal supervisor from 1970 to 1973. The Nets made the playoffs in every of his three seasons.
After the 1972-73 season, Carnesecca returned to St. John’s. The Redmen (now the Pink Storm) performed for 3 extra years as an impartial earlier than competing within the New York-New Jersey 7 Convention for the following three seasons. His groups appeared in 4 different NCAA tournaments throughout this era.
In 1979, St. John’s joined the Massive East Convention and was a part of an acclaimed period that included John Thompson at Georgetown, Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, Rollie Massimino of Villanova, PJ Carlesimo at Seton Corridor, Gary Williams of Boston School and Jim Calhoun at UConn.
Throughout his 13 seasons teaching within the Massive East, St. John’s gained 5 common season convention titles and two convention event championships. Carnesecca additionally gained Massive East Coach of the Yr 3 times.
With Carnesecca on the sidelines in his signature sweaters, St. John’s made it to the NCAA Event 11 occasions and superior to the Ultimate 4 in 1985. (Villanova and Georgetown have been additionally within the Ultimate 4 that yr .) That 1984-85 group had six gamers who finally performed within the NBA, together with Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Invoice 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 an everyday presence at St. John’s dwelling video games. The alumni corridor was finally named Carnesecca Area. A statue additionally pays tribute to him.
In his 24 seasons (none with a dropping document), Carnesecca compiled a document of 526-200. After his retirement, Carnesecca was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 1992. A banner together with his title and successful complete hangs at Madison Sq. Backyard, the place St. John’s performed a lot of its dwelling video games.
