St. John’s basketball lost a legend Saturday with the death of former coach Lou Carnesecca. He was 99 years old.
Carnesecca coached St. John’s for 24 seasons. His career at Queens began with his first stint from 1965 to 1970, during which his team earned three NCAA tournament bids as an independent. He then left for the New York Nets of the ABA, for whom he was head coach and general manager from 1970 to 1973. The Nets made the postseason in each of his three seasons.
After the 1972-73 season, Carnesecca returned to St. John’s. The Redmen (now the Red Storm) played as an independent for three more years before joining the New York-New Jersey 7 Conference for the next three seasons. His teams played in four more NCAA tournaments during that period.
In 1979, St. John’s joined the Big East conference and became part of an acclaimed era that included John Thompson at Georgetown, Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, Rollie Massimino of Villanova, P.J. Carlesimo at Seton Hall, Gary Williams of Boston College and Jim Calhoun at UConn.
During his 13 seasons coaching in the Big East, St. John’s won five regular season conference titles and two conference tournament championships. Carnesecca also earned Big East Coach of the Year honors three times.
With Carnesecca on the sidelines in his signature jerseys, the Redmen made the NCAA tournament 11 times and advanced to the Final Four in 1985. (Villanova and Georgetown were also in the Final Four that year.) That 1984-85 team included six players who eventually played in the NBA, including Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Bill Wennington and Mark Jackson.
Carnesecca retired from coaching after the 1991-92 season but maintained an office on campus as an assistant to the university president for more than 30 years. He was also a regular at St. John’s home games, where Alumni Hall was eventually renamed Carnesecca Arena, where a statue pays tribute to him.
In his 24 seasons (none with a losing record), Carnesecca compiled a record of 526-200. After his retirement, Carnesecca was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992. A banner with his name and total wins hangs in Madison Square Garden, where St. John’s played many of its home games.
