Lou Carnesecca dies at 99: Legendary St. John’s basketball coach led Red Storm to 526 wins across 24 seasons

Legendary Hall of Fame St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca died at age 99, the school announced on Saturday. Carnesecca is best known for his time leading the Red Storm, where he guided the program to five Big East regular-season titles across 24 seasons. An alumnus, Carnesecca won 526 games with SJU and took his alma mater to the Final Four in 1985. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

The man lovingly referred to as “Looie” Carnesecca had two separate stints at St. John’s. He helped the program win at least 18 games in five consecutive seasons during his first stint from 1965-70. After guiding St. John’s to a spot in the NIT title game in 1970, Carnesecca left to become the coach of the New York Nets of the ABA.

He coached the Nets for three seasons and compiled a 114-138 record. In Queens, they wanted him back. Thus, he returned in 1973, where his second stint with the Johnnies lasted until 1992, the same year as his Naismith induction. A year later, he was initiated into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

During his time as St. John’s coach, Carnesecca coached future NBA players such as Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Walter Berry and Jayson Williams. Carnesecca compiled eighteen 20-win seasons and posted back-to-back 30-win campaigns in the mid-1980s. St. John’s made the postseason every year Carnesecca ran from the program. In addition to the 1985 Final Four, Carnesecca coached SJU to the Elite Eight in 1979 and 1991. He never suffered a losing season.

In 2004, St. John’s renamed its on-campus basketball venue, then called Alumni Hall, to Carnesecca Arena, putting Looie in the company of Phog Allen, Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith as men to have basketball arenas named after them.

In the 1980s, when the Big East was coming into its own as a national powerhouse of a conference, Carnesecca’s personality shined bright in a league filled with big-name coaches, including John Thompson Jr., Jim Boeheim, P.J. Carlesimo, Rollie Massimino and a young Jim Calhoun.  

Carnesecca is survived by his bride of 73 years, Mary, and a long list of relatives, many of whom are all still in the greater New York City area. Carnesecca’s success was all the more cherished in New York because that’s where he was from. Luigi Carnesecca grew up in Manhattan as the son to parents who owned a deli. As a teenager, he became of a member of the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II. He played baseball in college — including with the 1949 team that made the College World Series — and then Carnesecca coached high school basketball and baseball in New York City before joining St. John’s staff in 1958. 

Seven years later, the Johnnies’ job was his.

From the school’s official release of his passing: “Carnesecca once said, ‘at St. John’s, it’s all about the players.’ In his four decades coaching at his alma mater, Carnesecca coached more than 40 NBA Draft picks including first rounders LeRoy Ellis (1962), Sonny Dove (1967), John Warren (1969), Mel Davis (1973), George Johnson (1978), Chris Mullin (1985), Bill Wennington (1985), Walter Berry (1986), Mark Jackson (1987), Jayson Williams (1990) and Malik Sealy (1992). Carnesecca remained an integral part in the lives of his former players, as his annual reunions drew hundreds of them to Queens.”

In college basketball, he was long adored for his amenable personality and constant championing of the sport. His quips were a gift to the sports scribes who covered him. He was known to occasionally wear garish sweaters, which became a trademark over time, so much to the point that Thompson famously once showed up to a game wearing the same “lucky” chevron-patterned sweater as Carnesecca. And not just any game: No. 1 St. John’s vs. No. 2 Georgetown on Feb. 27, 1985.

The two men were as alike as they were dissimilar, which is what made the moment iconic. 

In a city with deep basketball pride and tradition, Carnesecca has long been regarded among the greats. He was often around the program and could be spotted at St. John’s games, even as recently as this Rick Pitino era. 

His importance is represented, and will be always be, by having his name in the rafters at Madison Square Garden. His 526 wins are immortalized on a banner in the World’s Most Famous Arena. It’s only fitting that St. John’s has two hosts for its home games: one named after Looie and the other forever associated with him for what he did and how he grew the Big East in that building in the apex of his career. St. John’s plays a majority of its home games at MSG not because it’s a Big East team based in Queens, but because it became a Big East powerhouse under Lou Carnesecca. The embers of those 1980s glory days are still what drives the program four decades later.