Hall of Fame college basketball coach Lou Carnesecca, who won more than 500 games and led St. John’s to three Big East titles and a 1985 Final Four appearance, died Saturday at the age of 99.
The school announced the news with a statement Saturday night, saying Carnesecca was surrounded by family when he died.
Replacing another Hall of Famer, longtime St. John’s coach Joe Lapchick, Carnesecca took over the program in 1965 and brought the school to national prominence over two stints.
He initially coached the program from 1965 to 1970, going 104-35 before departing to become head coach of the ABA’s New York Nets. But after three largely successful seasons in the pros (114-38, including a trip to the 1972 ABA finals), Carnesecca returned to St. John’s, where he would stay for 19 more seasons.
Stalking the sidelines in his trademark colorful sweaters, Carnesecca brought his St. John’s teams to the postseason every season, including 18 appearances in the NCAA tourney and an NIT championship in 1989.
“Victories, defeats, they’ll soon be forgotten, but the relationships which you’ve built with the people you come in contact with, good or bad, will last a lifetime,” Carnesecca said in 2021. “The game is important but it’s only a small part of your life.”
His 1985 team, led by future NBA stars Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Bill Wennington and Mark Jackson, went 31-4 but lost to Georgetown and star Patrick Ewing in the national semifinals.
Carnesecca began his coaching career at his high school alma mater, St. Ann’s, before joining St. John’s as an assistant under Lapchick in 1958.
Carnesecca was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, in the same class with three other legendary coaches — Jack Ramsay, Al McGuire and Phil Woolpert.
He averaged 20 wins a season at St. John’s, finishing with a .725 win percentage (526-200).
In 2004, St. John’s honored the man lovingly known as “Looie” by renaming its basketball facility Carnesecca Arena. In 2021, the university added a statue of Carnesecca in the arena’s lobby.
Carnesecca is survived by his wife of 73 years, Mary, as well as his daughter and granddaughter. Memorial services will be announced at a later date, according to the school.
