Legendary St. John’s head coach Lou Carnesecca passed away this week at 99 years old.
Carnesecca was one of the faces of the original Big East conference and a New York legend. You cannot tell the story of college basketball without speaking about Lou and his big personality, his flamboyant sweaters but most of all his winning ways.
Carnesecca coached St. John’s for 24 seasons, stopping there two different times in his career. He coached St. John’s to 18 seasons of at least 20 wins, and 18 NCAA Tournament appearances. He finished with a 526-200 record and had 30-win seasons in 1985 and 1986.
He won the coach of the year three times and entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, the year he retired.
St. John's dedicated the arena in his name and a statue of him was unveiled before the 2021-22 season.