Long-time St. John’s University men’s basketball coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Lou Carnesecca has died at the age of 99, the Queens school announced.
Carnesecca coached the Red Storm for 24 years, leading the program during its golden era in the mid-1980s.
He amassed a 526-200 record, winning at least 20 games 18 times with a career winning percentage of .725. St. John’s was ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 for 161 weeks during his career, including more than 70 as one of the top 10 teams in the nation.
Under Carnesecca, St. John’s advanced to the postseason in each of his 24 years in charge, appearing in the NCAA Tournament 18 times. In 1985, the Red Storm advanced to the Final Four before winning the program’s fifth-ever NIT title four years later in 1989.
Carnesecca also guided St. John’s to a pair of Elite Eight appearances in 1979 and 1991. He was named Big East Coach of the Year three times during his career, winning the conference championship in 1983 and 1986.
His coaching career was the masterstroke of a long and storied stay at St. John’s. A native New Yorker, Carnesecca graduated from St. Ann’s Academy in Manhattan (now Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens) and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard during World War II before returning home and enrolling at St. John’s.
He played baseball for the Red Storm, contributing to a team that made the College World Series in 1949. He graduated one year later in 1950.
After spending eight seasons coaching St. Ann’s/Molloy basketball team before joining St. John’s as an assistant under Joe Lapchick in 1958. He won two NIT titles before being named the program’s head coach in 1965.
He took a three-year hiatus, beginning in 1970, to coach the New York Nets of the ABA, where he made the playoffs every year and made the league’s final in 1972.
Carnesecca returned in 1973, where he remained until 1992. He was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame that very same year.
During Carnesecca’s reign, St. John’s produced more than 40 NBA players, most notably Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson.
Per the school, memorial services will be announced when they become available.
