OT: R.I.P. Lou Carnesecca | The Boneyard

OT: R.I.P. Lou Carnesecca

Certainly a legend in the ranks of Big East coaches and college basketball. As a kid, I recall watching those classic Big East battles with St. John's and Coach Lou with his signature sweaters and animated style on the sideline. I recall him as a man of character who truly loved his players and the fans as well. Carnesecca, Massimino, Thompson, Calhoun, Carlesimo, Boeheim...what personalities, a lot of history and lots of wins. Coach Lou was right there rooting for St. John's and in the loop right to the end.
 
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We would be playing them close, the HCC was rocking.....

Lou calls a time out. Play resumes, the HCC resumed it's morgue status

Every single time, and it worked

RIP Louie
 
Louie was a nice guy but I never understood wearing red sweaters in a hot Garden or field house. Rick Majerus a very big guy also wore those hot sweaters, and sweated. Huggy wore suits but eventually went to a track suit.
Good teams but no national championships and the NIT was a big deal for a lot of his career?
 
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Thanks for the memories. A life to be emulated.
 
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RIP Louie. I remember back in ‘85 when Gtown and St John’s were at the top of the polls (they had some memorable battles that season) and the Big East got 3 teams in the FF (Nova upsetting Gtown of course), I was just glad that UConn was playing in the same conference as those teams and hoping we’d be that good someday.

Thank goodness Jim Calhoun came along.
 
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It's crazy to think that at one point the Big East had coaching legends like Thompson, Boeheim, Louie, Calhoun, Pitino roaming the sidelines at the same time with Dave Gavitt overseeing the whole thing. Add in dudes like Rollie, Raftery, PJ Carlesimo, Jim O'Brien and a young Calipari as an assistant. There's like 9 nattys from the above guys, tons of , and I think 6 hall of fame coaches. Crazy. RIP to Louie who was such a foundational element to my becoming addicted to college basketball in the mid 80s.
 
Great memories of Lou and those St. Johns teams. Can't be sad when a man lives a wonderful, full life and passes away at 99. Maybe sad that he didn't quite hit the century mark, but death comes for us all, and it waited a good long time coming for Lou. Thanks for the memories.
 
Sad to see one of the greats gone. Much respect now but back in the day - Lou, PJ, Rollie, JT Jr, even Boeheim; I could not stand any of them because they all beat up on my Perno coached Huskies in the early days of Big East. And it happened plenty of times to Calhoun as well.
 
What is interesting to me is how little college coaches were paid back then. I grabbed this from Wikipedia. Of course, this was 1973 but things have certainly changed.

Carnesecca announced his return to St. John's on March 27, 1973. He replaced Frank Mulzoff, his successor from three years earlier who had resigned after a 19–7 campaign. He had two years out of a total of five remaining on his Nets contract in which he was to have received about $200,000 spread over seven years. His $22,000 salary at St. John's meant that he took a financial loss in the transition. He explained, "I've had my whack at pro ball and I'm very happy with it. But when the opportunity arose to return to St. John's, I wanted to go back."[5]

I always got a kick out of him and never felt any bad feelings toward him although they routinely beat UConn in the 80s. 3 Big East teams in the 1985 Final Four was something special. Georgetown played their first two games in Hartford when the Civic Center used to host tournament games.

R.I.P. Looie
 
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