RIP Coach Carnesecca

Beasts of the East said:
Over the past week, with Looie's passing, there have been a lot of articles and sports broadcasters who prominently mentioned "the sweater". Many of them got the premise all wrong. One article began, "Looie liked to wear sweaters." I think my recollection is accurate, so please help me here.

On January 14, 1985, the 11-1 Red Storm traveled to Pittsburgh to play the Pitt Panthers. We had already lost an away game to Niagara of all teams, which was a shocker. Still, Pitt, which finished 8-8 for fifth place in the Big East that year, was anything but a pushover. They had a star freshman, Charles Smith, as well as Demetrius Gore, and Curtis Aiken. This much fans can agree on: Looie had a cold, and his wife Mary, concerned for his health travelling in winter weather and playing in cold, drafty gyms, insisted he pack a sweater. Looie grabbed the first sweater he saw, an ugly one he never had worn, and departed for the game.

Looie, favored brown suits, a white shirt and tie, that looked anything but debonaire to begin with, but by mid game, was usually a crumpled mess. Jacket discarded, shirt sleeves rolled up, loosened tie always in the way, is how I remember Coach. That night, though, he wore the sweater over his shirt and tie instead.

The game result? We crushed Pitt 82-59. Five days later, we played #15 Boston College at BC, an even tougher away opponent. Looie, still nursing the cold, but also the superstitious leprechaun, wore the sweater again. This time, the result was a hard fought 66-59 victory. Four days later, an even even tougher opponent loomed ahead at MSG, #11 Syracuse, who always brought a lot of their fans to the Garden. Yep, now the sweater was now his rabbit's foot, presumable not washed. This time, an 82-80 overtime victory.

Three days later, on January 26 in Landover, our toughest opponent yet lay waiting, #1 ranked Georgetown Hoyas. This was to be a clash of titans, with senior Patrick Ewing, the best college basketball center in decades, arguably ever, anchoring the vaunted G'Town defense. David Wingate, Bill Martin, Reggie Williams, and Michael Jackson rounded out the starters. Their bench was deep, and nationally they were as well known as any NBA team. Looie wore his sweater, Berry and Mullin dominated, and the final score a 66-65 Johnnie's win was not nearly as close as indicated. The Hoyas finished with a furious flurry to close a double digit SJU lead.

Providence fell, UCONN (simply University of Connecticut then) fell, and Seton Hall also went down. Sweater, sweater, sweater.

The next big test was #19 Villanova at the Spectrum, on February 9th. The sweater was a no brainer, and the result an 70-68 hard fought win. (Ultimately went 3-0 against the eventual champion Wildcats).

Columbia, Pitt, and DePaul were whacked easily, and now the sweater was 11-0 and St. John's was #1.

Next up was #18 BC at home, and then #7 Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. Both were close games against very good teams. Both wins, 71-69, and 88-83. Sweater, Sweater. Damn it. I just realized that was 13 wins in a row. Not a lucky number.

The #2 Georgetown rematch promised to be the biggest regular season game in our history. Pre-internet, pre-stubhub, there were newspaper classified ads advertising ticket re-sales in the hundreds of dollars. #1 vs. #2, Ali vs. Frazier, MSG the perfect venue. The sweater was now a phenomenon, with t-shirt copies of Looie's ugly sweater sold to students. and fans. I can't write about this game with much detail because it is too painful, but what began as SJU fans elated with visions of sugarplums in our heads, crashed mightily. John Thompson, ever the intimidator, playfully (maybe) greeted Looie before the opening tap by flashing open his suit jacket to reveal a two sizes too small t-shirt version of the sweater. Whether jynx or not, the spell was broken. Georgetown, from the opening tip, raced out to an insurmountable first half lead, crushing us so thoroughly, that MSG felt more like a morgue. We were Frazier, but not even that much because Frazier fought valiantly. We were destroyed. You could almost hear Howard Cosell's voice, "And down goes St. John's, down goes St. John's."

The sweater was finished.

Unless someone tells me otherwise, the sweater story ends right there. 14 games, a great 13 game run, then just about the most devastating loss in our history. We whipped Villanova by 15 in the Big East semis, so much a mismatch that sitting in the Garden I actually felt bad for Nova, always a respected rival. the Big East finals was a 12 point loss to Georgetown. The NCAAs are etched in our memory. No need to repeat.

I wrote all this because over the past week, newer fans, and those who really didn't didn't follow our team back then, have been given a different impression of Looie's sweater. Seven hundred and twenty six games coached, 526 wins, and just 14 with the ugly sweater. Still emblematic of a great team and a great run in our best season, but really not much more.

Please feel free to correct any inaccuracies in this, and hope this was of value to reminisce.
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Beast ,great history on the Sweater . Your mention of Louis’s dress code got me to thinking. As a Soph , I went to a game at CA and was late arriving and had to walk past the Redmen side line to get to my upper tier seats .
Lou was already in full game mode and had left his seat to yell at the Ref.
I looked at what he was wearing and was amazed . He had on Brown Suit slacks that looked like they hadn’t been ironed or cleaned in months , a Black leather belt that was so frayed , it looked like it could fall apart at any moment , a white shirt as you described and a tie loosened to his chest bone .
He was a mess . I kept that in my mind and wondered , gee , St John’s must not be paying Lou much for him to dress like that .
I held that opinion for years as , Lou was not a clothes fancier at that point .
I held that opinion of Lou not being well dressed until Rollie Massimino became the Nova Coach . Rollie outdid Lou by games end , his shirt was out of his pants , his tie barely still tied and his hair like Gene Wilder’s . To say Rollie looked disheveled would be limiting the definition of that word .
After Lou retired and attended games ,he became a real Fashionista . A Cashmere sweater , nice shirt and pants . Mary must have finally thrown out all his Coaching suits and got him a snazzy wardrobe .
Sitting next to Mahoney and Rutledge , he was equally well dressed as he was .
 
When I was with Coach, your right! His usual dress for games was brown pants and shoes, blue Button down shirt, always a brown tie and belt. I always packed brown liquid shoe polish for Coach on game days.
Funny thing about Coach, you'd think he would drive a conservative car? NOPE in the 80's he drove a Camaro. he parked in reserve spot #1 right outside of Alumni Hall overlooking his office. Tidbit, when I came in '81, NO ONE had a carpeted office with panelling in Alumni Hall EXCEPT Coach Lou. Even Mr. Kaiser the AD and Fr. Rivard had bare cinderblock walls and linoleum tile flooring. A few years later, I bought my own carpet square flooring and panelling for my office. What a commotion that started from other athletic Dept and University employees! The University maintenance department refused to install the panelling so I did it myself along with a baseball player who knew how to install it!
 
SLYFOXX1968 said:
Beast ,great history on the Sweater . Your mention of Louis’s dress code got me to thinking. As a Soph , I went to a game at CA and was late arriving and had to walk past the Redmen side line to get to my upper tier seats .
Lou was already in full game mode and had left his seat to yell at the Ref.
I looked at what he was wearing and was amazed . He had on Brown Suit slacks that looked like they hadn’t been ironed or cleaned in months , a Black leather belt that was so frayed , it looked like it could fall apart at any moment , a white shirt as you described and a tie loosened to his chest bone .
He was a mess . I kept that in my mind and wondered , gee , St John’s must not be paying Lou much for him to dress like that .
I held that opinion for years as , Lou was not a clothes fancier at that point .
I held that opinion of Lou not being well dressed until Rollie Massimino became the Nova Coach . Rollie outdid Lou by games end , his shirt was out of his pants , his tie barely still tied and his hair like Gene Wilder’s . To say Rollie looked disheveled would be limiting the definition of that word .
After Lou retired and attended games ,he became a real Fashionista . A Cashmere sweater , nice shirt and pants . Mary must have finally thrown out all his Coaching suits and got him a snazzy wardrobe .
Sitting next to Mahoney and Rutledge , he was equally well dressed as he was .
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Thank you so much for your kind words.

When I worked at St. John's (not in the A.D.) I was told that Looie specifically would not accept a salary higher than the university president, which was Father Joe Cahill. So as coaching salaries took off, his salary remained what Cahill made.

Funny story. When his salary reached $100,000, the university old payroll system blew up. It was programmed for a maximum of $99,999.01. The IT director was a guy named Skip Taiclet, and his top guys in a small department was a guy named Richie Roethel, and another named Jimmy something. I didn't know much bball history then but later wondered if Richie Roethel was related to SJU basketball player Lou Roethel.
 
Alumni Hall said:
When I was with Coach, your right! His usual dress for games was brown pants and shoes, blue Button down shirt, always a brown tie and belt. I always packed brown liquid shoe polish for Coach on game days.
Funny thing about Coach, you'd think he would drive a conservative car? NOPE in the 80's he drove a Camaro. he parked in reserve spot #1 right outside of Alumni Hall overlooking his office. Tidbit, when I came in '81, NO ONE had a carpeted office with panelling in Alumni Hall EXCEPT Coach Lou. Even Mr. Kaiser the AD and Fr. Rivard had bare cinderblock walls and linoleum tile flooring. A few years later, I bought my own carpet square flooring and panelling for my office. What a commotion that started from other athletic Dept and University employees! The University maintenance department refused to install the panelling so I did it myself along with a baseball player who knew how to install it!
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Your stories are the best. Let me know when you are coming next. We've gotta have lunch or something.
 
espken said:
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Chuck Everson is seems to be a real good dude. I use to run into him on several occasions years ago when our daughters played HS and AAU basketball. Would chatted about St. John’s and Nova. He went to the same HS as Ron Stewart (he is a couple years younger) and he always spoke glowingly about the St. John’s guys and how much the Nova guys got along with them and the respect each side had for one another.

He attended Coach’s wake and reiterated it was a good thing we lost to Gtown in the final four because they couldn’t do anything against our two lefties (Mullin and Berry).
 
SJU85 said:
Chuck Everson is seems to be a real good dude. I use to run into him on several occasions years ago when our daughters played HS and AAU basketball. Would chatted about St. John’s and Nova. He went to the same HS as Ron Stewart (he is a couple years younger) and he always spoke glowingly about the St. John’s guys and how much the Nova guys got along with them and the respect each side had for one another.

He attended Coach’s wake and reiterated it was a good thing we lost to Gtown in the final four because they couldn’t do anything against our two lefties (Mullin and Berry).
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AH, Do you remember the game where Ed Pinckney blocked Chris Mullin's layup 3 or 4 times in a row on the same sequence, with Mullin retrieving the ball each time, until finally Mullin scored on Pinckney (and perhaps drew the foul also)?
 
Beasts of the East said:
AH, Do you remember the game where Ed Pinckney blocked Chris Mullin's layup 3 or 4 times in a row on the same sequence, with Mullin retrieving the ball each time, until finally Mullin scored on Pinckney (and perhaps drew the foul also)?
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Not the exact specifics but I do recall a block shot and Chris retrieving the ball, scoring and being fouled.

Also recall the Holiday Festival Championship where we played Nova and won. Chris spent a good part of the game guarding Easy Ed. They are good friends.
 
Beasts of the East said:
AH, Do you remember the game where Ed Pinckney blocked Chris Mullin's layup 3 or 4 times in a row on the same sequence, with Mullin retrieving the ball each time, until finally Mullin scored on Pinckney (and perhaps drew the foul also)?
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That’s a great story about Mullin and Pinkney .
I seem to recall some story about the 2 of them going back to their CYO , HS Days playing against other

I think the story goes along these lines . Pinkney was asked a question by a Reporter about Mullin and he replied “ I have been playing with and against Chris Mullin since grade school and I’m never surprised by what he can do on a Basketball Court .”
 
SJU85 said:
Not the exact specifics but I do recall a block shot and Chris retrieving the ball, scoring and being fouled.

Also recall the Holiday Festival Championship where we played Nova and won. Chris spent a good part of the game guarding Easy Ed. They are good friends.
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So good that Ed came very close to being the experienced assistant we never had under CM
 
Beasts of the East said:
AH, Do you remember the game where Ed Pinckney blocked Chris Mullin's layup 3 or 4 times in a row on the same sequence, with Mullin retrieving the ball each time, until finally Mullin scored on Pinckney (and perhaps drew the foul also)?
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Although Mullin played in the era of no 3 point shot (his stats would have been even better had he had it) Mully was a master at drawing a foul and connecting on the basket for the Old Fashioned 3 point play. His fakes were superb.
 
SJU85 said:
Chuck Everson is seems to be a real good dude. I use to run into him on several occasions years ago when our daughters played HS and AAU basketball. Would chatted about St. John’s and Nova. He went to the same HS as Ron Stewart (he is a couple years younger) and he always spoke glowingly about the St. John’s guys and how much the Nova guys got along with them and the respect each side had for one another.

He attended Coach’s wake and reiterated it was a good thing we lost to Gtown in the final four because they couldn’t do anything against our two lefties (Mullin and Berry).
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That's great to hear about how Nova and Sju players got along, even at the FF. Rollie was their version of Lou, a madman on the sidelines, but never rising to enemy. Thompson I believe, though completely a gentleman off the court, liked to create an us vs them atmosphere, maybe even an us against the world. Lots of good reasons though. Boeheim was such a whiner, he became an enemy too. Off the court, he was always very gracious about St. Johns, even saying that Mullin was the best Big East player in its history.

Another reason Villanova had synergies with St Johns is that many of their students grew up around nyc rooting for St Johns. Many had parents who were SJU alums. Of course Jay Wright was such a gracious, likeable asset, it was impossible to hate his teams.
 
Beasts of the East said:
That's great to hear about how Nova and Sju players got along, even at the FF. Rollie was their version of Lou, a madman on the sidelines, but never rising to enemy. Thompson I believe, though completely a gentleman off the court, liked to create an us vs them atmosphere, maybe even an us against the world. Lots of good reasons though. Boeheim was such a whiner, he became an enemy too. Off the court, he was always very gracious about St. Johns, even saying that Mullin was the best Big East player in its history.

Another reason Villanova had synergies with St Johns is that many of their students grew up around nyc rooting for St Johns. Many had parents who were SJU alums. Of course Jay Wright was such a gracious, likeable asset, it was impossible to hate his teams.
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I knew Cuse had to be paying players because why would anyone want to play for Boeheim? He is as inviting and warm as a Syracuse winter.

Never a fan of Rollie. Seemed incredibly pompous with an edge that Lou never had. His whole departure to UNLV was a debacle.
 
MainMan said:
I knew Cuse had to be paying players because why would anyone want to play for Boeheim? He is as inviting and warm as a Syracuse winter.

Never a fan of Rollie. Seemed incredibly pompous with an edge that Lou never had. His whole departure to UNLV was a debacle.
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When Looie returned to SJU from the Nets, his new salary at SJU was a reported $22,000. Mulzoff had been paid $17,000, due to the fact that at that time SJU paid him no more than full time faculty.

I don't recall the details of Rollie's departure, but I do agree the similarities diverge after sideline antics. (Allegedly, they were the team that put a paper bag full of cash at Walter Berry's hotel door).

Rollie's aggregate record his last 4 years at Nova was 67-61, and somehow got 2 ncaa bids with 17-15 and 18-15 records. His 14-15 final season at Nova was likely writing on the wall, but also likely a money grab. He lasted just two seasons at unlv.
 
Vill vs SJU at Alumni Hall. I don’t recall the year but it was before the game was moved to MSG. SJU get the opening tap with the ball in Mullins hand He passes the ball to a teammate at half court and moves down the sideline , then under the basket and back to just about where he started , with all his teammates setting blocks he gets the ball back and has a wide open twenty footer which he drains.
This was a play Looie ran for years and Rollie had probably practiced defending it for the past two days so he explodes on the sideline, the shirt already out of his pants and calls a timeout with tenor twelve seconds gone in the game.
 
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