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NEW YORK -- In the long and storied history of New York City basketball, nobody wore it quite like Lou Carnesecca.
The excitable St. John's coach whose outlandish sweaters became an emblem of his team's rousing Final Four run in 1985, died at 99 on Saturday, just a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday.
The university said it was notified by a family member that Carnesecca died in a hospital, surrounded by loved ones. St. John's said the Hall of Fame coach "endeared himself to generations of New Yorkers with his wit and warmth."
Carnesecca was a treasured city sports figure in his day, affection for "Little Looie" never wavering in a bustling town with scant patience for its players, coaches, executives and owners.
He coached St. John's for 24 seasons over two stints -- making a postseason tournament each year -- and became the face of a university whose campus arena in Queens would eventually carry his name. A statue of him was unveiled before the 2021-22 season. When asked once in a question-and-answer session with the school to describe St. John's, Carnesecca said: "home."
It was home where he coached St. John's to 18 seasons of at least 20 wins, and 18 NCAA Tournament appearances. It was home where he finished with a 526-200 record and had 30-win seasons in 1985 and 1986. And it was home where St. John's became a charter member of the Big East Conference and a pillar of its success.
He was the coach of the year three times in a league that began play in 1979 and quickly asserted itself as one of the nation's best. Among his star players during those early Big East years were Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Walter Berry.
Carnesecca coached St. John's to its fifth NIT title in 1989, although by then the tournament had long been a poor cousin to the NCAAs. He entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, the year he retired.
"I never scored a basket," he said at his induction, forgoing a sweater for a crisp suit. "The players did everything. Without players, you can't have a game."
He was an old-school coach, grounded in fundamentals. And through it all, Carnesecca was a swirling, kinetic presence on the sidelines, arms flailing, legs kicking, shirt tails flying, all 5-foot-6 of him curled in exasperation over a missed shot or agonizing call. But his antics never crossed the line into chair-throwing fury.
Carnesecca was simply consumed by his players, a love for a game in his marrow, a lifetime spent in schoolyards, beat-up gyms and big-time arenas. He loved the "smell of the sweat" and the "feel of rubber burning" when sneakers met a varnished floor.
He remained the consummate gentleman in a sport populated by outsized egos, fierce recruiting wars and a relentless pursuit of the next contract. Mike Tranghese, a former Big East commissioner, once called him "our soul and our conscience" and "one of the giants of the game."
Carnesecca guided St. John's to Big East Tournament titles in 1983 and 1986. His teams reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 1979 and 1991, and spent more than 70 weeks ranked in the top 10 of the AP Top 25. A banner denoting his 526 wins at St. John's hangs from the rafters at Madison Square Garden.