John Fanta
College basketball broadcaster and reporter
On what would have been Lou Carnesecca’s 100th birthday weekend, Big East Conference coaches are gathering this weekend to honor the legacy of one of the founding fathers of the league-focused basketball.
Throughout the five conference games scheduled for the weekend, with St. John’s hosting a special celebration of the late Carnesecca’s life on Saturday when the Red Storm host Butler at 2 p.m. ET on FS1, many coaches from around the league will wear sweaters in honor of Looie’s special clothing that he wore throughout his legendary run at St. John’s in the 1970s and 1980s.
When Carnesecca died at the age of 99 on November 30, it immediately prompted Big East commissioner Val Ackerman and senior associate commissioner of men’s basketball Dan Leibovitz, a former assistant to John Chaney at Temple and head coach at Hartford , to act. Conference leaders wanted to find a way to honor one of its founding fathers, a seven-time Big East champion between regular season and tournaments who was, as FOX Sports analyst Bill Raftery put it, “universally love”.
Leibovitz gathered the coaches in a message chain and the idea became a reality: Many coaches agreed to find an ’80s sweater and all came together to wear a commemorative pin sent by the league to his schools. While there is rich appreciation for all that Carnesecca accomplished – spending 24 years at the helm of the Johnnies without a losing season, going 31-4 with Chris Mullin and Walter Berry in 1984-85 as the one of three Big East teams to land in the Final Four and a three-time recipient of the league’s Coach of the Year honors, Carnesecca’s charisma and outgoing nature made him a household name larger than life in conference and in college basketball. which brought to life a golden age in New York in the 1980s.
St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, along with Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang, honored Carnesecca on Dec. 7 by emerging from the tunnel in a replica of Looie’s famous sweater. After the Red Storm beat the Wildcats 88-71, the Basketball Hall of Fame laid the sweater down at half court in Carnesecca’s memory.
Here is the list of Big East games where coaches will honor Carnesecca this weekend:
Friday
- Xavier at Georgetown – 8 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
- Creighton at No. 8 Marquette – 9 p.m. ET, FS1
SATURDAY
- DePaul at Villanova – noon ET, FS1
- Butler in St. John’s – 2 p.m. ET, FS1
Sunday
- Providence at No. 11 UConn – 2 p.m. ET, NBC
John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers sports in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.
College basketball
St. John’s Red Storm
Great East
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