Even as rivals, Jim Calhoun had a special place in his heart for legendary St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca.
That was made clear when the UConn coaching great explained that Carnesecca was just one of two coaches that he’d ever gone out with after his team lost.
“He asked me to come someplace after a game with some boosters and stuff, and I’d do that for Looie. I don’t think I’d do that for my brother,” Calhoun joked to The Post. “The way he had about him was special.”
Carnesecca died at the age of 99 on Saturday afternoon, leaving a hole in the St. John’s community and the New York basketball scene.
But for those who coached against him in the Big East, the loss seemed to sting even more.
Calhoun and Syracuse coaching great Jim Boeheim came to know Carnesecca well between their time battling on the court and spending time together off it.
The three names have become synonymous with Big East basketball, and Boeheim called it an “honor” to have coached against Carnesecca during the early days of the conference.
Boeheim also played for Syracuse when Carnesecca was coaching and recalled an instance in which the St. John’s coach was standing right in front of him while he was on the Orange bench.
“I turn around, and there’s Looie standing right next to me,” Boeheim recalled with a laugh. “He’s in front of my bench, and he goes, ‘Oh, wait a minute,’ and then he starts running back. I remember Mickey Crowley was reffing the game. … And I said, ‘Mickey, what are you gonna do?’ And he says, ‘What do you want me to do?’ ”
Boeheim recalled when he witnessed Carnesecca making his way onto the court to move one of his players back on defense.
“Nobody else could have gotten away with that,” he said.
Boeheim explained that what made Carnesecca great was his ability to know his players and their skills and the way his teams played defense.
“They didn’t make mistakes, and they won. That’s all you can say,” the former Big East coach said.
The overarching theme since the news of Carnesecca’s passing has been about the person he was.
When asked by The Post his first thought was when thinking about Carnesecca, Calhoun recalled the nickname the St. John’s legend bestowed on him.
“I was always ‘Irish’ to him,” he said.
The former UConn coach also remembered the lesson that stuck with him through the course of his coaching career.
“You can only coach one team at a time,” Calhoun recalled. “Guys worry about this, worry about that. You take care of your business and it all has that.”
“There’s just nobody like him,” Boeheim said. “We’re still talking about him 30 years after he retired. … When you think of St. John’s, you think of Lou Carnesecca. That’s what you think about.”
Boeheim said that the two still kept in touch and one of the last times that Carnesecca gave him a call was after St. John’s hired Rick Pitino.
Carnesecca wanted to get Boeheim’s opinion on the move, and it highlighted just how much St. John’s still meant to Carnesecca.
“St. John’s was everything to him. I mean, everything,” Boeheim said. “Syracuse is everything to me. And St. John’s was everything to Lou Carnesecca. We were a lot alike in that. … You just don’t think of St. John’s without thinking about Lou Carnesecca. I can’t say that about too many places, certainly.”
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