Pitino’s sweater, Johnnies’ effort converge in emotional tribute to Looie

Rick Pitino honors Lou Carnesecca with sweater reminiscent of Looie’s trademark sideline attire as St. John’s defeated Kansas State in first game since Carnesecca’s death last week at age 99. (Photo by Vincent Dusovic/St. John’s Athletics)

NEW YORK — In one sense, St. John’s Saturday morning tipoff against Kansas State was won before either team was introduced or the ball was tossed into the Carnesecca Arena air.

In the Red Storm’s first game since beloved program patriarch Lou Carnesecca’s death last Saturday, the emotion that filled the building rechristened in Looie’s honor was enough of a motivator to lift the Johnnies to the wire ahead of Jerome Tang’s Wildcats.

Then Rick Pitino made his entrance.

Pitino, who coached against Carnesecca almost 40 years ago when he led Providence to a Final Four, paid tribute to his fellow paisan in the most poignant way possible, donning a custom-made sweater reminiscent of Looie’s trademark sideline attire during the apex of his tenure in Queens. The biggest dilemma this week, as it turned out, was finding a replica.

“I looked online, five people looked online,” Pitino remarked after St. John’s turned a halftime deficit into an 88-71 victory to honor Carnesecca’s legacy in the most appropriate fashion. “We couldn’t find that sweater anywhere, so we found the pieces, cut out the pieces and took it to a seamstress from Calvin Klein. She put it together, and that sweater’s gonna rest in peace with Lou.”

“Lou was a legendary person, legendary coach, but one of the five worst dressers in the history of the game,” he quipped. “Nobody could find that sweater, and rightfully so.”

Tang wore a purple sweater of his own Saturday, but the story of this affair was not the sartorial splendor. Rather, it was the dominance of Zuby Ejiofor, who overcame a torrid pace set by Kansas State guard Brendan Hausen—who saw 21 of his 27 points come in the first half—to post career highs of 28 points and 13 rebounds, seemingly turning into a one-man wrecking crew in the paint after halftime. Pitino was effusive in his praise of the Kansas transfer, highlighting his experience with an elite program as the driving force behind his own recruitment of Ejiofor before lauding his selfless exhibition Saturday.

“If Zuby played for school X with his statistics and his analytics, I wouldn’t have recruited him,” Pitino revealed. “But because he played for Bill Self, one of the premier coaches in our game, I knew he’d be fundamentally sound (and) I knew he’d know how to work hard. And that’s one of the keys to evaluating, who they play for. That was a big factor in why I recruited him, because he played for Bill Self, because if you looked at his statistics, you wouldn’t recruit him.”

“I told the guys, St. John’s ruled the world on the east coast in the ’60s, the ’70s, the ’80s, and it was all for the name on the front. And if you guys can start playing for the name on the front, someday, the back is gonna prosper. But you gotta play for St. John’s, you gotta play for the name on the front, and nobody characterized that more than Zuby. His heart was as big as a mountain. In the second half, I thought he played so, so hard, that it was really contagious for the rest of the guys. The players tonight just played with tremendous heart. They really did Lou proud, did me proud, the fans and all the ex-players who came back. I think they knew how important this night was for all the ex-players and all the fans, because of how important Lou was to them.”

Pitino made a point of highlighting the Who’s Who of St. John’s royalty—luminaries the likes of Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Walter Berry—that made its collective return home this week, albeit under less than desirable circumstances. And for the Hall of Fame coach, who speaks at length about hoping to recreate the same indelible culture he championed in some of the previous stops in his career, the presence of past greats struck a chord.

“The one thing I want is I want all these players to come back,” he reflected. “This is their home. I told Chris Mullin when I first got the job, I said, ‘Chris, I’m nothing for this program compared to you. This is your home, your program. I’m just a caretaker for Lou, that’s all I am. So please, come back to your home. You’re the most celebrated player in history.’”

Death also, according to the old adage, comes in threes. Carnesecca’s passing was the third to affect Pitino, who lost two close friends—one of whom was a priest who sat on his bench at Kentucky and Louisville and would sleep over the coach’s house on Saturdays before saying Mass the following morning—just hours before Looie died.

“I cry over movies, so when I saw all the players come back and I saw them in church, and you see the grief in their eyes, somebody special to them left,” Pitino remarked. “The great thing about being a Catholic is celebrating lives. For my friends, who were in their 80s, and Lou, who was just shy of 100, we can really celebrate their lives. Prior to one year ago, Lou basically had a healthy life. And we’re real, real proud to represent him in some small way.”

“I don’t think I would have ever forgiven myself if we lost this game. It’s been an emotional week for me personally, not only with my two best friends, but with Lou. It was really, really important that we get a win for Lou. There was a lot of emotion behind the game, and Lou lived a great life.”