The men’s and women’s basketball teams will pay tribute to the late Hall of Fame head coach in multiple ways this weekend
The St. John’s athletic department unveiled plans on honoring the memory of iconic head coach Lou Carnesecca, who died last Saturday at the age of 99, starting with this Saturday’s men’s basketball game versus Kansas State (11:30 a.m., FOX) and Sunday’s women’s basketball game versus Wake Forest (2 p.m., FloSports).
Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams will wear jersey patches honoring Carnesecca during their home games this weekend. Revealed on social media by athletic director Ed Kull, the design is in homage to one of Carnesecca’s signature red-and-blue chevron-striped sweaters.
— Edward M. Kull (@EdKullStJohnsAD) December 4, 2024
The number 526, the total career wins for Carnesecca as St. John’s head coach, will be recognized often this weekend. Both basketball teams will take the floor wearing “526” warm-up shirts. Fans in attendance for both games will also receive “526” commemorative pins.
Prior to tip-off for both games, a video tribute will be shown on the Carnesecca Arena videoboards and a moment of silence will be held. St. John’s will also display a videoboard tribute throughout the games, encouraging fans to send any photos with coach Carnesecca to redstormsports@stjohns.edu so they could be shown on the videoboard.
The previously scheduled “Black Out” game, in which St. John’s planned to unveil new black uniforms for Saturday’s men’s basketball game against Kansas State, has been postponed to Tuesday, December 17th against DePaul.
The athletic department also opened the vault on a never-before-heard 2020 interview between Carnesecca and fellow St. John’s athletics legend Jack Kaiser for this week’s episode of “The St. John’s Red Storm Podcast”, which you can listen to here.
St. John’s will host Lou Carnesecca Day for the January 4 men’s basketball game versus Butler, which comes one day before what would have been Carnesecca’s 100th birthday. Fans will receive a replica of the Lou Carnesecca statue on display inside the arena’s lobby.