Bill Wennington, Mike Moses laud Lou Carnesecca as 'perfect leader'
St. John's basketball coach Lou Carnesecca, center, flanked, by players from left, Ron Stewart, Chris Mullin and Bill Wennington, laugh as they hold the trophy for winning the Holiday Festival on Dec. 29, 1984, at Madison Square Garden. Credit: AP/G. PAUL BURNETT
Mike Moses and Bill Wennington were starters on Lou Carnesecca’s team that spent five weeks ranked No. 1 in the country and made a run to the 1985 Final Four. Both recounted on Sunday that the Hall of Fame coach, who died Saturday at age 99, kept the team on an even keel as they became the biggest sports story in New York.
“We sold out the Garden more than the Knicks — it was our city — but he never let it go to our heads,” Moses said. “He had his funny sayings, sure, but when Mark Jackson got the better of me in practice, there was no chance for a big head, and he let me know it.”
“New York was so great to us, but Coach led us through it, never let us get too big and was the perfect leader,” Wennington said. “As good as we knew we were, he was a master at keeping us motivated. It was one of the best teams I’ve been on for chemistry, and that’s because of him.”
Carnesecca’s lessons never stopped coming for his players.
Moses said, “He taught you to think the game and not just play it . . . and he showed me the value of sacrificing for the better of the team.”
Wennington recalled: “He got us to push through physical walls but was always [encouraging] and never demeaning . . . When practices ended, his door was open to ask anything about life, school, family [or] being a man. He was there for us.”
It didn’t stop at graduation, either. Wennington said that when he wasn’t getting playing time with the Dallas Mavericks, Carnesecca made monthly calls to bolster his confidence, and that even after his playing days, there were calls to check on him and his family all the time.
“He never stopped caring for his players,” Wennington said.
“Every player who played for him came out a better person for the [experience],” Moses said. “There was the basketball and so much more. It’s why he was one of the greatest of all time.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.