"Looie," John Thompson Jr., and Rollie
With the death of St. John's icon Lou Carnesecca comes the close of a Big East chapter like no other
All three iconic men’s college basketball coaches are gone now, the last of which was the great Lou Carnesecca, who died at age 99 on November 30.
“Looie,” an endearing nickname that perfectly suited the New York City-born Carnesecca, was one of three Big East Conference hoops coaches that took his team to the 1985 Final Four at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. Carnesecca’s St. John’s team faced John Thompson Jr. and the mighty Georgetown Hoyas in one semifinal, while Rollie Massimino led Villanova against Memphis State.
In early 2015, I set out to do a story on the 30th anniversary of ’Nova’s upset of Georgetown in that ’85 NCAA championship game (see below link). Villanova had already been ousted early on in the 2015 NCAA tournament, and the whispers lingered about whether the Wildcats would ever again win the brass ring.
[https://www.nydailynews.com/2015/03/28/30-years-ago-villanova-shocked-georgetown-to-win-ncaa-title-then-one-of-its-own-rocked-nation-with-sordid-tale-of-a-season-high-on-cocaine/]
The four-page Daily News “End Zone” feature included numerous voices tied to that 1984-85 season – Massimino and former players from both Villanova and Georgetown – but Carnesecca’s quotes encapsulated a college basketball era that will never again be equaled.
“Hollywood could not have done a better job," said Carnesecca during my interview with him. "That time was electric."
Electric indeed – the players, the personalities, even the sweaters (well, Carnesecca’s at least).
Today’s college sports culture, where star basketball players control their narrative through social media platforms and earn NIL (name, image and likeness) revenue, is a world removed from the 1980s. Modern amateur basketball athletes, particularly those with the same caliber talent as a college-age Patrick Ewing, rarely play all four years, opting instead to seek NBA or professional riches. And the transfer portal has made hopscotching to different schools more common among college athletes.
But 40 years ago, those Big East programs alone boasted talent galore. During that ’84-’85 season, the Johnnies had Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson and Bill Wennington playing for Carnesecca, while Massimino had star center and Bronx product Ed Pinckney and the duo of Dwayne McClain and Gary McLain (who are not related despite similar-sounding last names).
Thompson, of course, had one of the best college players of the era – and maybe of all time — in the 7’0 “Hoya Destroya” center Ewing.
"This guy blocked everything but the Lincoln Tunnel," Carnesecca said of Ewing during my interview.
That wasn’t the only thing the Big Fella did on the court. During Ewing’s four years at Georgetown playing for Thompson, the Hoyas reached three NCAA title games, winning it all in 1984 and finishing as the runner-up to Michael Jordan and the UNC Tar Heels in 1982 and to Massimino’s Wildcats in ’85. Maybe Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils teams from 1990-1992 are the best comparison. Those Coach K teams advanced to three consecutive NCAA title games and were champs twice.
No NCAA tourney will ever quite compare to 1985, however. Three powerhouse conference programs in the Final Four. Bigger-than-life coaching personalities. A David versus Goliath ending.
St. John’s and Georgetown both swept their season series against Villanova, and then the Johnnies added another block of salt to the wound by beating ’Nova handily in the Big East Tournament. Once the Final Four weekend started, only Georgetown stood in the way of a St. John’s-Villanova reunion, and the Hoyas took care of business.
"I think if we had gotten St. John's (in the NCAA final), me and you wouldn't be having this conversation," Dwayne McClain said with a laugh during my interview with him for the story.
Villanova had plenty of other landmines besides St. John’s to worry about during their Big Dance run. For starters, the Wildcats barely squeaked into the tournament with a regular season record of 25-10.
"It was kind of a toss-up whether we got into the tournament with 10 losses," said Massimino, whose team drew the No. 8 seed in their Southeast bracket.
The ultimate indignity was Villanova’s final regular-season game, a nationally-televised event at Pittsburgh. Massimino’s crew got creamed by the Panthers, 85-62.
"The season ended with the Pittsburgh game where we got destroyed," Long Island product and Villanova backup center Chuck Everson said during an interview. "It was brutal. No one expected that. Coach Mass came into the locker at halftime and said to the starters, 'You've got three minutes, and if you don't play in three minutes, you're all out.' He took those guys out of the game. After that game we did a little soul searching."
When the tournament got underway, the Wildcats’ first-round game was against Dayton… at Dayton. The assignment did not sit well with Massimino, according to Everson.
"That might have been one of toughest games of the whole tournament. Coach was not happy about that," said Everson. "Thank goodness for (Harold) Jensen. He curled around and made a layup that almost rolled out. It rolled right to the edge of the rim and fell back in and we won (51-49). From there it was a magical ride that started the whole thing."
Harold Pressley, the Villanova forward, called the Wildcats’ tournament journey "a very tough road – the hardest road to the final any team could go through.”
“When you start at an opposing team's gym, you know that it's going to be a heck of a long hike to the top of the mountain," said Pressley.
The hike included victories against Michigan (No. 1 seed in the Southeast), the Len Bias-led Maryland Terps, Dean Smith’s Tar Heels, and Memphis State before the showdown with No. 1 Georgetown.
Bill Martin, who was a senior forward on that ’85 Hoyas team, still exuded the Georgetown confidence – cockiness? – all those years later when I interviewed him for the story. Like Ewing, Martin had played in three NCAA title games.
"We expected to be there every year," said Martin. "We thought we were that good. We fully expected to win. We had been to the mountaintop. Nothing was new. But that's always in the back of your head - in the NCAA, on any given day, anybody can lose."
Villanova’s equilibrium was put to test hours before tipoff of the championship game, when former ’Nova head coach, Al Severance, died that morning. Severance had traveled to Kentucky to root on the Wildcats, but was felled by a heart attack the day of the title bout.
Massimino said that during Mass before the game, the team chaplain tried to keep the mood light: “Tonight, Al Severance will be swatting the balls away from up in heaven,” Massimino said the chaplain told the ’Nova players. “A great line.”
The game itself was an edge-of-your-seat, back and forth slugfest that came down to the final seconds. After Villanova’s Pressley sunk a free throw to put the Wildcats up, 66-62, Ewing inbounded for Georgetown — a somewhat curious decision since the Big Fella had to hustle down court, and wasn’t in position for a rebound had teammate Michael Jackson not converted a layup.
But Jackson’s score brought the Hoyas within 2, and then in the ensuing frantic seconds, Jackson’s teammate David Wingate knocked the ball out of bounds to stop the clock.
Two seconds left, and life for the Hoyas.
In old videos of the game, Massimino can be seen erupting on the sidelines after Wingate’s swat, but moments later the agita turned to joy. Jensen inbounded to a falling McClain, and the game was over. Villanova had won its first NCAA basketball championship.
"We got the ball in, and Dwayne caught it, and fell on his knees. I think he travelled, but that's OK," said Massimino. "And he held it for the end of the game. I still never saw the championship game replay in its entirety. I still think we might lose."
I was a teenager growing up in suburban Philly then, and remember sweating out the game’s final seconds watching on the TV screen. Regrettably, I didn’t try to wheedle my folks into letting me drive to nearby Villanova to take in the bedlam in person. Some of my high school friends did partake, and they still remember how Route 30/Lancaster Avenue was closed pretty much from Paoli to Center City with partying Villanova fans.
Massimino was the head basketball coach at tiny Northwood University (now Keiser University) in West Palm Beach, Florida in 2015, still patrolling the sidelines while his contemporaries Thompson and Carnesecca had long been retired. Even though Massimino had made other coaching stops after Villanova – including at UNLV – the ’Nova championship season was never far from his mind… nor that of certain former college basketball opponents, apparently.
During a trip to Orlando with his Northwood players, Massimino visited with the NBA Magic at the invitation of team owner, the late Richard DeVos. Ewing was a Magic assistant coach at the time, and when he addressed the Northwood players, at one point the former Knicks star gestured toward Massimino.
"Patrick got up, and we exchanged hellos and everything else. Then he got up and talked to the kids," said Massimino. "(Ewing) said, 'See that man over there? He stole another championship ring from me.' It was great. He was very positive, and very nice about the whole thing."
Ewing did have his college championship ring, however, something Carnesecca was never able to win, despite an incredible run and legacy with St. John’s.
Two years after the Villanova anniversary feature ran, Massimino died in West Palm Beach at 82. Carnesecca, ever the gentleman, weighed in on his coaching rival when I reached him by phone for an obit I wrote for the Daily News.
“God Almighty, I’m so sorry to hear that. We go way back. I just spoke with (Massimino) 10 days ago. It’s like when you lose one of your family,” Carnesecca said. “Rollie was an excellent coach. You really had to prepare when you played against him. He threw everything at you.”
Thompson died in 2020, and when I reached Carnesecca for a Forbes obit story, the 95-year-old Looie was a little fainter in voice, but every bit the class act. Carnesecca even poked fun at a famous snapshot from the long ago past, when Thompson donned a colorful sweater equal to that of his St. John’s counterpart.
“It’s a great loss. A big loss, naturally, for the family, for Georgetown basketball, the Big East,” said Carnesecca. “I’ll never forget when John upstaged me by putting on that sweater. Even worse, they won the ball game. The worst!”
Now Carnesecca is gone, only weeks shy of his 100th birthday (Jan. 5). The end of an era, and a Hollywood script that will never be rewritten.