The latest episode of Sports Talk New York pays tribute to the legendary former St. John's basketball head coach Lou Carnesecca, who recently passed away. Hosts Mike Guidone and Chris Caputo are joined by three of his former players—Marco Baldi, Robert Werdann, and Matt Brust—to share their heartfelt memories and experiences under Coach Carnesecca's guidance. The discussion delves into the profound impact he had not only on their basketball careers but also on their personal lives, shaping them into responsible and caring individuals. Listeners will hear touching anecdotes that highlight Carnesecca's unique coaching style, his dedication to his players, and the familial atmosphere he cultivated within the team. As the conversation unfolds, the guests reflect on the changes in college basketball and how Coach's values remain relevant in today's game.

A heartfelt tribute to the legendary Lou Carnesecca unfolds in this special episode of Sports Talk New York as hosts Mike Guidone and Chris Caputo welcome three of his former players: Marco Baldi, Robert Werdann, and Matt Brust. The conversation delves into the profound impact that Coach Carnesecca had on their lives, both on and off the basketball court. With a tone of nostalgia, the guests recount their experiences under Coach's mentorship, highlighting his unique ability to connect with players and foster a family atmosphere within the team. They share personal anecdotes that illustrate Coach Carnesecca's dedication to not just basketball, but to shaping young men into responsible adults. Whether it’s through humorous practice stories or serious reflections on life lessons learned, the players paint a picture of a coach who was as much a father figure as he was a mentor.

Takeaways:

• Lou Carnesecca was a beloved coach whose impact on players extended beyond basketball.
• His ability to connect with players made them feel like family, not just athletes.
• Carnesecca emphasized the importance of character development in young men through sports.
• His coaching style combined discipline with humor, creating a memorable experience for players.
• Players shared heartfelt memories, highlighting his dedication and personal connection with them.
• The discussions also touched on the evolution of college basketball and its challenges today.

Chapters:

• 00:38 - The Life and Career of Lou Carnesecca
• 11:07 - Reflections on Coach Carnesecca
• 22:50 - The Legacy of Coach Carnesecca
• 29:19 - Reflections on Coach Lou Carnesecca
• 45:11 - Memories of Coach Carneseca
• 54:51 - Remembering Coach Carnesecca

The views expressed in the following program do not necessarily represent those of the staff, management or owners of wgbb. Live from the WGBB studios in Merritt, New York, this is Sports Talk New York.

John's University as well as the ABA's New York Nets. But really his story, his former players are going to join us. We have a couple of guys tonight.

We have three of his former players will be joining us. Marco Baldi, who's checking in from Italy direct. And we also have Rob Verdan and Matt Brust.

Really a great opportunity for us to kind of talk to these guys and see, you know, what Coach Carnesecca was all about both on and off the court. But before we start, as always, want to say hi to Cap. How you doing, Caputo?

All right, Mike, good talking with you. I'm glad we're back in the studio again. We had a nice time two weeks ago, but tonight I think is great because it's it.

I'll say this, Mike, I was in contact with Marco and Matt and Rob, who are all on hold waiting. Marco from Italy, Rob Werdan is in Charlotte and Matt Brust here on Long Island. But we were in touch back in November to do this date.

And this date was supposed to be the 100th birthday of Lou Carnesecca and we were going to come on and talk about his life and for his birthday to celebrate. And when you didn't make it there, I actually the first I got, I think was Rob sent me a message saying, hey, tough day for St.

John's but you know what?

I think waiting those six weeks since his passing, we've kind of been able to see how people adored him and all the great stuff about him and you know, people wearing sweaters yesterday and just the tributes to Coach Carneseca. And I think now we've had some time to get away from some of the sting of it and now we can really enjoy the life of Coach Carnesecca.

Absolutely. Very well said.

And as you mentioned, three of the former players, Marco Baldy, Rob Verdan and Matt Bruss, we'd like to welcome all three gentlemen to the program.

And this is, as we mentioned, a really special treat for us to have three players who are going to bring very unique kind of circumstances of their recruitment and how they played and just lessons learned from Coach Carneseca. So, gentlemen, we welcome you all. Thank you so much for being here.

I think we're going to start out first with Marco, since you're checking in from way across the Atlantic Ocean. Want to make sure that you can hear us correctly. Is all good with our connection. Marco.

Yes, I can hear you guys. First of all, I want to thank you for having me say hello to everyone and especially to Matt and Robert.

Very good. We're just going to make sure we get you in here for one second. I apologize. Having just a little bit of technical issues.

We want to make sure that we hear everything that you got to say and especially for your St. John's alums as well. Looks like we're going to be in business here. Rob and Matt, welcome as well. Rob, just want to say hello to you first.

Thanks for checking in. As Chris had mentioned, it was a tough day when we learned that coach had passed, but amazing tributes coming. And have you been a big.

Had you been in touch with Coach? Actually, that's my first question recently.

For.

Having all three of us on. Matt is kind of the connector here.

Both Marco played with Matt and I played with Matt, and I never played with Marco, but he's the connector with this group and. But again, thanks for having us on. Yeah, it was great. I mean, last February, I went up to New York with the intention of seeing Coach.

I mean, that was the real reason to go. And I was going to take in a St. John's game as well. But, you know, I went over to coach's house and we spent.

He gave me an hour and a half of his time. We sat around drinking coffee and eating cakes and it was a wonderful, wonderful time. And, you know, one of my cherished memories.

You know, I'm glad I got to see him, you know, in a short span before he passed. And it was a sad time.

Absolutely. And as we mentioned, Matt, Matt Brust, we spoke to you a couple of months ago and talked about a variety of things, but also about the state of St.

John's basketball. Welcome back to the program, Matt.

Thanks, guys for having me. And it's great to hear from both my teammates, Marco and Rob.

Excellent.

And Matt, you know, I think I don't want to say one of you is closer than the others, but there's been so many stories. Matt of how much you had a connection and how much Coach Carneseca was like a dad to you. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Sure. It's really not hard to get into what Coach meant to me. I really had a terrific relationship with him as a player.

As we talked about in the last show we did, I transferred out of North Carolina and had difficulty with Dean Smith, and it just wasn't a fit for me. And at the time, St. John's was ranked number one.

And I just remember going to Coach Smith and he wanted to send me to Indiana, and he mentioned Hofstra or something like that, if I recall correctly. But I just said, I want to go to St. John's and he said, well, I don't think they're really going to want you. They're ranked number one.

They're loaded. Let me make some calls. I said, well, you make your call. I'm going to call Coach Carr in a second.

And I hadn't spoke to Coach Carneseca prior to that until he was recruiting me in high school. But I got the call through, and he just said, how fast can you get up here? And I said, I'll be there tomorrow.

And it was a very, very emotional meeting. I was clearly in bad shape as a player and a person. And coach, just in his typical fashion, embraced me as a young person, took me in.

And what do you say about the man that virtually saved your life? I'm positive, and I'm sure Marco could tell a few stories about me, but I know I wouldn't be here without Coach Graniceca for sure.

And, Marco, hopefully you're still hearing this. Okay. We're trying our best to get all that. Can you talk a little bit about your first impressions?

Because you came over to the United States, played a year of high school ball in California, a year at Lehigh under Coach McKillop. Can you talk about your first impressions and meeting Coach Carneseca?

And I know, I'm glad you're able to hear what some of your teammates are saying as well.

Well, my first impression was when I made the switch from the west coast to the East Coast, Obviously, playing for Coach McKillop, it took me to see many games at the garden, to see St. John's back then was the team that made it to the Final Four.

So it wasn't hard to look up to these guys and saying, wow, this is like the top, like a treat, you know, I don't think there's anything better past this. So it was kind of, for me, hard Even to imagine myself part of that group. So.

But fortunately, I had many offers from many different schools and everybody, all the newspaper and everybody's, they keep calling in and asking me when I was going to sign the letter of intent for one school or the other. But I remember when I took my trip to St. John's and I met Coach before leaving, I, you know, I met him and I learned everything about him personally.

And I just shook his hand. I said, okay, Coach, this is, you know, I give you my word, I'll be here. So the next day when everybody called, I said, did you sign?

I said, no, I did not sign, but I will go to St. John's he said, yeah, but he just said he didn't sign. I said, look, my word is more than, you know, signing, because I gave my word to that man.

I'm not going to double cross him at night. And I think was one of the best moves I ever made.

And Rob, you went to Archbishop Malloy, which is, interestingly enough, a place where Luke Carnesecca went to school and coached. Just happened to be under the name St. Anne's can you talk about your transition of choosing St. John's out of Archbishop Malloy?

Well, I'll tell you, that's probably the thing that stands out most with regard to my memories of coach, the recruitment process. I was recruited By My last five schools were Duke, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, St. John's and Northwestern.

In the summertime, we had a local Pro Am in my neighborhood and coach and his entire staff, Brian Mahoney, Ronnie Rutledge, those guys would come to my summer league games. I mean, we played it Tuesdays and sometimes Thursday nights from 6:00 to whatever 7:30 game.

And they were there and they were making merry with all the guys in my neighborhood, all the guys that hung out down the corner, hung out in the schoolyard, played in the Pro Am, and coach was there. So it felt like by going to St.

John's which was only like a couple miles away from Archbishop Malloy, where I went to high school, I felt like I was going away and staying home at the same time.

And Coach gave me such a great feeling of he embraced me and embraced my family, embraced my whole neighborhood through the recruitment process, and that was it. I never even took another trip to a school to visit a campus. You know, it was going to be St. John's right from the beginning. And I signed early.

I signed in my junior year. So, you know, I knew it was the right fit. And it was because of Coach Once.

Again, this is Mike Boudo and Chris Caputo.

We're joined by Marco Baldi, Rob Verdan and Matt Brust, three players who had wonderful careers under the legendary Lou Carneseca and were remembering coach on his, what would have been his 100th birthday today. Three different perspectives, three great ones. And Matt, if it's okay, I'd like to come back to you for a minute.

You have, as you were mentioning, a very interesting scenario of you coming to St. John's as a transfer, coming from North Carolina, you're now coaching basketball. You've been doing it for a little while.

From a coaching standpoint with your relationship with Coach Carnesecca, what would you say that you have or you've taken from him that has influenced, not from an X and O standpoint, but just, I guess from a player relationship standpoint with your players that you took from your relationship with Coach Carneseca?

Well, there are so many things that I learned from Coach Cornerseca and Coach Math, but really, Coach Cornerseca, I think the thing that made him really a magnificent person, communicator was his ability to get guys to fight and to play hard. He just had that magnetism, all five foot one of them.

You know, he'd get up under our chins and, you know, put his fist up to your chin and say, you know, you get back in there and you fight and you don't embarrass the family. And, you know, he made it wonderfully personal.

And I'm sure, you know, many all the other guys that played for him, you know, I mean, he got guys to play that you just would never have thought they could give any more. And he just got so much more out of all of us. So I try to impress upon my players the reason for fighting for something, how we dress appropriately.

But mostly I steal the sayings and that gets a few laughs.

Absolutely.

I'm sure gonna throw one to Marco. You, you know, you're from Italy and I guess, yes, coach has the Italian connection.

Can you talk a little bit about some of the intricacies of maybe something that you guys share, whether it be wine or Italian food or something that you guys would go back and forth with over the years that you knew him, whether it be when you were at St. John's or even after.

Well, I want to start by going back a little bit of what Matt just said about what kind of person, what kind of world class person Coach Honaseka was about. I'm sure he did this with all these players and all these Groups and all these teams. And we knew that he will never embarrass us in public.

He always took the blame for the losses, and he always underlined how great his players were when, you know, the winds came and a lot of them came. And sometimes we knew, you know, he will come at us, but a closed door. He didn't want anybody else to hear what he had to say.

And I could tell you this story that Matt remembers well. At the beginning, when I got there, Coach was fluent in Italian, spoke perfectly Italian.

So sometimes during practice, he would go off on me speaking Italian. All the other guys were looking and saying what. What coach is saying. And then they look at me and says, marco, is he talking to you?

And I said, oh, yes, he's talking to me. I said, what is. What is he saying? And I got. And I said, guys, you don't want to know. Just keep playing.

Is that true, Matt?

Yeah. He said a few things.

And unfortunately for Marco, and I'm sure Marco understands this as a coach and as scout and all the wonderful things he's doing, that it was all out of love, and it was just to get him motivated and get us all motivated. Marco was a tremendous player for us, but coach had a lot of fun with Marco.

He had a couple of interesting names for Marco, which Marco really got pissed off about. And one in particular, you know, I.

Think I had to hold him down.

In the front of the buns. I said, no, he's just joking. He walked past Marco and he said, you know, you better have a good game tonight. And he called him Bruno.

And Marco listens, who the hell is Bruno?

And then I finally got to ask him later, coach, why you call me Bruno? And he goes, I just like the name Marco.

Was Louie really a legend in Italy?

Oh, yes, he was. Way before when I got here, I mean, he was doing clinics. He was coming in with the national team, all the top of the federation.

They were like, for everybody in Italy, all the coaches there was like, everybody came to the States, had to come to New York and be a guest of con. Vice versa, because con seca used to come many years, you know, before I even started playing, everybody knew in Italy who Coach Honeseca was.

Rob, this is Mike again. We'd like to throw it over to you for a second.

You spent some time in the NBA and then also as a coach with the Hornets, Golden State warriors, sometime in the G League with the Detroit Pistons affiliate, the Grand Rapids Drive. I'm curious, from your standpoint, here you have Coach Carnesecca who, of course, we're talking about his personality and.

And just what a great man he was.

Can you talk a little bit, maybe from an X's and O standpoint what Coach brought to the table, and maybe you take or took in your coaching to where people knew him as a personality, but let's talk a little bit more just about his knowledge of the game.

You know, super knowledgeable coach.

I mean, it's funny because with all the technology that we see coaches utilizing with these advanced analytics nowadays and all these tablets, and Coach had a piece of chalk in his pocket, and I keep looking back and maybe the other fellows remember his brown pants. I just remember his brown pants. And he had that piece of chalk and chalk stains all over it.

And that's how he drew up our after timeout plays and coached us during timeouts.

But.

And he'd draw him right on the court and then he'd take a handkerchief out of his other pocket and wipe it down so that, you know, I guess the cameras couldn't see it or what. But, you know, he was super knowledgeable and he always put us in positions where we could succeed as players.

I mean, I happened to be a good passer from the high post, and that was part of our transition game in college. And I think the Uggs fellows ran the same thing. Matt Markle ran the same thing. So he put us in positions where we would succeed.

And in my coaching stops, you know, I always tried to do the same thing. Now, I wasn't as creative as Coach was with his words.

And he could put combinations of words getting back to him, cursing guys out in different languages, and he could put combinations of words together, things that I never heard. And they were funny and they were poignant, and they hit where they needed to hit. And I found myself doing that in my stops coaching.

All of a sudden coming up with something Coach might have said to me back when I was 19 years old, but yes, from an X's and O standpoint, he was fantastic. Coach was fantastic.

But more so than the X's and O's, like Matt talked about, like Marco talked about, he knew how to reach every single one of his players. And that's a gift.

That is a gift, absolutely.

And you know, Matt, when Marco was talking before, something really struck me because when we had you on the program at the end of last season, you were talking about how Coach never to the press or outwardly ever embarrassed you guys. It was always, you know, behind closed doors, he would take you to the woodshed A little bit.

Absolutely. Coach would always say to us as a group, if we were thinking a little much of ourselves, he'd say, hey, listen, fellas, I've had my piece of cake.

I've been doing this for 30 years. And that was then, and I got mine. I'm here to help you, and if you're not going to listen, that's going to be your loss.

They said, I'm going to be here, and I want you along with us. And, you know, coach had this incredible ability to. And you got to remember here who he's talking to.

He's talking to, you know, virtually teenage kids who are basically immature, don't handle adversity too well. Don't handle much too well. And he would. He would virtually, like Marco and Rob would say, have said he would undress you pretty vehemently.

But he always, always came back to that player, whether it was five minutes later into the next drill or. Or, let's meet up in my office after. And he'd always put his arm around. And I know he did this with me.

He, you know, he called me all kinds of names, which I started to really enjoy, but he always would come up to me, put me. His arm around me and make me bend over, and he'd say, listen, you know why I'm doing this? I'm trying to make you better. I love you. Just keep at it.

And at that point, as a young person, I. And I'll speak for myself, but I'm sure the other guys feel the same. I would have ran through a brick wall for that man, just the way he handled us.

And there was just.

He gave this sort of air that there was no place better to be at that moment in the world than at Madison Square Garden or in Alumni hall, which is now Cornerseca Arena. He just, you know, we just knew we were where it was at, and he just had that incredible ability to do so.

We're having a great time here tonight talking. Hopefully you'll sit back and relax. This is Marco Baldi, who played for St. John's from 85 to 88.

Matt Brust, who came over in 85, sat out a year and played 86, 89, and Rob Bourdan, who had a little bit of an overlap from 88 to 92. Marco, I'm just going to ask you a question. I know you had some tough time. You, you came to St. John's you're helping the team out.

Your team makes it to the NCAA tournament, you're in the West Region, and you find out some information that you're not able to play in the NCAA tournament. And there's a possibility that you're going to have to sit out sometime the next year.

Can you talk a little bit about that experience for you and maybe the role that Coach Carneseca played when the NCAA says to you, you know, sorry, but you're not able to play in one of the biggest tournaments that the team had been to the Final Four the previous year.

Obviously I got the news actually the morning we were about to leave to go out west. We just won the biggest championship. Everybody was happy and ready to play in the tournament and was a shock to me.

I couldn't really understand at the beginning what was going on and why. Then my coach was right behind me. This is Marco. We'll fight this together and we'll get through. Don't matter. You know, don't worry about anything.

You just relax. And it did. I mean, actually they had to seek me out for those games. But then when they kind of.

The suspension got a little bit bigger before it was wiped out. But you. He put together a team of lawyers to fight that. And at the end I got clear and I was ready to play at the beginning of the following season.

And I was telling Chris before that that when the team kind of want me to come back because they thought I was ready to play for them professionally in Italy, I had a choice to make. And coach says, marco, whatever you choose, I'm behind you 100%. And I kind of. Back then, you know, we, as players in Europe, nobody had an agent.

Was just like, I didn't have anybody to consult but him. So I was listening to everything he had to say. And I kind of. When I made that decision, I didn't want him to have any.

Any other word from the press on. On him. So I said, coach, whatever might come out of this, I'm just going to leave quietly, go back to Europe, start my career.

I didn't want anything to be put back on him. I know as I mentioned before, how much he always cover everybody's back. I didn't want any.

I didn't think was going to be any bad publicity, but I just make sure. Didn't want anything to come to come out of that story again.

I didn't want it to bring it again that, you know, I got suspended on my first year or anything kind of, you know, down that way. So I just left. But then when I left, I was telling Chris, before this, we had a conversation.

You call me, like, once a month, and the first thing we'll say in Italian, marco, what can I do for you? That kind of person that Carneseca was and always was, he called in is always make sure that we were okay.

If he could do anything for us, we would make a call, make sure that, you know, what are you going to do with your career? You know, you need any help on anything? It was always there, Always.

And, Rob, I'm just going to ask you a question before we have to take a break. You talked a little bit about how when, you know, you were going.

Going to go be playing on another team professionally, that coach was checking in not just on you, but he was talking to the other coaches to see how you were doing. Can you talk a little bit about what that's like after you leave, there's still somebody checking in on you?

Yeah, just, you know, to piggyback on what Marco said, that's the type of guy he was. There were. There were countless, countless times.

And this is playing for a bunch of different teams where one of the assistant coaches or the head coach or the general manager of the team I was playing at the time said, hey, I talked to Coach Lew last night. He was checking in, seeing how you're doing. So that happens quite often during my playing career.

And, you know, he just wanted to make sure his guys were all right because, you know, he showed us this when we played for him, but we meant a lot to him, and he made it very, very clear that that was the case. So, yeah, when that would happen, it was kind of nice. It was just another good feeling of.

Of what I had experienced and where I'm going and what's on the horizon. There's always going to be that root system that coach provided us.

When we come back. I think on the other side of the great gentleman, if you guys would be willing to stay with us, I'd like to talk to you and Chris as well.

Just kind of get your thoughts on your conversations in the past couple years with coach and his feelings on what college basketball was becoming or where it was heading or if it could head back to what it was in the past. I think that would be a very interesting conversation if we could get your opinions on that and kind of go that direction.

So if you could all stay with us, we'd appreciate it. And again, we're talking to Marco Baldi, Rober Daniel, Matt Brust about the life and times of Coach Luke Arnaseca.

We'll be back in about one minute on wgb.

You are listening to Sports Talk New York.

Just some great stories from three of his former players and kind of going back to what we had spoken about before the break. Matt, I'd like to ask you, I know you were obviously in touch with coach quite a bit over the past couple of seasons.

Any thoughts on your discussions with him about how he felt college athletics in general or just college basketball was going?

And do you feel it's something that if he was in his prime today with coach, with his personality, that he would even be interested in kind of getting involved in?

Well, I think Coach is a people person and he's really kind of a psychologist who needs his patience. You know, I think he would love to be involved with the kids and the young players and help shaping them into men.

I think he'd run into some headwinds, but if anyone could get through them, it would certainly be Coach. I was very fortunate to after I finished playing, my relationship with coach became very, very strong.

I would visit him quite frequently and in fact, I talked to him the Tuesday before he passed.

And but going back to basketball and what he thought, I know it troubled him to see the game turn very selfish where you had, you know, players and coaches especially complaining.

One thing that really troubled him was when he saw coaches complain to the press about they're players and you know, they weren't good tonight and it wasn't my fault. And you know, he that really upset him. He just would say that's not what you do. You don't do that.

And he would say you don't earn any friends that way either. Not that he was trying to befriend us, but he was trying to raise Men.

And thank God for him because he raised so many of us from boys to men and on probably the most difficult stage in college basketball. I remember I have the luxury of playing in Carolina and St.

John's and there was absolutely no comparison, in my view, to the media attention and the media scrutiny, rather that Coach Carneseca had to deal with versus Coach Smith. I mean, it was Chapel Hill was this cozy place in North Carolina, lovely. My brother played there, but the media was extremely friendly.

But up in New York, you went to the press conferences after, and it was tough every night. I mean, it just wasn't a normal college experience. But I think that the thing about, you know, he was disappointed how the NIL stuff had come about.

And, you know, again, it's, what are we teaching our young people? He would say, what's the example? And the transfer portal really troubled him as well. He said, what's happening to these boys?

You know, Matthew, when they're faced with adversity, they just run away and hide. And then, you know, and they just take the easy way out. And he said, he goes, it's just so wrong. And it transcended basketball.

We weren't even talking basketball at that point. We were just talking about what these kids were not learning and the things they were learning were so detrimental.

He goes, these boys are going to be. Have no money, have no experience, no strength to combat life's issues with this whole setup. And I knew it bothered him a lot.

I'm sure some of you guys are happy to hear that. I want to ask a question to Rob. I know we're talking a little bit about St. John's in some way, shape or form. You guys are all local.

Marco, you know, you're in Italy, but you were at Lehigh. You know, Matt, you came back, but you were a Long island kid. And Rob, you were right there.

A Mike Bray post on X, formerly Twitter, says, as a Duke assistant, I went up to Archbishop Malloy thinking maybe we would have a shot at Robert. We're Dan. I'm the only coach. At practice and 30 minutes in, coach Carneseca walks through the back door with his whole staff and five local buddies.

I got up and took the first Flight back to North Carolina, RIP Coach Lou. I mean, this is the stuff. You got Mike Prey saying he's working for Krzyzewski and he basically gave up because of Lou.

Can you talk a little bit about keeping the people in his own backyard and maybe how that's changed at St.

John's yeah, I think it's changed the code because of the infusion of money that's available, that's become, that's become available. Hey, coach was able to recruit the tri state area guys, wanted to go to St. John.

Okay?

Now there are college coaches have to recruit their own players first. Then they look at transfer portal, then they look at Jucos, before they even look at the high school level.

That's just the nature of our time, what college basketball is at the present moment.

But at the time when we were being recruited, when Matt was being recruited and I was being recruited, you know, we had Malik Seely from the Bronx, Tolentine High School. He was in our class. He was in my class. We had me from Malloy, we had Terrence Mullen from Zaverian, Jason Buchanan from upstate New York.

This was my class. Chucky strolling was the outlier. He came from Denver, Colorado.

Nobody knew even where Denver, Colorado was if you were from the tri state area, you know, at the age of 17 and 18. But coach had a knack of keeping people showing exactly what could be and then coming through on what could be and what he promised.

And, you know, it wasn't a money thing back then. It was about, like Matt said, talked about raising men. You know, coach wanted to take care of you for forever.

He wanted to bring you up and, you know, that's what he did and that's what was promised and that's what he afforded all of us. And now things have changed such a, in such drastic ways that there's no telling up from down.

I mean, you got, you got really, really good high school seniors that can't even get a look at a college.

And you know, and I know I'm rambling now, but back then, college coaches used to come to our high schools to watch us perform in practice, to get to know, to see the work ethic. Now college coaches, they go to AAU games on a Saturday. They see 11 games, and they've basically seen the entire region at that point. So it's sad.

And what Matt said about coach's feelings about college basketball at this time, what they were. I kind of agree with him. I agree with him wholeheartedly, to be honest with you.

Sure.

Well, you can see it, guys, I'm sure, because a coach like Jim Laranega, who just resigned down in Miami, kind of an old school guy, there's just nothing really left for them in terms of, you know, being a teacher and role model. And it really, unfortunately, is. It's changed so much and is about money and who, you know, year to year, retooling the roster.

It's tough, but just kind of a quick rewind. So I'd like to, if we could just, with each one of you, real quickly, kind of go back to.

If you can recall maybe a favorite moment with coach during a game through your careers. Is there one. One thing, even if it's in practice, that stands out? Was there the one kind of moment where you sit back and really, really smile?

And we'll start with you, Marco. Anything that really stands out about. In game, in practice? I know it's a tough question.

It is, it is. Because I have to think back to many, many wonderful memory, but I could. I could recall. And Matt, now this.

It might mean bad or you're going to recall this. So we go through a tough stretch, and it was mostly on. On me, meaning the big guys. We weren't rebounding that much. So in practice, he has playing.

It has playing 5 on 5. Everybody's going up and down. But what he does to help us, he had a drill to help us to, you know, get more rebound.

He put a bubble on top of the basket so nobody could score. So we go back and forth, and we played for.

It looked like a long time, 10, 15 minutes without scoring because you're shooting and the ball cannot go in, obviously, because there is a bubble, right? But at one point, Matt steals the ball and he goes on a breakaway, and we're all going like, what is he going to do now?

He goes up and smashed that plastic bubble into a thousand pieces. Everybody waiting to see coach's reaction, you know, because they're like, oh, boy, what he's going to do.

So he turned around and goes, oh, enough of the bubbles. I guess we go back playing and everybody laughs so hard that, you know, we might as well finish that practice.

That day that was, you know, it kind of broke the tension, and everybody is back to normal.

All right, Matt, you want to continue with one of your stories?

That's fantastic.

I thought someone might bring that up. And one of the reasons why I got a number of colorful nicknames.

Hammerhead, Dunce, Rockhead, Humpty Dumpy, you know, just all kinds of things which I earned Those things, which I'm very proud of.

One thing, one quick one was, I remember my first year when we were playing Wichita State and Eddie Fogler was the head coach and he was a former Carolina guy and side kind of really wanted that game. And Mark was our kind of go to guy.

And then at the end of the game, there's a couple seconds left and he got caught up at half court and he throws the ball to Bruno and he just turns around and like, we're all. He's going to shoot the ball and we're all like, no and swoosh and we're on to the next round.

So that was one memory that I so enjoyed with my brother Marco. There were just so many. The only other thing that comes to mind is when I nearly killed Alibabo in practice.

But we were running a fast break drill and Al was constantly on and off the court. He had a very raspy voice and just screaming where guys should go. And we were exhausted. And so I.

I'm looking back, Al happens to step in front of me and I got maybe one or two steps on him and I literally lifted him off the ground and he, he did like a. A flying wallenda and just fell on the floor. And I looked over Coach and. And he comes over, he goes, jesus, you killed the son of a gun. And.

And then, and then after that, Al gets up and Coach goes, he's just a tough Sicilian. He's not going to go down like that. And then to make it worse, we're walking off the court and he comes up and he goes, matty, come over here.

And I figured he's going to yell at me for something. He goes, did you see that? And I said, what?

He goes, that damn guy got hit so hard, the first thing he did was grab that thing in his head, meaning his hair. Al had a strange hairdo and everyone.

Knows what it was.

But he said, did you see that? He starts laughing and walks around and I'm saying, what's wrong with this coach? Is this guy okay? But there are some fond memories.

Yeah. I never met Coach Lovalo, but he did. You're very true. He did have a very interesting hairstyle, that's for sure, to put it mildly.

So, Rob, obviously we'll finish up, we'll go to you. Just anything, you know, Again, tough question, but anything jump out at you, just game, practice wise, that you'll always take with you?

Yeah, sure. I mean.

And Matt, I don't know if you remember, but when you crushed Coach Labalbo I was a freshman and Coach Labalbo was a little bit older than everybody else, if you remember. And he got to his feet pretty quickly and he said, it's going to.

Take more than that.

I don't know if you remember that, but I was there for that. Yeah, Coach Carneseca, you know, guys are keeping it pretty light hearted.

I remember his hearing aids going off when the batteries would get low and it start beeping. And we'd go through tough patches in practice and we'd be working really hard and just to break the tension, he'd make a joke on himself.

None of the guys would say, hey, your hearing aids are beeping. You know, you might want to take them out or adjust them or something like that. We don't just.

But he saw it on our faces that that's what was exactly what was happening. And that was a tension breaker for us during some tough practices. But the greatest thing I'll remember about Coach is the walks we would take.

Coach anytime, especially, you know, at least with me, anytime he wanted to get a point across, he'd put his arm, arm around my waist and he'd say, walk with me, walk with me. And sometimes our walks would be 20 minutes because we'd be talking about a lot of different things and it wouldn't always be basketball.

And I think the other guys, Marco and Matt would agree there was just so much more to our experience with Coach Koenaseca than just basketball. So, yeah, there's some super memories. So many, so many.

I think it was even Walter Berry saying how he greeted people was different. Marco, can you talk about that family atmosphere? What was it like for you? Maybe as a, not a Native American being welcomed into the house.

What was family like for Coach Carneseca?

It was special. It was the whole. I mean, there's only talk about it. Make sure, you know, keep the family happy and everybody together. That was the thing.

He's always, he's always concerned, but really concerned. Not just like, because he had to. He really, really cared for people. I could give you an example.

Even during the pandemic, he was the first one to call because he heard on the news that Italy was really.

In a hard lockdown.

And he says, marco, give me your address. I'm sending you medicine, food, anything you need. I said, coach, we're good. I mean, we just locked up, but we could. No, he insisted.

He wanted to send me things. And this is 30 plus years afterwards. He will call, like, you know, he needed. He wanted to do things for you. And he will, you know, and he did.

He's still doing it, you know, even. It's incredible.

Yeah.

Anybody else wanted to share a family thing about Coach?

Coach, I'll jump into to kind of echo what Marco said. He would always say when I'd go to his house, and at this point, he's probably repeating himself.

I wouldn't dare tell him that for fear of what would happen, but he would always greet you with a hug. At that point, I was allowed to kiss him on the head. And he'd say, he goes, guests in the living room, family in the kitchen.

And we'd go in the kitchen and we would. I literally sat there with him one day for four hours. I couldn't believe the stamina. And that was just maybe eight, nine months ago.

And.

But we would just talk about everything that's going on. Guys that he's heard from, he's worried about.

I mean, he would name people, talk about, you know, what happens to the mind when you get, you know, a certain age, dementia, stuff like that. He was sharp as attack up until the final moments. I mean, he'd be talking about guys from St. Anne's and as if I knew them. And you go, there.

You remember that guy? And after a while, I just said, I'm just going to nod my head because I don't know who the hell he's talking about.

But he would always bring up this guy or that guy that he was worried about, and he forgot to call somebody, and he goes, oh, make sure if you get a chance, call this guy, check in on that guy. He really needs our help. And, you know, that was just the beauty of what coach taught, which is so lost today.

I mean, he made us responsible, loving, and caring men that took care of our families, and it just. There was just too many things to go into. Such a terrible loss.

Yeah, not. Not the little point guards. We have the big men here tonight. We got Marco Baldi, 6 foot 11, 7ft tall. Robert Dan, also a big man.

And Matt Bruss, playing tough down low.

So we didn't bring in the little guys tonight, but we did bring in the big guys who had a coach who was, you know, diminutive in size, small, but anybody want to add something about the sweaters? I mean, those things kind of got a mind of its own.

Any one of you have a special sweater that kind of, besides the John Thompson game that stuck out to you. I mean, he just became known for those things throughout the time.

Well, by the time I got there in 88, he was done with the sweaters. He was back to the tie and just the shirt and rarely a sport coat or it was off by about the five minute mark in the first half.

But yeah, I mean, it's. The sweaters were, you know, one of the things that defined him nationally. There were replica sweaters and all of that.

The media attention it got, it was, it was kind of nice because it was, it was something different, but it was simple, you know, and now coaches, you know, he still had a respect for the game. He was still dressed very nicely with the sweaters. Now coaches are wearing sneakers.

And rarely do you see a coach dressed with, you know, that much respect for the game anymore. At every level. At every level.

Well, you know what, that's a great point, Rob, because I'll tell you, and I don't know if Matt will agree or. But I'm a high school coach. I coach varsity girls basketball. And the last couple of years I've been.

I was staying with it with the jacket and the tie, and people would come up to me and say, what are you doing? And I said, well, what do you mean? Well, you know, where's the quarter zip or the sweats or, you know, isn't that uncomfortable? That's passed by.

And I always thought that that was very, very weird because, yeah, I mean, it's respecting the game and that's what people do. Now. It's kind of like what you play the guessing game. When a coach comes out in a jacket and a tie, he's saying, what's going on?

Is there something special? But for, you know, for coach, he really, as you said, had just the utter respect for the game.

Matt, I don't know if, how, how you feel about that in today's game. If, you know, if you're kind of old school in terms of your sideline.

Shirt and tie.

Shirt and tie, I would assume.

Well, I was taught by coach. He said, listen, you show up for things important in life, you have to look your best.

Whether it's a wedding, God forbid, a funeral, anything that's important, you show up looking your best. So I'm a suit and tie guy. I do get on some of the older referees good side because they like saying that. But yeah, I was a suit and tie guy.

And I also make my players come dressed exactly the same in Jacket and ties.

Because, as Coach would do for us, I'm trying to pass on to them, teaching them to be young men and to be responsible and respectful for other people's time. The sacrifices that we all have to give. And unfortunately, at the moment, it seems we're fighting a bit of an uptrend, uphill battle.

But coach always, look your best, be your best. And I had one really quick point.

I started out coaching a girl's JV team, and I showed up in a suit and tie, and I explained to the girls that the reason why I do this is because I care about you. I care about what I'm doing, and I want you to know that. And so what had happened was they. They knew that I cared a lot. In one game, I just.

The cleaners was closed. I don't know what happened. And I showed up in just a shirt and a tie and pants, and the girls literally started crying. Pre game, really?

And I'm like, what? I said, I go, here we go. This is what you get for coaching women. You know, jokingly, of course. And I said, what's wrong?

And they said, do you not care about us anymore?

Oh, wow. Yeah.

And I said, of course I do. He goes, where's your suit? And I was like, I am sorry. I will never not show up again. It's not you, it's me.

And a couple aside glances, but we made it through.

There you go.

Well, you know, as the girls coach at Locust Valley, every time when we're playing, you know, we're either at Oyster Bay and you're at Locust Valley, vice versa. I tried to do a little scouting report on your. On your fashion, but Chris beat me to it.

He knows he's seen you before, and we're going to try to keep that going on both ends. I really appreciate that. Marco, just one last thing for you before I know it's very late where you are.

You know, we've had a lot of things come up tonight about coach. You know, a friend, a teacher, a role model. Any one word or phrase come to mind. Just as we kind of put a bow on Coach Carnesecca with you.

With all the things being said, anything. There's one thing that keeps coming back to me. And I remember him keep saying, keep it simple, keep it simple. Be classic, but keep it simple.

Nothing fancy. Keep it simple.

Yeah, great. Rob, any one word or phrase or anything come to mind as we wrap up?

Not really. I mean, there were so many. So many. This is. This has been a trip down Memory Lane, for me, I want to thank you for having me be a part of this show.

It's been a pleasure.

This is, this has been great and nice to hear Matt and Marco's voice again. Yeah.

And Matt, I'll finish with you. Besides answering that question, when you found out that day, I know you had seen him earlier in the week and you kind of know this stuff's coming.

You get to 99. He really wanted to get to 100. I know that was one of his big things.

What was the feeling like that day when you heard that you finally lost Coach Carneseca?

I, I don't know. I, I, it was such a, it's still such a loss.

I know he, he had said once when he was taking care of his mother and she had was over 100, no one really knew how old she was and she had to get some kind of transplant or something. And I remember making a comment to him, I was like, you know, coach, she's like, 103. Wouldn't you leave the alone?

And he clapped back at me and said, you never stop taking care of him. That's your mother. And he certainly was, you know, a father to me. And you know, the joy.

I challenge any other program in the past, present or future that has guys like Rob and Marco and when we all see each other. In fact, I had Sean Muto and Barry Mulhaven I ran into at the funeral, and they showed up at my basketball game.

None of us have any animosity towards each other, and Coach created that love and that bond between us, and I challenge any other program to make the same claim.

Well, Coach Lou Carneseca is St. John's when you hear that name, you think of him. So we appreciate you guys. Thanks for coming on and giving us a full hour tonight.

Yeah, you guys all, all three class individuals and you can tell. Thank you. What a class coach and man Coach Carneseca was. And he passed that down to you three.

And again, thank you and you're welcome back anytime, gentlemen.

Okay, thanks, guys.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. Well, Kevin, Unbelievable. Unbelievable. You know, just three great guys and three amazing stories. We'll never have another one.

1980S, feels like it's happening today.

It was great to have them and you could tell the emotion. Tough loss for those three.

Yes.

Again, we've been listening WGB Sports Talk, New York, the life and times of Coach Luke Carneseca. There'll never be another one, but hopefully we can keep his memory going. We'll see you in a couple weeks. Everybody.

And thanks to Brian Graves for making this happen tonight.

Amazing job as always. Have a great week, everybody.

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