Lou Carnesecca on Mike Anderson, Chris Mullin’s exit

St. John’s enthusiasts aren’t the only kinds inspired by Mike Anderson’s initially time in Queens. The school’s all-time winningest coach preferred what he noticed as properly from the veteran coach.

“Oh, I was amazed,” Lou Carnesecca told The Submit in a scarce interview. “I would say Coach Anderson is ready-made. You know what I mean by that? He’s ready. He’s coached at a really superior amount. He’s coached some great, great teams. So, he is familiar with his Ps and Qs.”

St. John’s went seventeen-fifteen in Anderson’s initially 12 months in Queens, knocking off projected NCAA event teams such as Arizona, West Virginia, Marquette and Creighton, extending his streak of 18 seasons without having a getting rid of campaign. It received its opening-spherical Big East Match recreation, rallying from a big deficit to knock off Georgetown, and was up at halftime in the quarterfinals in excess of Creighton just before the event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Johnnies would have probable been headed to the NIT, experienced one been performed, barring a surprising operate to the conference’s event title.

“And when he will get some [more] great gamers, they’re likely to be [a drive] to be reckoned with mainly because his style, you received to prepare for it. They occur at you with force for the entire recreation,” the ninety five-12 months-aged Carnesecca said. “I consider he’ll do a great task. I considered he did a excellent task this 12 months.”

Carnesecca, of study course, is familiar with the former coach, his previous star player Chris Mullin, properly. Mullin, who experienced by no means beforehand coached just before taking the task in 2015 at his alma mater, led the Johnnies to the NCAA Match in his fourth and closing time just before parting methods with the system very last spring. He expended this earlier 12 months doing the job for NBC Sporting activities Bay Spot as a pregame and postgame analyst for Warriors game titles.

“I just never know if he was pleased. You’d have to talk to him,” Carnesecca said. “It was a new venture for him, also. He is familiar with basketball really properly. But coaching is not an straightforward issue, mainly because there is so much included right now. It’s much more tough than when I started off. You received lots of more components.”