A former college basketball legend was in Mineola Tuesday evening. Lou Carneseca, who guided St. John's to 526 victories from 1957 to 1970 and 1973 to 1992, was the guest speaker at the annual Corpus Christi CYO Basketball Night at Fitzgerald Hall in the basement of the Corpus Christi Church.

The 78-year-old former St. John's and New York Nets coach started out by giving encouragement to players looking to improve their game. "My remarks are going to go to those who are starting now and may not be particularly happy. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't play this game, that you're too slow, too fat, too skinny, too small or can't jump," Carneseca said.

Coach Carneseca, who coached the Johnnies to the 1985 Final Four and 1989 NIT title, then tied his remarks in with a story about a player who was told those same things but proved everyone wrong and then at the end of the story revealed the player he was talking about was Chris Mullin, an All-American player for Carneseca in the mid '80s and ended up having a 16-year career with the Golden State Warriors and Indiana Pacers in which he averaged 18 PPG for his career.

Carneseca also advocated that the players respect their coaches. "Give them your time and respect what they say. Someday you may coach and you'll want that same respect.

Carneseca expressed his dislike for a word "choke" commonly used in sports and basketball especially when a player misses a key shot at the end of a game. "Please don't ever use that. It's such a terrible expression to use about a fellow human being."

The legendary coach tied his dislike for the word with a story about when he was coaching his high school alma mater, St. Anne's Academy, a small catholic school on Manhattan's east side, in the city title game and one of his players missed two key free throws in the closing seconds that would have won the game. "I can still see this kid coming off the court with tears coming down his cheeks. I put my arm around him and said 'you're going to be a great player. You're going to win many ball games.' Not only did this young man become a very good player, he became an All-American even though he was initially not successful but given the chance he came through."

Coach Carneseca also told the players that getting to a high level takes a lot of hard work. "To get there is tough but to stay there is even tougher because the people that you play against are working and studying just as hard as you are. Every year you have to improve."

Carneseca opened it up for questions. One of the fathers asked who his favorite coach to go up against in the Big East was and he jokingly answered, "None of them, I didn't like any of them," which drew laughter from the audience. When asked who his favorite player was that he has ever coached he answered with both Mullen and Rick Barry, who played for Carneseca on the New York Nets of the now defunct ABA. The Nets played their games down the road from Mineola at the Nassau Coliseum and moved to New Jersey to become the New Jersey Nets in the NBA.

One youngster asked what his advice for getting better and Carneseca stressed that planning what to work on is the key. "In anything you do try to have a plan. Don't just go there and shoot around. Try to work on something specific."

The speech was received well by the youngsters in attendance. "I liked the stories he told a lot," Matthew Rudolph of the fourth grade CYO team said.

"It will make me work harder," said T.J. Gessner of the seventh grade CYO team.

"He was very funny," said Tyler Kapela of the fourth grade CYO team.

The speech was also well received by Father Bob Batale of Corpus Christi Church. " It was a great success. I think it was very appropriate for the young people. I think he presented it well and I think the adults appreciated it as well," Father Bob, as he is referred to at the church. closed by saying, "Keep up the good work you're doing. These relationships you're developing with young people will last a lifetime."

It was Corpus Christi CYO third annual Basketball Night. In addition to Carneseca's speech all the teams and players were recognized and there was a slide show.