Rick Pitino honors St. John's basketball legend Lou Carnesecca with iconic sweater

Rick Pitino might be the most fashionable coach in the Big East, perhaps even the country, and the St. John’s basketball head coach knows how perfectly capture the moment.

Pitino emerged from the Red Storm tunnel on Saturday morning prior to St. John’s game against Kansas State with his typical sports coat but what was under his jacket was anything but typical.

He was wearing a replica version of Lou Carnesecca’s iconic sweater that he wore when he patrolled the St. John’s sideline. It continued the weeklong tributes to the 99-year-old since his death last Saturday.

The sold-out crowd roared when Pitino ditched the jacket and flaunted the sweater.

“Lou was a legendary person, legendary coach, but one of the five worst dressers in the history of the game,” Pitino joked.

He said that he and five others looked online to buy a replica sweater for him to wear today and when nobody could find one, they used pieces from other sweaters and took them to a seamstress at Calvin Klein to put it together.

“That sweater is going to rest in peace with Lou.”

After the Red Storm’s 88-71 victory, Pitino took the sweater off and placed it at halfcourt before walking back into the locker room. It'll be the last time the St. John's head coach wears it.

"It's at halfcourt and it's staying there," Pitino continued.

Rick Pitino even kept his players in the dark that he was going to wear the famous sweater.

“It’s something that obviously meant a lot to Coach Lou and Coach wanted to honor him in a special way," St. John's captain Zuby Ejiofor explained.

"I feel like there was no other way to go about the game today," Simeon Wilcher said about Pitino wearing the sweater. "I didn't know 100-percent, but I had a feeling coach was going to pull out the sweater. It's only right."

Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang also wore a sweater in honor of Carnesecca, but kept it to a traditional Wildcat purple color.