Queens native Steve Konchalski has spun a basketball legacy 693 miles away in Canada from winning national-record 826 games to three national championships to a three-year stint as head coach of the national team.

ANTIGONISH, NOVA SCOTIA, New York Daily News – It’s Senior Night at St. Francis Xavier University, and the clock ticks toward Sunday morning as Steve Konchalski, a son of Queens who became the Coach K of Canada, celebrates win No. 825. He loses the tie and pinstripe suit, then drives his Equinox a mile to a bungalow on a snow-banked street.

Inside, friends and his wife Charlene welcome the end to his 38th regular season, a trying campaign. Candles light the room as Ron MacDonald, his one-time assistant, begins to tell of Konchalski’s wildest coaching moment. Konchalski, fixing a plate, offers one detail to lend legitimacy.

“There was blood,” he says.

It was a winter Saturday in 1980. Konchalski, then in his fifth season, led St. Francis into War Memorial Gymnasium at his alma mater, Acadia, in Wolfville, 150 miles southwest. His counterpart, Ian MacMillan, teamed with Konchalski at Acadia 17 years earlier and roomed with him a short while afterward but new lines existed between them. MacMillan’s unit sat atop the national rankings at No. 1; St. X stared up from No. 3. No matter. The X-Men eyed an opportunity to level MacMillan’s high-flying troupe, but trailed 102-99 with two seconds left. Acadia’s Bo Hampton then got the ball, and cocked back his arm to punctuate the win with an uncontested dunk. Mark Brodie of St. X rushed after him. Brodie brought Hampton down by the arm. They hit the court hard.

Brodie received a technical foul. In the post-game handshake line, MacMillan, a fiery redhead, wagged his right pointer finger as he approached Konchalski by midcourt.

“If anything like that happens again, don’t worry about your players,” MacMillan said. “I’m coming for you.”

Konchalski lowered his jaw and bit down on MacMillan’s finger.

MacMillan recoiled; blood dripped down the digit. Both were shocked.

The coaches parted immediately, only to meet two weeks later, again at Acadia. Banners emblazoned with “Konchalski Bites Coaches” welcomed him back. Just before tipoff, students acted out a skit mocking the visitor. In a short hallway by the entrance, the coaches crossed paths. Konchalski braced, not knowing what MacMillan would do.

MacMillan hugged him.

“Isn’t this great?” MacMillan said.

When Konchalski walked onto the court, the crowd erupted. Acadia fans, all wearing band-aids on their fingers, pointed at him.

“Sometimes I long for those days,” says Leo MacPherson, the St. Francis athletic director. “Today, Steve would be suspended, but boy, that was the best marketing you could do back then!”

Konchalski, an unorthodox expatriate, has developed a distinct brand.

In an era of mentors on the make, forever peddling their wares to recruits, athletic directors and cameras, Konchalski, 67, first tasted success in Canada as a college player and never left. Enshrined in several halls of fame, he has surpassed all expectations, collecting more wins than any coach in Canadian college basketball history.

Trained to be a lawyer, he never intended to be an institution in a town of 4,500 residents where signs appear in English and Gaelic. His reach spans the world as part of Basketball Canada, whether coaching in front of Fidel Castro in Cuba or attracting players from Alberta to Africa. North of the border, he watches March Madness from a wooden rocking chair at home.

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