The Last Dance for St. Francis Basketball

St. Francis University is a small school in the Pennsylvania mountains that has strived to play with the heavyweights of college basketball.

The Red Flash can strive for one final season.

St. Francis reached its first NCAA tournament in 34 years last season and came within a cat’s whisker of winning its second-ever NCAA game. With no NIL money and a losing record, the Red Flash entered the tournament as the longest shot in the 68-team field.

St. Francis qualified by capturing its Northeast Conference (NEC) tournament and carried a 16-17 record – but a six-game winning streak – into NCAA play. The Red Flash drew Alabama State in the NCAA play-in game but saw its season come to an end with a heart-breaking 70-68 loss on a last-second basket by the Hornets.

Seven days later, the school announced it was leaving Division I for Division III – a victim of the changing nature of the college basketball that, going forward, will allow the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer.

You need NIL money to function in today’s college basketball world and Red Flash didn’t have it. And the small schools like St. Francis annually see their top players pouched in the transfer portal by the bigger programs that can offer greater exposure and greater money. The era of the NCAA Cinderella stories is coming to an end.

St. Francis remains a Division I program this season as it transitions to Division III for the 2026-27 school year. But it will be a challenge.

Two days after the school announced its self-demotion to Division III, Rob Krimmel retired as head coach – and eight of the nine players who saw action in that NCAA tournament game followed him out the door. All eight hit the transfer portal, including the Red Flash’s Top 7 scorers. Those eight combined to start 135 games last season, accounting for averages of 63.5 points and 25.3 rebounds per game.

Riley Parker, the team’s leading scorer with an average of 13.4 points, transferred to Portland. Juan Cranford, the conference’s rookie-of-the-year and the high scorer against Alabama State with 18 points, left for Eastern Kentucky. Valentino Pinedo, who led the team in rebounding with an average of 6.4 per game and scored 17 points against Alabama State, bolted for UNC-Greensboro. Parker was first-team All-NEC and Pinedo a third-teamer. Jeremy Clayville, who joined Cranford on the all-rookie team, also transferred out.

“That was a really special team, one of the best player-led teams we’ve ever had,” said Luke McConnell, an assistant under Krimmel who now serves as head coach. “Those guys got it — they fought for each other, sacrificed for each other and played for each other. They were guys I loved and, when you win a championship together, that’s forever. It was hard to say good-bye to all those guys.”

The only player who stayed was guard Chris Moncrief, who started 11 times last season and averaged 6.2 points per game. Only one other player on the current St. Francis roster has ever started a game for the Red Flash, center Gestin Liberis with three.

“I felt this was the best opportunity for me,” said Moncrief, who passed up opportunities to leave. “Talking with my coaches, they believed in me and trusted me. I was still welcome here and, with one year of eligibility left, I felt my best option was to stay. I’m close to home and playing in a community that supports me.”

With a roster bolstered by the return of a couple injured players, a couple freshman recruits and six players who transferred in, the Red Flash are striving to play with the big boys one final time this season. As usual, St. Francis hasn’t made it easy for itself.

St. Francis is a school with fewer than 3,000 students that plays its home games in a 3,500-seat arena. Schools that size need to schedule road games against college basketball’s heavyweights to help fund the program. This season, the Red Flash visit Oklahoma, TCU, Xavier and the defending national champion Florida Gators.

The Oklahoma and TCU games are already in the books. The Red Flash lost both games this week, a pair of 30-plus-point drubbings.

But this was the scheduling philosophy of Krimmel in his 13 seasons as head coach. If you’re going to play, play the best. Show your players what big-time college basketball is all about. It also will better prepare them for what lies ahead in conference play. In recent years, St. Francis has visited Pauley Pavilion to play UCLA, Cameron Indoor to play Duke, the Dean Dome to play North Carolina, Hinkle Fieldhouse to play Butler and the Carrier Dome to play Syracuse.

The Red Flash also has played over the years at Florida State, Georgetown, Illinois, Louisville, Marquette, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M and Virginia. Every one of those games was a loss, by the way. The last big school St. Francis upset was Pitt in 2021. The last big school to even visit the Loretto campus for a game also was Pitt in 2001.

It was going to be difficult for St. Francis to remain competitive in Division I. Which is a shame because the Red Flash has such a proud basketball tradition. That little school gave the NBA three bona fide stars: Maurice Stokes, Norm Van Lier and Kevin Porter.

Stokes was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1955, a three-time all-star and a rebounding champion in a brief three-year career that ended with a brain injury. Only two players in NBA history averaged more career rebounds per game than Stokes – Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. Stokes tragically passed away of a heart attack in 1970 at the age of 36 and is buried on the St. Francis campus.

Van Lier played 11 seasons and became a three-time NBA all-star, a three-time all-defensive selection and an assist champion. Porter also played 11 seasons and led the NBA in assists four times with three different teams.

The last player from St. Francis to reach the NBA was Mike Iuzzolini 34 years ago. He made the Dallas Mavericks as a second-round draft pick in 1991 and spent two seasons in the NBA. But the Red Flash has managed only five winning seasons since the Iuzzolini era, including three under Krimmel.

“We are very proud of our Division I history, our success and our student-athletes,” said Rev. Joseph Letman, the chairman of the school’s Board of Trustees. “We know this transition will be stressful.”

McConnell will shoulder the brunt of that stress. He’s being asked in his head-coaching debut to shepherd St. Francis on its farewell tour of Division I. It will be as emotional as it is challenging, filled with “last times.”

McConnell is a graduate of St. Francis who spent 12 years with the basketball program, first as its director of operations, then as Krimmel’s assistant and now as its head coach. His dad also served as the St. Francis head coach from 1992-99.

“Coaching here is a real honor and a gift,” said McConnell before the TCU game Thursday night. “I’m a St. Francis grad and have a real genuine love and affection for this place. To be a Division I coach, even if it’s just for one season, is an incredible honor. I’m really excited to lead this program regardless of the division.”

St. Francis will move to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference in 2026-27.