SELECT GAME NOTES VS. UCLA (FULL GAME NOTES PDF)
frankies tidbits In a flash… Saint Francis opens up its 118th year of men's basketball at UCLA on Monday.
• The start date of November 6 is second-earliest start date for the team after opening the 2019-20 season at No. 25 VCU on November 5. It is also the second time the team will play on November 6 after falling at Buffalo to open the 2018-19 campaign.
• The Red Flash will open up the season on the road for the 39th time since the 1950-51 season, and for the 17th time since the turn of the century.
• The squad is 36-37 in season openers since the 1950-51 campaign. Saint Francis is 32-3 at home and 4-34 on the road in that stretch.
• Saint Francis 1-10 under head coach Rob Krimmel in the season opener with the one win being an 80-70 win at Pittsburgh to start the 2020-21 campaign. All 12 openers have been on the road.
• The Red Flash will begin the season on the left coast for the second time in program history and the first since the 2017-18 season when the team opened the year at Saint Mary's and San Francisco. The Dons will be the second game on the schedule in 2023-24 just like the 2017-18 season.
• It will be Saint Francis' third trip to the California under Krimmel. Along with opening the 2017-18 season in the Golden State, the Frankies played UCLA in 2018-19.
• The team will be traveling to the West Coast for the fifth time in team history. Along with the trips under Krimmel, the 1955-56 (Gonzaga, Montana, Seattle), 1975-76 (San Diego State, Chaminade, Hawaii-Hilo) and 1989-90 (USC) teams also played games on the left coast.
• Saint Francis is 0-5 in the state of California all-time and 0-3 Krimmel.
• The Red Flash is 0-4 all-time against the Pac-12, while Krimmel is 0-1 against the circuit with the one meeting against the Bruins on his record. The tilt against UCLA is also the last time the Frankies have played the Pac-12.
• Under Krimmel, Saint Francis also has a 73-68 victory against Rutgers from the Big 10 in 2014-15 along with the win against Pittsburgh from the Atlantic Coast Conference in the 2020-21 season opener.
• The Red Flash is 3-80 overall against teams from a Power 6 Conference and 3-72 on the road.
• The battle between the two teams in 2017-18 marked the start of one the toughest stretches in program history, facing No. 20 UCLA, No. 7 North Carolina and No. 13 Virginia Tech back-to-back-to-back over a span of nine days all on the road.
• It will also be the second time the Red Flash and Krimmel has opened up the season against UCLA head coach Mick Cronin. The Loretto program fell to Cronin's Cincinnati team 52-37 to open up the 2014-15 season.
• There are not many connections between Saint Francis and UCLA with the exception that Saint Francis assistant coach Eric Taylor played professionally overseas with UCLA National Champion Ed O'Bannon with Polonia Warszawa for the 2002-03 season. The duo helped the Warbuds to the semifinals and lost in the best of five series.
• Taylor, who played for the Red Flash from 1994-98, ranks fifth in program history in rebounds (967) and 23rd in points (1,287). He is in his 11th season as an assistant coach and was inducted into the Saint Francis Hall of Fame in 2022.
• The team will be traveling cross country for the second-straight year, but will be staying on the mainland. Last season, the team played at Hawaii. Seven players and all of the coaching staff that played against the Rainbow Warriors will be on the trip to the Golden State.
• The Frankies were picked eighth in the Northeast Conference preseason poll after finishing last season 13-18 overall and 9-9 in NEC play. The team advanced to the NEC Semifinals and lost to FDU.
• Saint Francis continues its West Coast swing at San Francisco on Thursday.
an sfu win would... Give the Red Flash its first season-opening win since defeating Pittsburgh 80-70 in 2020-21.
• Be the third Power 6 Conference win under head coach Rob Krimmel (Rutgers, 2014-15, Pittsburgh, 2020-21)
• Be the squad's first win against the Pac-12
• Be the team's first win in the state of California
• Be Krimmel's 148th career victory
last time we met... No. 20 UCLA defeated Saint Francis 95-58 on November 16, 2018.
• Jamal King paced the Red Flash with nine points, while Keith Braxton had seven points and 12 rebounds.
• This was the last time the Frankies did not have a player score double digits in a game. Saint Francis has played 145 games since this tilt against the Bruins.
• Moses Brown fueled UCLA with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Jules Bernard (18 points), Chris Smith (15 points), Prince Ali (14 points) and Kris Wilkes (14 points) also scored double figures for the Bruins.
• Saint Francis jumped out to 11-2 and 18-11 leads in the game and held the lead for the last time at 29-28 with 2:03 left in the first half. The Bruins took a 36-31 lead at halftime and then used a 26-6 run to start the second half to pull away.
• The Red Flash finished the 2018-19 season with an 18-15 record and earned the No. 1 seed in the NEC Tournament. The squad lost in the NEC Championship Game to FDU and lost to Indiana in the first round of the NIT.
road trips and homestands... Saint Francis will not play only one game on the road or at home with the exception of its two games against Le Moyne. The rest of the schedule the team will play at least two games at home or at least two games on the road in a row.
• The Red Flash starts the season with a four-game road trip at UCLA (November 6), San Francisco (November 9), Santa Clara (November 11) and Penn State (November 14).
• The four-game road trip to start the season is the longest to start the season since the 2003-04 campaign.
• Saint Francis will then have three-game packaged together three times in a row to end the non-conference slate.
• The squad will host Pitt Greensburg (November 20), Franciscan (November 22) and Niagara (November 25) in a three-game homestand before hitting the road at Lehigh (November 29), American (December 2) and Iona (December 10). The team then comes back for a three-game homestand to wrap up non-conference play against Mount St. Mary's (December 15), Robert Morris (December 20) and Campbell (December 30).
• The Red Flash will also have a three-game homestand and a three-game road trip in Northreast Conference play along with two sets of two homestands and road trips.
• A Le Moyne game on January 21 and a return home game on March 2 being the only single games on the slate.
trending up... Sophomore Cam Gregory is the team's most experienced returning player after appearing in 28 games with 19 starts. He ranked second on the team with 74 assists, while averaging 5.1 points and 1.5 rebounds per game. The sophomore has four games with at least 10 points in his career, including a career-high 15 points at Ohio State on December 3, 2022.
• Gregory is averaging 12.5 points per game in his last two road games after scoring 10 points at St. Francis Brooklyn (February 16, 2023) and 13 points at LIU (February 18, 2023). The 13 points against the Sharks were the second-most points in his career after his 15 points at Ohio State.
playing the percentages... Saint Francis is returning 13.8 percent of its scoring from last season, 15.6 percent of its rebounds, 23.5 percent of its assists, 20.4 percent of its steals and 18.8 percent of its blocks from its Northeast Conference semifinal team last year.
• Sophomore Cam Gregory is the team's top returner in points (142), points per game (5.1), assists (74), steals (14) and blocks (7).
• Sophomore Wisler Sanon II is the team's top returner in rebounds (54) and rebounds per game (1.8).
• Junior Brendan Scanlon and sophomores Daric Danchanko, Gestin Liberis and Miles Webb are the other players on the team that registered statistics last year for the Red Flash and are returning in 2023-24.
did you say yutes... what is a yute?... Saint Francis will be one of the youngest teams in the country with all of its scholarship players being freshmen or sophomores. The Red Flash is the second youngest teams in NCAA Division I with an average age of 19.6. VMI is the youngest at 19.0, while Siena (19.8) and Kentucky (20.0) the only other teams averaging 20 years or younger.
• In addition, the Red Flash are one of only four teams in NCAA Division I not to have a senior on the team. Air Force, Siena and UMES are the other teams that do not have a senior on this year's team.
• The Loretto team is comprised of three juniors (all three are walk-ons), six sophomores (one walk-on) and 10 freshman (three walk-ons).
• With the youth movement, the Red Flash will have only one scholarship player that will be 18 years old by the season opener, but will also have a freshman that will 21 years of age by the opener too.
krimmel the dean of coaching... Head coach Rob Krimmel currently sits at 147 career wins. He needs three wins to become 180th active head coach to reach 150 wins in his career. Central Michigan's Tony Barbee is also chasing the mark and currently sits one ahead of Krimmel at 148 victories.
• Currently there are 782 head coaches that have ever reached 150 career wins.
• Krimmel also sits at 97 wins in Northeast Conference play. Krimmel, who became the dean of the NEC this season, is the NEC active leader in wins and will become the 12th head coach in league history with 100 wins with three victories.
• The 12th year head coach is scheduled to coach his 350th game as a head coach at Wagner on January 6. With that game, dating back to his time as a player, assistant coach and head coach Krimmel will have been on the Saint Francis sideline for nearly 800 contests. He has missed a game or two in his time on the sidelines, but that all since he stepped onto the Saint Francis campus in the fall of 1996.
looking down the road to state college... Saint Francis and Penn State are only separated by 61.8 miles and head coach Rob Krimmel grew up in State College before coming to Saint Francis.
• It is only the second time that the Red Flash will face Penn State in Krimmel's 12 years as a head coach and the first since Krimmel's head coaching debut on November 9, 2012.
• Krimmel's father, Bob, was a 1973 graduate of Penn State and spent 32 years as a swimming head coach and an assistant athletic director before coming to Saint Francis as the director of athletics for 11 years and retired in 2006.
• Rob Krimmel followed a simiar path to his father, but at Saint Francis. He is entering his 28th year associated with Saint Francis as either a student-athlete, assistant coach or head coach.
20-point club... For the first time since the 2001-02 season, the Frankies are not returning a 20-point scorer from the previous team.
• It did not take long for someone to join the 20-point club in the 2001-02 season after Rahsaan Benton posted exactly 20 points in the season opener against Wright State.
• Sophomore Cam Gregory had a career-high 15 points at Ohio State on December 3, 2022 for the team's current high in points.
• Saint Francis had three players register at least 20 points in a game 24 times last season., including a player that had two 30-point games and two 40-point performances.
boards up... Similar to 20-point game returning players, the team also does not have a player on the team that hauled in 10 rebounds or more in a game.
• Sophomore Gestin Liberis registered seven rebounds against Franciscan on November 23, 2022 to notch the single-game high among the returners.
• The Red Flash had two players reach double digits in rebounds in a game last season and had a total of nine times in 2022-23.
double vision... Saint Francis will also be looking for a player to post his first career double-double during the 2022-23 season.
• Sophomores Cam Gregory and Gestin Liberis are the returns that came closest to registering a double-double in their freshman year. Gregory had nine points and seven assists against St. Vincent on December 8, 2022, while Liberis had nine points and seven boards against Franciscan on November 23, 2022.
• The Frankies had two players accomplish double-doubles last season for a total of 11 double-doubles.
preseason poll... Saint Francis was picked to finish eighth according to the Northeast Conference Coaches Preseason Poll.
• Sacred Heart received seven first-place votes to be selected as the preseason favorite, while Central Connecticut State and FDU each garnered a first-place nod to finish 2-3 in the poll. Defending NEC regular season and tournament champion Merrimack finishes fourth and was followed by Wagner, Stonehill, LIU, Saint Francis and Le Moyne in the nine-team poll.
• Twice under Krimmel the Red Flash has been picked in the bottom half of the poll and finished at least two spots better than the poll. In 2015-16, the Frankies were picked eighth and placed eighth, while the 2016-17 was picked ninth and finished fourth. That season, the Red Flash advanced to its first of three NEC Championship games. In addition, last year FDU was picked seventh and ended up earning the second-ever No. 16 upset over a No. 1 win against Purdue in the NCAA Tournament.
looking to make a spa-flash... Head coach Rob Krimmel has added 12 players to his team in 2023-24.
• Sophomore transfer Chris Moncrief comes to Loretto after playing last season at the University of Evansville.
• Freshmen Braylen Blue, Aaron "Ace" Talbert, Carlos Lopez, Jr., Eli Wilborn, Bobby Rosenberger III, Aaron Humphrey, Jr. and Aidan Harris also joined the team on scholarships.
• Redshirt junior Will Helton, junior KJ Swain and freshmen Blaze Angellotti and Ryen Gresko also joined the Frankies as walk-ons for the 2022-23 season. Helton played three years at the NCAA Division III level, while Swain attended Marquette but did not suit up for the men's basketball team.
familiar faces... Saint Francis sophomore Wisler Sanon II and freshman Carlos Lopez, Jr. were familar with each other before becoming teammates this season. Sanon played with Lopez older brother on the same AAU team. Lopez was around alot of the practices and the two did team up for the same AAU on occasion.
• Freshman Ryen Gresko is the third Gresko wear the black and red uniform in his family. His brother, Aric, appeared in 16 games with one start from 2012-15 on the hardwood for the Red Flash. He registered a career-high three points and two rebounds against Keystone in his senior year. In addition, his sister, Katee, was a four-year letterwinner on the cross country and track and field team from 2012-15.
• Redshirt junior Will Helton joins his father Associate Head Coach Andrew Helton on the team in 2023-24 after playing at Waynesburg, Lebanon Valley and Penn State DuBois at the NCAA Division III level for the last three seasons.
cambria county family connection... Freshman Aidan Harris' father, Quinn, is in the Pitt Johnstown Hall of Fame for men's basketball.
• Quinn Harris (1988-93) left the Mountain Cats as the program's all-time leading scorer with 1,490 points, a record that stood until 2000. He currently ranks fifth in scoring and 10th in rebounding and was inducted into the Pitt Johnstown Hall of Fame in 2012.
• Pitt Johnstown is an NCAA Division II program, located in the same county as Saint Francis and the two campuses are separated by just 25.5 miles.
from the land of the rising sun to loretto... Redshirt freshman Keshawn McNeill joined the Red Flash basketball team from Camp Zama, Japan in 2022-23.
• The redshirt freshman was born and raised in Japan and his father played semipro football in Japan.
• McNeill played four games for Team Japan in the FIBA U18 Championship in Iran in August.
• McNeill has also joined the ROTC on campus with the satellite campus at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
coaches dream team... Head coach Rob Krimmel has assembled a coaching staff with strong ties to Saint Francis.
• Krimmel, a 2000 graduate of Saint Francis, was an Academic All-American.
• Assistant coach Eric Taylor, a 1998 graduate, was a three-time All-NEC selection, ranks 23rd in program history in points (1,287) and fifth in rebounding (967). Taylor was inducted into the Saint Francis Athletics Hall of Fame in the summer of 2022.
• Assistant coach Luke McConnell, a 2012 Saint Francis graduate, played on the Red Flash football team as a student-athlete. McConnell is the son of former Saint Francis men's basketball head coach Tom McConnell (1992-99), while his cousin T.J. McConnell is in his ninth season in the NBA.
• Associate head coach Andrew Helton did not graduate from Saint Francis but has strong ties in his two stints in Loretto. Helton was originally an assistant coach under Tom McConnell and recruited both Krimmel and Taylor to play at Saint Francis.
• Denzel Mobley is in his second season as a graduate assistant. A 2022 graduate of Saint Francis, Mobley also served as a team manager as an undergraduate.
