2023-24 Schedule

LORETTO, Pa. – Saint Francis University men's basketball head coach Rob Krimmel has announced his 2023-24 schedule. The 29-game schedule is highlighted by three games in California, a trip to Penn State and 14 games at DeGol Arena. 
 
For the second time in program history, the Red Flash will begin the season on the left coast with the second-ever battle against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on November 6. It's first meeting with the Bruins since the 2018-19 season when Saint Francis traveled to California to play only at UCLA.  

"This was one of the more challenging years to complete a schedule," said Krimmel, who enters his 12th season as the head coach of his alma mater. "Associate Head Coach Andrew Helton did a great job of helping to organize a non-conference schedule that will get us ready for a run at a Northeast Conference Championship.  We will be tested early and I look forward to seeing how our guys respond as we prepare for NEC play." 

Staying in California, the Red Flash will travel north to face Santa Clara (November 9) and San Francisco (November 11), a pair of West Coast Conference teams. It will be the first meeting with Santa Clara and the second meeting against San Francisco after the Loretto program opened the 2017-18 season against Saint Mary's and San Francisco.  

DO YOU REMEMBER?

The last time Saint Francis played UCLA, the Bruins were ranked No. 20 in the country. The Red Flash then played No. 7 North Carolina and No. 13 Virginia Tech in the next two games in a span of eight days in the 2018-19 season. 

MAURICE STOKES AND THE DONS CONNECTION

In 12 NBA regular-season games between 1956 San Francisco grad Bill Russell and 1955 Saint Francis grad Maurice Stokes, Russell's team won 9 of 12. Stokes averaged 18.2 points per game; Russell averaged 17.4 points per game. Stokes scored 20-plus five times vs. Russell and the Celtics. Russell had two 20-point games and a 30-point game vs. Stokes and Royals. In addition, two days after Maurice Stokes scored a then program-record 43 points for the Red Flash against Dayton in the NIT in 1955, San Francisco defeated La Salle 77-63 to win its first of two NCAA Tournament titles. 

This will be the fifth trip to the West Coast for Saint Francis. Along with opening the 2017-18 season and playing at UCLA the following year, the Red Flash played at USC in 1989-90 and at San Diego State in 1975-76. 
 
It will be the 13th-straight season the squad has started the season on the road and the 12th time under Krimmel. After a cross country flight back to the East Coast, the Red Flash will head to Penn State on November 14. Krimmel, who grew up in State College, will be facing Penn State for the second time in his career after the two teams tangled in his first-ever game as a head coach in 2012-13. It will be the 13th meeting between the two schools separated by 61.8 miles.  
 
After the four-game road trip to start the season, which will mark the first time since the 2003-04 season the Loretto program has opened the season with a four-game road trip, the Red Flash will make its 2023-24 home debut and start a three-game homestand. 

DID YOU KNOW? 

Krimmel's Flash will embark on its fourth road trip to start the season of three games or more, joining the 2012-13, 2017-18 and 2019-20 teams. The four games on the road to start the season marks the fourth time it has happened since 1951-52. Along with the 2003-04 squad, the 1953-54 and 1961-62 teams also started with its first four games on the road. The program record for games either home or away to start the season is five. The 1974-75 and 2001-02 teams both started the season with five consecutive tilts at home, while the 1964-65 team is the only team to open the year with five games away from Loretto.  

Saint Francis has played three branches of the University of Pittsburgh in team history and will add another one when Pitt Greensburg comes to Loretto in the home opener on November 20 for the first meeting between the two programs. It will be the 12th time under Krimmel the team will play a non-Division I team and the eighth different squad.
 
The Red Flash will then welcome Franciscan to DeGol Arena on Thanksgiving Eve on November 22. It will be the 39th meeting between the two programs and the sixth since renewing the rivalry in 2017-18. 
 
Niagara will close out the three-game homestand on November 25. It will be the first time Niagara has been on the schedule since 2018-19 in a series that dates back to the 1921-22 season with the series tied at 13 games apiece. Niagara is also one of three teams from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) on the schedule this season. 
 
Saint Francis will then embark on a three-game road trip at Lehigh (November 29), American (December 2) and at Iona (December 10). Lehigh, American and the Red Flash have played every season under Krimmel with the exception of the COVID season. Lehigh is on the schedule for the 20th time dating back to the 1969-70 season, while American appears for the 25th time since 1972-73. Iona, the defending MAAC champions, returns to the schedule for the first time since the 2008-09 season and the game will be the 16th iteration in the series dating back to the 1949-50 campaign. 

Saint Francis will wrap up the non-conference slate with a three-game homestand for the rest of the month of December that will include two former Northeast Conference (NEC) foes. Mount St. Mary's returns to the schedule after a year hiatus and leaving the NEC for the MAAC on December 15 in the 88th meeting between the two teams. Robert Morris will follow the Mount to Loretto for a game on December 21. It will be the 92nd meeting in a series that started in 1977-78 and the two teams have squared off at least once a season except for the COVID campaign.   

IONA AND STOKES

Stokes and the Red Flash played Iona at Madison Square Garden in one of Stokes first trips to the Garden on Dec. 16, 1954. Stokes scored 30 and Frankies won, 88-59. Stokes and the Red Flash would return to Madison Square Garden later that season to finish fourth in the NIT and Stokes was named the MVP of the tournament.

THE BOWTIE CONNECTION

The first time that Stokes played Mount St. Mary's was also the first time that legendary Mount St. Mary's Hall of Fame coach Jim Phelan donned a bow tie on December 12, 1954. Phelan retired at the end of the 2002-03 season, but this will be the first meeting between Saint Francis and the Mount without a Phelan connection since that first meeting against Stokes. Phelan's daughter, Lynne Phelan Robinson, continued the Phelan legacy as an administrator until August 2023 after she retired as Mount St. Mary's Director of Athletics. It will be only the 13th meeting between the two mountainous universities that does not have a Phelan connection and the first since February 15, 1951.  

Saint Francis will wrap up its non-conference slate with the first-ever meeting with Campbell on December 30. Campbell, who is in its first season in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), will be the sixth different CAA team the Red Flash has played and the first since facing both Delaware and William & Mary in 2019-20. 

NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE HYPE VIDEO

For the first time since the 2019-20 season, Saint Francis will open the NEC schedule on the road. It will be the fifth time under Krimmel the Red Flash will play its first conference game on the road. It will also be the first time since the 2019-20 season the league slate will start after the New Year. 
 
Saint Francis will open NEC play at Sacred Heart on January 4 and then will head to Wagner two days later on January 6. It will be the first time the Loretto program will open the circuit in Fairfield at the William H. Pitt Center, but the matchup will mark the second time the two teams will open the league slate after tangling to start the 2005-06 season in Loretto. 
 
For the second-straight year, the Red Flash will host CCSU on January 13 for its league opener when the Blue Devils come to town on January 13 before a Martin Luther King Day home game against FDU on January 15. The squad's third and final three-game homestand ends with LIU on January 19. 
 
LeMoyne begins its transition from Division II to I and a member of the NEC this season. The Red Flash, who lead the all-time series 4-1, will face the Dolphins for the first time since a 71-50 win at the Saint Vincent Tournament in 1957-58 on January 21. It will be the second meeting in Syracuse and the first since Stokes led the Frankies to a 79-53 win on February 9, 1952. 
 
The Red Flash will continue a stretch of five of seven games at DeGol Arena by wrapping up the season series with Sacred Heart on January 25 before Merrimack, the defending NEC regular season and tournament champions, comes to town on January 27. 
 
After playing five of eight games at home in January, the schedule will turn with five of the remaining eight games on the road. 
 
Saint Francis begins the month of February on the road at CCSU (February 1) and at LIU (February 3). 
 
Stonehill makes its first appearance on the schedule for the 2023-24 season after a seven-day break on February 10 at DeGol Arena before Wagner comes to town on February 15. 
 
A trip to FDU starts a three-game road trip on February 17 before the team heads to Massachusetts for games at Merrimack (February 22) and Stonehill (February 24).  
 
For the second-consecutive season, the Red Flash will end the season with a home game with LeMoyne on March 2. 
 
Saint Francis looks to make its third-straight NEC Tournament appearance when the tournament begins on March 6 with the quarterfinals. The NEC Semifinals will be on March 9 and the NEC Championship Game commences on March 12. 
 

2023-24 SAINT FRANCIS NON-CONFERENCE BREAKDOWN BY CONFERENCE

Pac 12: November 6 at UCLA
Saint Francis vs. PAC 12: 0-4 (Arizona [0-1], Arizona State [0-1], USC [0-1], UCLA [0-1])
Last Meeting vs. Pac 12: No 20 UCLA 95, Saint Francis 58 (November 16, 2018)
 
West Coast Conference: November 9 at Santa Clara, November 11 at San Francisco
Saint Francis vs. West Coast Conference: 1-2 (St. Mary's [1-1], San Francisco [0-1])
Last Meeting vs. West Coast Conference: San Francisco 75, Saint Francis 63 (November 13, 2017)
 
Big 10: at November 14 at Penn State
Saint Francis vs. Big 10: 2-12 (Illinois [0-1], Indiana [0-1], Iowa [0-1], Maryland [0-1], Michigan [1-0*], Minnesota [0-1], Ohio State [0-2], Rutgers [1-0])
Last Meeting vs. Big 12: No. 25 Ohio State 96, Saint Francis 59 (December 3, 2022)
Wins vs. Big 10: Saint Francis 73, Rutgers 68 (December 20, 2014)
* in 1995-96 against Michigan, the Wolverines used an ineligible player and Saint Francis was credited with the win
 
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference: November 25 Niagara, December 10 at Iona, December 15 Mount St. Mary's
Saint Francis vs. MAAC: 8-15 (Army [1-1], Canisius [2-2], Iona [0-3], Loyola [1-1], Niagara [3-4], Saint Peter's [1-4])
Last Meeting vs. MAAC: Saint Francis 79, Niagara 73 (November 30, 2018)
 
Patriot League: November 29 at Lehigh, December 2 at American
Saint Francis vs. Patriot League: 27-41 (American [9-12], Bucknell [11-11], Colgate [2-3], Lafayette [0-4], Lehigh [4-11], Navy [2-0])
Last Meeting vs. Patriot League: American 66, Saint Francis 55 (November 26, 2022)

Horizon League: December 22 Robert Morris
Saint Francis vs. Horizon League: 5-9 (Duquesne [0-1], Robert Morris [0-2], Xavier [1-0], Youngstown State [4-6])
Last Meeting vs. Horizon League: Robert Morris 77, Saint Francis 66 (December 21, 2022)
 
Coastal Athletic Association: December 30 Campbell
Saint Francis vs. CAA: 2-8 (Delaware [0-2], Drexel [0-4], George Mason [1-1], VCU [0-1], William & Mary [1-0])
Last Meeting vs. CAA: Saint Francis 78, William & Mary 72 (December 22, 2019)
 
Saint Francis vs. non-Division I under head coach Rob Krimmel:
Bethany [1-0], Bloomsburg [1-0], Chatham [1-0], Franciscan [5-0], Keystone [1-0], Saint Vincent [1-0]), Westminster [1-0]