Saint Francis (PA) Basketball: Can the Red Flash with the Northeast Conference in 2018-19?
Saint Francis (Pa.) Basketball has not won a conference championship since 1991. Will that streak be broken n the 2018-19 season?
1991 was a banner year for Saint Francis (Pa.) Red Flash. Not only was that the year they saw post-season action for the first time since 1958, it was also the school’s only regular season and conference tournament championships as well as their lone NCAA Tournament appearance.
2018 may be the Red Flash’s best shot at ending a 27-year tournament drought.
Last season head coach Rob Krimmel’s squad finished in a tie for 2nd in the Northeast Conference with a 12-6 record, even though the potential for a higher finish was there. Four of the team’s six conference losses were by single digits. Nonetheless, they secured the 3rd seed for the conference tournament but were upset in the quarterfinals ending a potentially promising season.
There were things the Red Flash did well in winning 18 games. They scored 79 points per game and they were also one of the best free throw shooting teams in the country at 76.2 %. They were also 56th in the country in turnover margin at 2.1, while committing just 16 fouls per game.
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Where they struggled was on the defensive end. While giving up 76 points per game they also struggled mightily on the boards with a -2.1-rebounding margin, just 8.9 offensive rebounds per game and their 33 total rebounds per game was good enough for just 258th in the country.
Krimmel has nine of his top 10 scorers returning, including all three of the team’s double-digit scorers. The senior-to-be backcourt of the diminutive Jamaal King and Andre Wolford scored 32.4 points last season. At 5-10, King was the team’s leading scorer at over 18 per game and Wolford made a big jump after his sophomore year when he scored four points per game to 14 last season. Junior Keith Braxton and his 17 points also returns, and at 6-4 the New Jersey native was the team’s leading rebounder at 9.5, no other player on the roster had more than four.
With everyone of consequence returning for the Red Flash, there are no newcomers joining the team, but the biggest addition will no doubt be the return of junior guard Isaiah Blackmon. Blackmon was the team’s leading scorer as a sophomore in 2016-17 and averaged 14 points per game last year before he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the 4th game of the year.
The Red Flash was the preseason favorite in the conference, receiving nine of 10 first-place votes. The injury forced senior Malik Harmon into a starting role, but the void that was left in the Saint Francis line up was never really filled. Getting Blackmon back gives Krimmel all the pieces to the puzzle he hoped to have to compete for a conference title last season.
A full Saint Francis (Pa.) squad should compete for its first conference championship since 1991, one major obstacle will stand in their way, reigning champ Wagner who shows no signs of slowing down.