Rob Krimmel is one of the better stories of this year’s March Madness. He’s been at Saint Francis since 1996: four seasons as a player, 12 seasons as an assistant and the last 13 as the head coach. For the first time in those 29 years, he will be heading to the NCAA Tournament. That’s a wonderful story and the kind of thing that he will remember forever, but this is a group that is going to have their work cut out for them.
The Red Flash are under .500 this season. On Feb. 15, they were sitting at 10-17 overall and 5-8 in the NEC, a game ahead of last place. They closed the regular season with three straight OT wins and in the NEC tournament knocked off Wagner, LIU and Central Connecticut, the latter two on the road, to get to the Big Dance. This is a team that ranks sub-300 overall on KenPom. The closest they kept it with a high-major program this season was a 17-point loss at Georgetown. They lost 111-57 at Maryland in December.
Enjoy the ride while it lasts, because it won’t last long.
Rob Dauster
