Last Tuesday St. Francis beat CCSU 46-43 in the NEC tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Red Flash had losing seasons each of the past 4 years but won each of their final 6 games to claim the school’s 1st NCAA tourney bid since 1991. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with St. Francis coach Rob Krimmel about playing an impressive non-conference schedule and making the NCAA tourney.
You played basketball at St. Francis and shot 39.8 3P% during your career: what is the secret to making shots from behind the arc? A lot of reps! After arriving I was fortunate to have some older guys who showed me how to work hard at the college level (including Eric Taylor/Sotiris Aggelou). They took me under their wing and paved the way for me to understand what it would take to be productive.
After graduating in 2000 you became an assistant to Coach Bobby Jones: was it weird to be an assistant while coaching guys who had been your teammates just months earlier? The transition was not always easy: my former teammates and I are friends for life and shared great moments together, but I quickly had to figure out how to create boundaries. Fortunately, the relationships I had fostered were strong and the guys got it.
In 2012 you were named head coach at St. Francis and in 2019 you were named conference COY: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? Since it was voted on by my peers and people who share my passion and know the challenges of coaching at the college level, it meant a lot. However, that award came from the fact that we won, so the staff/players deserve the credit as well.
Your team was 10-17 in mid-February: how have you able to turn things around during the past several weeks? It is a combination of a lot of things. We are playing our best basketball now and have gotten a little better each month. We were struggling with how to play composed but when you get knocked down and then get back up that is how you learn how to deal with adversity. We have a team that is truly player-driven: I know it is a cliché, but they are the ones driving the bus and controlling this thing, which makes a world of difference. We have talented players who created a camaraderie/chemistry, which helped us win close games down the stretch. We had a different player make the winning shot in each of our 3 conference tourney wins. We had a tough non-conference schedule so you cannot always measure success by wins/losses.
You faced several tourney-caliber teams in non-conference play (Clemson/Maryland/Robert Morris): which of them impressed you the most? Each 1 in their own way. RMU coach Andy Toole has been a friend of mine for a long time, and I have so much respect for him as a coach/person. It is a game that a lot of our alumni want to see played, and we will continue it for as long as we can. I have known Maryland coach Kevin Willard from a distance due to his connections to Pitt, which is right down the street. The talent on his roster is impressive, and I think that was the 1 game that checked our guys because we played well for 10 minutes before getting embarrassed. It was 1 of the turning points of our season due to how we responded to that. Clemson was fresh off a deep run in the 2024 NCAA tourney and had to replace some big pieces, but Coach Brad Brownell put together a talented/versatile team. We were down big early, but they are a special institution with a great coach. All those games helped prepare us for our conference tourney run.
Earlier this month FR SG Juan Cranford Jr. was named 2025 conference ROY: how was he able to come in and contribute right from the start? His transition to college was unique because you do not see many freshmen like that. He came from a high school in Ohio that was very successful…but he was not given the keys to the car as a freshman: he had to scratch/claw for minutes on the JV team. He knew what it would be like to come in and compete and add value, and then his talent took over more consistently.
Last Tuesday in the NEC tourney title game your team had a 3-PT win at CCSU: what did it mean to you to win a title, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? There are a LOT of emotions right now: excitement, passion, pride, etc. We got a police escort to campus and students/professors came out of their classrooms to cheer for us. The people who were there to support us is 1 of the things that makes this place so special.
Even though this is your 1st NCAA tourney you made 3 CITs/1 NIT during a 5-year span from 2015-2019: what is the key to winning games in the postseason? You must be able to put the past behind you. We will let our guys enjoy this and then get some shots up, but we are only promised 40 more minutes of basketball and our journey is not over. It is important to block out the distractions because it is the 1st time for all of us. The stakes are higher so we must keep the team focused on our next task and prepare to play with composure/belief/confidence.
St. Francis last made the NCAA tourney in 1991: what the heck were you doing back then at age 13?! I was an 8th grader and probably watching Selection Sunday, just hoping/dreaming that I could make it there myself someday. My high school coach was the 1st person to believe in me and tell me that I could play in college. I played several different sports growing up but when he told me that I had a chance it was important to me. It just takes 1 person to light that fire in you to take the next step.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? The timing of us getting hot did not help us seed so we will be in Dayton, which is absolutely what we deserve. I know who we are as a program, and I will be grateful wherever they put us. We will prepare to play 40 more minutes as a #16 seed and will fight to try to win our 1st game and then face a #1 seed.
