St. Francis men’s basketball coach Rob Krimmel expects team to shoot better with more blended roster

With a strong blend of returners and impactful newcomers, St. Francis men’s basketball coach Rob Krimmel sounded quite optimistic about his team’s prospects this coming season.

The Red Flash bring back seven letterwinners and three starters from the 2023-24 team. Krimmel expects his squad to shoot at a higher clip this winter.

“We’re going to shoot the ball a lot better,” Krimmel said during Tuesday’s tip-off luncheon at Levity Brewing Co. in Altoona. “It’s going to have to be a bigger part of our repertoire, our scheme. It’s not just one guy. We can put a lot of guys on the floor – a little bit like the team with (now-Southern California forward) Josh Cohen a couple years ago (2022-23) where I think we finished in the top 20 in the country in 3-point percentage. I think we have a team like that. We’re going to have to utilize the 3-point shot this year more.”

Guards Chris Moncrief, Bobby Rosenberger III and Ace Talbert should help buoy a backcourt that will be tasked with limiting turnovers and running the offense.

“I think we’re going to be able to take care of the basketball,” Krimmel said. “Our assist to field goals, those things that allow you to get a great shot and be much more improved, is in part because of the experience of guys like Ace and Bobby, but then bringing in someone in like Riley (Parker), who’s got 60 games under his belt will be helpful as we kind of shape our offensive identity. Right now, we’re rebounding at a pretty high clip. So much of that will be determined in January when we get into our peer group (conference play). We’ll shoot it better and we’ll handle it better.”

St. Francis went 8-22 – 3-11 in the Northeast Conference – in 2023-24.

The Red Flash finished in a tie for eighth place in the nine-team league as part of the preseason coaches poll.

The Red Flash begin the season at Dayton Monday and at Clemson Friday. Both of those squads advanced to at least the second round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Clemson played in the regional final. St. Francis plays at Penn State Nov. 12, at Georgetown Nov. 23 and at Maryland Dec. 17 among power conference foes.

“So much of the early part for us is about progress,” Krimmel said. “Sometimes progress isn’t always measured in wins and losses because you’re playing against Dayton. You’re playing against Clemson. You got to go to Penn State. You have some teams that on paper are a lot better than you with talent, resources. It’s also a good lesson for our guys. It’s not about the five best players. It’s the five players that are playing the best on that particular night. We beat Pitt a few years back on opening night. We’ve been competitive with some other teams over the course of the last decade. It’s a good way for our guys to understand the urgency that you need to play with every single night because, at that level, that’s a lot of time when it separates the good from the great. The ability to win maybe just the small battles within a game and put that together for 40 minutes.”

Krimmel believes his returning group will be able to hit the court running this season compared to this past season. Their collective experience should help them play at their own pace and not be sped up, he said.

“I think they’re more focused,” Krimmel said. “Last year, their heads are spinning. This is college basketball. We’re all freshmen and they didn’t have anybody really to look to. It was more learning on their own. That can be tough, especially in college athletics where it’s such a competitive environment. Things are fast-paced. To see them be able to be a little more focused, to be more intentional about their day – that’s the progress that you want to see out of those kids.”

Monday’s probable starting lineup could include guards Moncrief (second year in program after transferring from Evansville), Rosenberger and Talbert, and forwards Aidan Harris and Valentino Pinedo, a 6-foot-8 post coming from East Carolina. Harris, Rosenberger and Talbert started all 16 league games in 2023-24. Rosenberger is one of four NEC players who ranked in the top 30 in points per game and is returning this season. He registered 10.6 points and 6.0 rebounds per game in league play and 9.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest in 2023-24.

Talbert averaged 8.3 points per game and led the team with 64 assists, while Harris topped the team in steals (30) and is the top returner in blocks (12) and second in rebounding (4.6).

“The key to our success this year will be our togetherness,” Talbert said. “We have a group of unselfish guys that are playing together, moving the ball and scoring.”

Gestin Liberis, Wisler Sanon II and Miles Webb also return and combined for 16 starts in 2023-24. Transfers Daemar Kelly (Quinnipiac), Parker (Cochise College) and Pinedo and freshmen Jeremy Clayville, Juan Cranford Jr. and Victor Payne are new to the team in 2024-25.

“To start with, a big piece of them bringing me in was to be a leader to a lot of the younger guys because of my experience playing overseas and playing college basketball before,” Parker said.

“Push the pace in transition, play a lot in transition and shoot the ball at a high percentage. Make shots, push the pace and have fun.”

St. Francis added six scholarship players, three transfers and three freshmen. Kelly, a Pittsburgh native, played in 26 games at Quinnipiac as a freshman in 2023-24. Pinedo, a native of Spain, appeared in 45 games at East Carolina. Parker, a guard from Australia, made 41.5% of his 3-point attempts at Cochise College. He averaged 11.1 points per game over two seasons, including 13.9 in 2023-24. Parker totaled 268 assists to 149 turnovers over two campaigns. He added 186 rebounds and 95 steals over 55 games, including 52 starts.

“It’s a combination of freshmen and experience,” Krimmel said. “I think that combination of older guys coming in and younger guys coming in allows the roster to be balanced a little bit more. Our freshmen are really talented, but the nice thing about it this year is we’re not going to have to rely on them out of the gate. Last year, we knew we were going to have to start multiple freshmen because of the way the roster was made up. This year, if they get in there, if the best player is a freshman – no problem, but early on in the season, they’ll be able to kind of work their way into what college basketball is all about.”

A better mixture on the roster has Rosenberger believing the Red Flash can pull out some more victories this season compared to 2023-24.

“I think when our backs are against the wall, when we need to be able to rally with each other, have close huddles, that’s very important,” Rosenberger said. “Having a bunch of returners this year, I think that’s been helpful.

“The majority of us as returners and having some older guys that are more experienced and know what it takes to win. Now that we know what it takes to win and what we have to do as a team together and what we need to do individually, that will help us in the long run.”

Improved chemistry has been touted by team members.

“The key to our success this year will be our togetherness,” Talbert said. “We have a group of unselfish guys that are playing together, moving the ball and scoring. We’re very resilient. I would say we don’t give up. Even when our backs are against the wall, we may be down 20 points, we’re going to come together, pull to the middle and we get the job done.

“Being competitive every day in practice, building that camaraderie on and off the court, that’s extremely important because that will always translate to help win games.”

Moving the ball on offense is an element the Red Flash think will lead to more assists and less reliance on isolation basketball.

“I think some things that stick out is our unselfishness,” Rosenberger said. “We’ve been moving the ball very well in our scrimmages and practices. We’ve been shooting the ball really well. If you’re moving the ball well and you have unselfishness, you’re going to get open shots. When you get open shots, you got to hit them. We’ve been rebounding pretty well. I think our camaraderie has been really good.

“Everyone plays really well together to create good team chemistry.”

The six newcomers all bring different skill sets to the table.

“I think they all bring their own special thing,” Rosenberger said. “They can all shoot very well. They’re all very unselfish. I think they’ve been great assets to the team and they’ve been very helpful.”

Parker and his teammates possess a blue-collar work ethic and passion.

“Definitely just our competitive maturity,” Parker said. “We really like to attack every day with high intensity. We have three goals: to win the NEC Tournament and then to go to the NCAA Tournament and win. We build on that every single day. We’re a hard-working team, a very resilient team. It’s been a lot of fun to work so far.”

Krimmel listed taking care of the basketball and limiting opponents to one shot as keys for his team.

Jake Oswalt is a copy editor for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @TheWizOfOz11.