Joe Lombardi and Tom McConnell; today, IUP coaching colleagues but once battled for St. Francis job

… both successful at IUP 

Today, Joe Lombardi is prepping his Indiana University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team for the postseason: first the Pennsylvania State Athletic Association (PSAC) championship and then another run for a Div. II national title.

Tom McConnell is moving in the same direction with the IUP women's basketball team. His team is the second seed in the PSAC-West playoffs and the third seed in the Div. II Atlantic region national seedings right now.

Both have achieved success at IUP, but at one time, they battled one another for the same job, albeit one at the Div. I level -- but in a school much smaller than IUP.

History

Lombardi is a graduate of Youngstown State where he played for four years. He then coached there and at Ohio University before going to IUP as an assistant to Tom Beck (1984-87).

In 1987, he was offered the job as Jim Baron's top assistant at St. Francis College (now university), which competed at the Div. I level, and he accepted it. He was part of the staff that led the Red Flash to its first -- and only one in 39 years -- Northeast Conference championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament in 1991.

In 1992, Baron decided to take the men's job at St. Bonaventure. That opened up the St. Francis job, and Lombardi was interested.

So was Tom McConnell.

The McConnell family

Tom was the oldest of eight children in his family, six of whom earned scholarships to play Div. I basketball. His father was a police officer, and they were good, strong Catholics.

He played two seasons at Davidson, and returned to Pittsburgh to start his coaching career. He coached some high school and AAU ball, and finally coached as an assistant men's coach at St. Francis for a year and at Wake Forest for another year before coaching for three at Marquette.

McConnell then went to coach with Jim O'Brien at Dayton.

So, in 1992 he had some quality Div. I assistant coaching experience, as Lombardi did, and he also applied for Baron's former job, too.

Decision

I can only talk about what I heard from a media perspective at the time -- and from some St. Francis people. McConnell had been very popular at St. Francis when he had been an assistant there in 1984-85. Unfortunately for him, he coached with Kevin Porter, who was a poor recruiter and a shaky game coach. He was fired after four seasons.

One of the infamous stories about Porter was that McConnell had set up a recruiting meeting with an outstanding high school player and thought that he had a good chance of landing him in the future. Porter never showed up.

The player's name: Mike Iuzzolino.

Still, the administration regarded McConnell well.

Did Lombardi offend the dean?

I am not certain exactly what happened with Lombardi's quest to get the Red Flash job. I do know that he eventually pulled out of consideration.

The story was that the dean of students, Jeffrey J. Quin, disliked Lombardi for a few reasons: he was popular, he was good looking, he had a good personality, and he was successful. Funny, those are the same reasons that were given for Quin to push St. Francis to fire Dave Magarity as head coach about nine years before that.

Whatever it was, Tom McConnell was hired over Lombardi, who then followed Baron to St. Bonaventure, again as his top assistant.

Lombardi then continued what appeared like it was going to be a life-time Div. I assistant's career, spending nine years at Bonaventure, two at LaSalle, and three at Pitt before taking the IUP job in 2006.

McConnell at St. Francis

McConnell then coached the Red Flash for seven seasons, leading them to a very successful 17-10 record in 1997-98. That still stands as the best season since Baron's 1991 year when they finished 23-8 and won the NEC.

The next season, McConnell's team looked like it had promise, but then lost eight or nine straight at the end of the season to disappoint him and the SF fans.

That led McConnell to do some soul-searching about whether coaching was the right career for him.

[St. Francis has had only five winning seasons in the past 39 years, so it is a tough place to coach.]

McConnell then took some time off and worked for the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. While doing so, he coached a high school team and then became a college women's assistant with his sister, Kathy, at Colorado.

Finally, four years ago, he was hired at IUP.

Lombardi's record

Lombardi has built IUP into a national power in his 11 years. They have been to the national championship game twice -- although they have not won yet -- and have a shot this season. They are seeded second in the Atlantic region behind Fairmont State, which is ranked first in the country. Generally, though, the West Va. teams in the WVIAC do not play the competition that the PSAC teams do.

In just his third year at IUP, Lombardi led the Hawks to the national title game against Cal Poly Pomona. They compiled a 33-3 record that season and were ranked second in the country at the end of the season after losing in the title game.

The Crimson Hawks also advanced to the national championship game in 2015 before losing to Florida Southern, 77-62.

Lombardi has won more than 84 percent of his games at IUP (189-32) thus far. His squad has a 26-2 record right now as it enters PSAC-West competition this week.

His son, Dante, is a sophomore starter on the IUP squad.

McConnell at IUP

Tom McConnell is in his fourth season with the IUP women, and they have shown improvement. After an 18-10 record in his first season, his team finished 25-4 the next season and won the PSAC-West. The squad made the national playoffs and lost in the Atlantic region quarterfinals.

The following season they were 21-9 and reached the PSAC finals and were again eliminated in the regional quarterfinals.

McConnell's team is now 20-6 overall, 18-4 in the PSAC-West, where they finished second behind California.

He has compiled a record of 84-29 (74.3 percent) in his four seasons.