Red Flash over Pitt? When a 270th-rated college basketball team in the country beats an ACC opponent, it is a huge upset.

St. Francis' Maxwell Land after burying a trey against Pitt

What does the first win in 30 tries say about the Red Flash? 

We know what it says about the Panthers.

Photo: Tribune-Review


… how far the Panthers have fallen


When I saw a score on Twitter that indicated that the St. Francis Red Flash were running over the University of Pittsburgh, I thought that maybe it was a women’s score. 


However, the Red Flash pulled out an 80-70 victory over the Panthers at the Petersen Events Center on Thanksgiving Eve, shocking everyone from the Pitt media and fans on Twitter to the St. Francis faithful who saw their team win its first game over Pitt in 30 tries. 


What makes the situation even more incongruous is that the Red Flash were picked in a preseason poll by Northeast Conference SIDs to finish sixth in the league, which is rated 28th out of 34 by Jeff Sagarin’s preseason rankings. 


The Red Flash led by 13 at the half and built that to 20 in the second half before the Panthers narrowed it to single digits in the final minutes. 


Panthers devastated


Pitt Coach Jeff Capel inherited a mess three years ago but the former Duke assistant appeared to be making some progress with some decent recruiting and improvement in game coaching. 


What happened here was unbelievable to him,


“They were very, very ready to play. They were really good. They controlled the game from the beginning,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said of St. Francis. 


“Disappointing for us. Very, very disappointing for us. Especially to start the game, we didn’t have the energy that’s required for us to have a good team. I’m not really sure why. It took us a half to get that energy.”


Kevin Gorman, “St. Francis builds big halftime lead, holds on to stun 

Pitt in season opener,” Tribune-Review, November 25, 2020


Making it worse, the Panthers have never lost a season opener at the “Pete,” and that is usually because you should a team that is rated 270th out of about 330 Div. I teams. 


However, the Panthers were picked to finish 13th out of 15 in the ACC, so Capel’s rebuilding effort may be more monumental that some fans were hoping.


Huge Red Flash win


Teams that are huge underdogs often play well in the first half against stronger teams, but the powerful teams like those in the fourth-rated Atlantic Coast Conference most often come out with tremendous energy in the second half. 


That did not happen as the Red Flash built a bigger lead right away,


And Pitt was 15-0 in season openers at the Pete, winning by an average margin of 21.3 points.


Yet three minutes into the second half, Pitt trailed 55-35. The Red Flash had five players score in double figures, led by senior guard Ramir Dixon-Conover’s game-high 21 points, and shot 43% from the field (27 of 63). They sank nine 3-pointers and scored 27 points off PItt’s 23 turnovers.


It was an ominous start for the Panthers (0-1), given that St. Francis was picked to finish sixth in an NEC preseason poll. The Panthers returned three starters, added a scorer in transfer Ithiel Horton and a freshmen class with five recruits, including top-100 forward John Hugley.


Kevin Gorman, Tribune-Review, November 25, 2020


The Flash were led by Ramiir Dixon-Conover with 21 points as he hit 5-of-9 from the floor and added nine points in free throws, and five players hit double figures. 


Making it even more memorable was the fact that St. Francis had not defeated an ACC team since a win over Boston College in 1976, 44 years.


While Coach Rob Krimmel’s team was not expected to be as good as it has been the past few years, this performance could propel it to another season in which it contended for an NEC title. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dr. Chet Beres, M.D., the quarterback who gave of himself to so many people: Some Lilly Raiders who will not be with us on Saturday

Image
Chet Beres was a special human being … The 1968 championship QB is calling audibles from heaven On a few nights in late October 2010, I slept overnight at the Conemaugh Hospital palliative care unit. My brother, Father Jim, was clinging to life at the end of a long battle with cancer, and this unit was designed to make life easier for those in the final stages of disease — and for the families who wanted to spend their last days with their loved ones. It was at that time that while wandering through the hall, I noticed a plaque on the wall that warmed my heart, albeit in a sad way.  The palliative care unit was dedicated to Dr. Chet Beres, M.D., an advocate for those in hospice care. My mind flashed back to the Lilly Raider quarterback on the 1968 championship team, a young man who was bright, exuberant, and so popular with his teammates.  Chet went on to college at Pitt and to medical school after graduating from Penn Cambria. We knew that he was bright, but we also knew that he had c
Read more

Why did Tennessee-Chattanooga hire trainer Tim Bream despite his role in the alcohol-induced death of Tim Piazza at a Penn State frat?

Image
… was a live-in advisor at the fraternity On paper, Tim Bream has an impressive resume. Actually, very impressive — up to a point. That seems to be when Bream’s life appears to careen out of control. Bream, who resigned as Penn State trainer in Feb.,  was a graduate of Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in physical education, specializing in athletic training. He then attended West Virginia as a grad assistant trainer, where he received a master’s degree in Physical Education with an emphasis on Sports Science. All of this information is from his bio on the Penn State athletic site. He then worked his way up the ladder impressively, working at Syracuse, Vanderbilt, and finally at the University of Richmond, where he was the Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer. Then he received his big break, being name as Assistant Athletic Trainer for the Chicago Bears in 1993, and four years later, Head Athletic Trainer. He was with the Bears for 19 years when inexplicably, he
Read more

Remembering the toughest loss I ever experienced in approximately a quarter-century of coaching football. George Pasierb was a great coaching adversary.

Image
R.I.P. George Pasierb, 1946-2020 Shade-Central City High School football coach Photo: Tribune-Democrat No high school football fan could ask for anything better than this. On a beautiful sunny, warm afternoon on Saturday, October 30, 1982, in Nanty Glory, Pa., the battle featured a clash of two undefeated titans of the Appalachian Conference.  One was the preseason unanimous favorite to win the title, the other a veritable surprise that season, one that had built an 8-0 record entering that game.  This battle lived up to the pre-game hype, ending in a one-point decision that was not certain until the final play of the game.  I thought of this because the coach of the powerful Shade-Central City High School Panthers, George Pasierb, passed away earlier this week. He coached the Panthers for 20 years, but his best team was arguably that 1982 team that battled the Blacklick Valley Vikings on that Saturday afternoon before more than 3,000 ebullient fans.  And, the one-point loss was the to
Read more