Robert Morris, Saint Francis latest to get March Madness turns

It’s the time of year for college basketball’s spotlight to shine. The sports world focuses on March Madness.

But not everyone is happy while the yearly observance of Selection Sunday approaches and emotions run wild from the shoo-ins to the bid-stealers.

Just ask Pitt.

After a 22-11 season a year ago, the Panthers failed to make the NCAA Tournament’s 68-team field. Across town, Atlantic 10 Tournament champion Duquesne did.

Pitt again is on the outside looking in after its latest season collapsed following a promising start. As was the case a year ago, the Panthers chose to not compete in any of the remaining tournaments, if, in fact, they would be considered.

Meanwhile, West Virginia has taken a seat on the bubble after its early exit from the Big 12 Tournament, and Penn State failed to even make the tournament field in the Big Ten.

“Anything is possible,” Saint Francis sophomore and Penn Hills product Daemar Kelly told TribLive after the Red Flash’s 46-43 victory Tuesday night over top-seeded Central Connecticut State in the Northeast Conference Tournament championship game, ending the nation’s longest winning streak at 14.

Kelly’s basket in the closing seconds gave visiting Saint Francis the lead for good as the tiny Cambria County school earned just its second NCAA Tournament bid.

As prognosticators, self-proclaimed experts and just plain, old fans with brackets in hand frantically try figuring out the 68-team men’s field, they know winners and losers develop in varying ways.

A year ago, Duquesne captured the region’s attention with a dazzling run through the A-10 Tournament to earn its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1977.

The Dukes split a pair of games to finish 25-12.

This year, Robert Morris gets a turn.

The top-seeded Colonials won their first Horizon League Tournament championship by beating No. 4 Youngstown State, 89-78, on Tuesday and were excited to learn the details of their next journey during an NCAA watch party Sunday night at UPMC Events Center.

Pairings will be announced at 6 p.m. on CBS.

“The best tournament in sports,” said Robert Morris coach Andy Toole, who will be making his fifth NCAA Tournament appearance, two as the Colonials’ head coach and one as an assistant, as well as one as a player at Penn.

Robert Morris will be making its ninth NCAA appearance after winning a 10th overall conference championship. The 2020 team won the NEC Tournament, but the NCAA Tournament was wiped out by covid-19.

Saint Francis’ first bid came in 1991.

As a No. 15 seed, the Red Flash were led by future NBA point guard Mike Iuzzolino and his sidekick, Joe Anderson, the school’s all-time leading scorer.

They went on to defeat Patriot League champion Fordham in a play-in game before losing to No. 2 seed Arizona, 93-80, in the first round in Salt Lake City.

On the national broadcast of that 13-point Saint Francis loss, color commentator Jack Givens noticed Iuzzolino’s stellar play — he scored 20, and Anderson produced 29 points and 12 rebounds against Arizona — and began mispronouncing his name as, “Eye-zoh-leeno.”

No matter how you pronounced it — the proper way is “Izz-oh-leeno” — the Altoona native wound up as a second-round NBA Draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks that year.

Now, Iuzzolino, who is in his first season as a high school coach, has led Sewickley Academy (23-5) into the PIAA Class 2A semifinals following a 42-35 victory Saturday over Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.

After leading Saint Francis on its maiden NCAA Tournament voyage, the crafty sharp-shooter played the game at the highest level and spent a long career in the professional ranks in Europe. He later spent 19 seasons as a college assistant at various stops, the past eight on Toole’s staff at Robert Morris, including the final three as his associate head coach.

Iuzzolino was instrumental in recruiting numerous players, including current Robert Morris sophomore Spaniard Alvaro Folgueiras, the Horizon League Player of the Year.

So as Selection Sunday’s festivities prepare to kick off March Madness, remember what Kelly said: “Anything is possible.”