Sewickley Academy boys basketball coach Mike Iuzzolino to be honored at Saint Francis

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, January 11, 2026 | 11:01 AM

Go back 35 years.

Mike Iuzzolino and Joe Anderson led the Saint Francis University men’s basketball team to the first NEC championship in school history.

Now, return to 2026.

In conjunction with that 35th anniversary, Iuzzolino and Anderson will join three “Golden Era” of Red Flash men’s basketball players — Maurice Stokes (No. 26), Kevin Porter (No. 10) and Norm Van Lier (No. 12) — with their uniforms being hung from the SFU gym rafters in recognition of their basketball achievements at Saint Francis.

Iuzzolino and Anderson will be recognized in a ceremony Feb. 14 when the Red Flash hosts Mercyhurst. Game time is 2 p.m.

Iuzzolino, head coach of the Sewickley Academy boys basketball team, wore jersey No. 42 as a 5-foot-10, 175-pound point guard at Saint Francis.

“I’m very honored and humbled to have my jersey next to great players like Stokes, Van Lier and Porter,” Iuzzolino said. “My first reaction was to think about my teammates and all the people that helped make this possible. This doesn’t happen because of what you do individually but because of what your team accomplished and what your teammates and coaches help you achieve collectively.

“I am also so happy that my teammate Joe Anderson’s jersey is going up on wall also.”

Anderson is the only player to score more points at Saint Francis than Stokes with 2,301 career points. Stokes, a Naismith Hall of Famer, finished with 2,282 career points.

Iuzzolino is the only player to score more points than Stokes in a single season with 772 in his 1990-91 senior year. Stokes had 760 points in 1950-51. Iuzzolino racked up 1,346 points in his two years in Loretto, 14 less than Stokes (1,360 points) had in his final two years.

“I am extremely excited for coach Iuzzolino on his jersey retirement at Saint Francis,” Mike Scerbo, Sewickley Academy’s director of athletics, said. “It is a well-deserved honor after a tremendous career as a player, leading one of the greatest teams in Saint Francis history.”

Anderson, Iuzzolino, Stokes and Darshan Luckey (2002-03, 2004-05) are the only players to connect for 550-plus points in multiple seasons.

And there is one more connection that Iuzzolino and Anderson share with Stokes.

There are only five players in Red Flash history to average 20 ppg over a two-year span: Sandy Williams (25.8 ppg, 1962-64), Stokes (25.1 ppg, 1953-55), Porter (23.8 ppg, 1970-72), Iuzzolino (22.8 ppg, 1989-91) and Anderson (21.0 ppg, 1989-91).

Iuzzolino played one season at Penn State before attending Saint Francis. The Altoona native was named the 1990-91 NEC Player of the Year — the first in program history — after averaging 24.1 ppg. He shot 54.2% from the floor, 52.8% from behind the arc and 88.5% from the free throw line to rank 20th in scoring, third in 3-point percentage, sixth in free throw percentage and 15th in 3-pointers made in NCAA Division I.

Iuzzolino also was named the NEC Tournament Most Valuable Player after scoring 25 points and adding eight assists against St. Francis Brooklyn in the NEC semifinals and 32 points and six assists against FDU in the championship game.

He added 16 points and five assists against Fordham in the NCAA play-in game and 20 points and six assists against Arizona in the NCAA Tournament.

Iuzzolino was the last Saint Francis player drafted in the NBA. He was selected in the second round (35th pick) in 1991 by the Dallas Mavericks. He played two seasons with the Mavericks, averaging 9 ppg, before playing professionally in Italy and Spain until 2003. He was later inducted into the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame.

His coaching stops include Duquesne (2005-07), George Mason (2007-08), Saint Vincent (2008-12), Canisius (2014-16) and Robert Morris (2016-24).

Tags: Sewickley Academy