Who is St. Francis (Pa.)?

Men's basketball

Remember how big-name wrestlers would warm up for a pay-per-view title match by taking down a mid-carder on WCW Saturday Night?

Well, "Ravishing" Rick Rude (Akron) will battle "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (St. Francis - Pa.) at 7 tonight at Rhodes Arena.

As long as the Zips can negate the Red Flash's height advantage by winning the rebounding battle, Akron should blow out St. Francis, the preseason choice to be the worst team in the Northeast Conference.

St. Francis is 4-5 with few worthy wins to its resume. The Red Flash's best game probably was a 60-56 loss at home against Bucknell.

However, its second-leading scorer, J.R. Enright, is 6-foot-10. Enright is a solid defender down low, too. Coach Bobby Jones also plays 6-9 forward Bass Dieng about 20 minutes a game. The team's best player is Devin Sweetney, a 6-6 freshman who leads the team in scoring (14.3) and rebounding (7).

St. Francis is a great foul shooting team and generally keeps the scoring low. It leads the Northeast Conference in both categories. This is also one of the youngest Division I teams with only two upperclassmen getting a lot of playing time. That might be the reason the Red Flash has won only one of its four road games.

The Red Flash has some size and a versatile wing player. So in some ways, this is Illinois-Chicago Lite.

Rick Rude wins the match as long as he can avoid Bobby Eaton's Alabama Jammer. Akron will do the same as long as the team does not get dominated inside.