After records of 4-24, 8-21 and 6-23 the past three seasons, it came as no surprise when Bobby Jones resigned last night as the head men's basketball coach at Saint Francis University of Loretto, Pa.

Jones had a nine-year record of 85-167 that included one winning season at 15-13 in 2004-05. The Red Flash were 10-8 in consecutive seasons in the Northeast Conference from 2003-05 with a tie for fourth place the highest finish.

Jones' 85 wins is tied with his predecessor, Tom McConnell (1992-99) for second most victories by a coach in the 95 years the school has been playing men's basketball.

Saint Francis is in the process of putting together a search committee led by athletic director Bob Krimmel to hire a new coach. Assistant coaches Joey Goodson, Rob Krimmel and Winston Smith will remain on the staff until a new coach is named, but none of them is considered a candidate for the job.

"[Jones and his family] represented the university with the utmost class and dignity," Bob Krimmel said. "Bobby's teams always represented the true concept of the student-athlete."

Before coming to Saint Francis, Jones was an assistant at Minnesota under Clem Haskins from 1997-99 and an assistant at Pitt under Ralph Willard from 1994-97.

The new coach will inherit all 13 players from last year's 6-23 team that lost its final five games. The leading returning scorer entering 2008-09 will be 6-foot-4 senior Chris Berry (11.2 ppg.) and 6-9 senior Bassirou Dieng (10.7).