Men's Basketball Opens Season with Two-Game Home Stand

Starting Five

Kansas City enters year two under the guidance of Marvin Menzies on Monday evening, taking on Avila before playing host to St. Mary on Saturday. Despite losing in last season's home opener, the Roos are 7-3 in home openers across the last 10 seasons.
Kansas City returns nine players, accounting for 45.4% of last year's scoring, 64.4% of the rebounding and 60.1% of the minutes. At 206 points, Allen David Mukeba Jr. is the leading returning scorer, while Jeff Ngandu is the leading rebounder at 189.
Alongside the nine returners are seven newcomers for Kansas City, including five transfers and two freshmen. Artese Stapleton, Khristion Courseault and Melvyn Ebonkoli all tranfer in with past Division One experience, while Jamar Brown and Cameron Faas come to KC from the community college ranks. Jayson Petty and Malik Olafioye are KC's lone true freshmen this season.
The Roos will look to a healthy Anderson Kopp as a large contributor this year. Last season, Kopp appeared in four games before a season-ending wrist injury. In those games, he averaged 13.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.3 steals. As a junior in 2021-22, Kopp shot 43.8% from the field, averaging 8.3 points per contest.
Last season, Kansas City ranked 348th in the nation in three point percentage at 28.3%. The Roos' coaching staff looked to address that issue in the offseason. Faas was a 49.7% three-point shooter last year at Scottsdale CC, while Brown shot 44% from beyond the arc at Phoenix College.

Avila Notes

Avila is led by first-year Head Coach Tyler Bredehoeft, who joins the Eagles from Rock Valley College.
Kansas City is 3-0 against the Eagles all-time, including a 102-49 win in the 2019-20 home-opener.
In their season-opener, the Eagles lost to (NAIA RV) Columbia, 85-48. Jaren Miller led the team with eight points off the bench.
Last season, the Eagles were 7-20, including a 6-16 mark in KCAC play. Jorden Gilmete is the team's leading returning scorer, averaging 4.6 points per game last year.

St. Mary Notes

St. Mary is led by Troy Brown, in his 10th year as the head coach of the Spires.
The Spires have opened the season with a 2-1 record, beginning the year with wins against Haskell and Kansas Christian College before falling to Dakota Wesleyan. They will also play Baker and College of the Ozarks before Saturday.
Through three games, Deshaud St. Martin and Demarius Houston are St. Mary's leading scorers, averaging 16.3 and 16.0 points per game, respectively.
Houston is a grad transfer from Wiley University in Texas, where he averaged 9.4 points per game last season.

Marvelous Resume

Head Coach Marvin Menzies entered his tenure at Kansas City as the most decorated incoming coach in program history.
He came to KC with 12 years of DI head coaching experience and 246 wins to his name.
During his time at New Mexico State, he won three WAC regular season championships.
He also won the WAC tournament championship and qualified for the NCAA Tournament five times, in 2010, and 2012-15. He was named WAC Coach of the Year in 2015.
During his stint at UNLV, Menzies improved the Runnin' Rebels' final spot in the Mountain West standings each year.

How to Start?

Plagued by injury last season, the Roos had trouble finding a consistent starting lineup.
The Roos ran out 16 different starting linueps across 32 games, with three lineup combinations getting four starts.
Kansas City used a different starting lineup in each of the last six games of the year, ending the season with three freshmen in the starting lineup against Omaha on Mar. 3.

Board Man Gets Paid

Jeff Ngandu established himself as a presence on the boards last year, notching a team-high 189 total rebounds, including three double-digit rebounding games.
He also led the Summit and ranked 88th in the nation, averaging 2.6 offensive boards per game.
He went for back-to-back 17-rebound games against St. Thomas and Western Illinois in January. He was the first player in program history to reach that mark in back-to-back games.
His 10 offensive rebounds against Western Illinois were the most by a Roo since at least the 2010-11 season, according to Basketball Reference.

Phoenix Connection

This year's Kansas City team has three players from the Phoenix area - where both Head Coach Marvin Menzies and Associate Head Coach Joe Esposito have past roots.
Cameron Faas and Jamar Brown are both from the Phoenix area and spent the last two years in local community colleges. Jayson Petty is a Phhoenix Prep product.
The three are the first Arizona natives on the Kansas City roster since at least the 2000-01 season.

Sticking Around

Anderson Kopp is the longest-tenured Roo on roster, having spent the 2021-22 season in Kansas City prior to Coach Menzies' arrival.
He is the only player still on roster to have played under the previous coaching staff.
Jevin Sullivan and Cole Glasgow were both signed previous to Menzies' arrival, and kept their commitment after his hiring.
In addition, Brody Werner is the longest-tenured member of the Roos' staff. He came to KC as a Graduate Assistant in 2021-22, finishing his master's program last year while aiding Menzies' staff. He was kept around for this season, joining full-time as the video and scouting coordinator.

University of Missouri Kansas City Athletics