Jimmy McKinney&#8217;s career as a Missouri basketball player might have fallen short of expectations, but the former Tiger guard may have a future in the movies.</p><p>McKinney, a native of St. Louis, has a starring role in the feature film &#8220;Streetballers,&#8221; a drama written by and co-starring <strong>Matthew Krentz</strong>, who played basketball at Rockhurst University.</p><p>The film, shot in St. Louis, made its world premiere at the 2008 Hollywood Black Film Festival, where it finished second for top feature film and will make its St. Louis premiere next Thursday at the Tivoli Theatre in the University City Loop area.</p><p>&#8220;Jimmy has made a wonderful transition from the court to the big screen,&#8221; said <strong>Patrick Rooney</strong>, the film&#8217;s producer and a graduate of the University of Kansas. &#8220;It would not surprise me if things open up for him. The director really worked with him and said, &#8216;Just be yourself out there.&#8217;&#8194;&#8221;</p><p>The movie centers on McKinney&#8217;s character, Jacob Whitmore, a black athlete from North St. Louis, and Krentz&#8217;s character, John Hogan, a white athlete from South St. Louis, who are teammates on a junior college team.</p><p>The story is about how they discover their cultural differences and learn to work together in dealing with broken homes, the demands of college athletics, as well as a culture of alcoholism, racism and drugs.</p><p>Rooney, who also has a role in the film, said they hope to have a Kansas City premiere in the near future. Clips can be seen at the official &#8220;Streetballers&#8221; Web site: <a href="http://www.streetballersthemovie.com">www.streetballersthemovie.com</a>.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Domino champion</span></strong></p><p>Walk into most any NFL locker room or major-league clubhouse, and somewhere you&#8217;ll find a dominos game going on.</p><p>But none of the major-league athletes can touch <strong>Jerome Wooten</strong> of Kansas City, who recently won the 33rd annual World Championship Domino Tournament in Andalusia, Ala. Wooten, 32, pocketed $3,000 for his victory over <strong>Don Wood</strong> of Montgomery, Ala., in the finals of the competition that drew about 400 participants.</p><p>What&#8217;s the secret to winning in dominoes?</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of strategy in it,&#8221; said Wooten, a professional dominos player, who said he won more than $120,000 in 2006 when he was the Professional Domino Association champion. &#8220;If you&#8217;re good in math, you should be pretty good.&#8221;</p><p>Well, that eliminates me.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Nitzel takes on Iowa Chops</span></strong></p><p><strong>Steve Nitzel</strong>, who was a partner at Ice Sports on Johnson Drive in Shawnee for the past few years, has been hired as president of the American Hockey League team in Des Moines, the Iowa Chops.</p><p>The newly named Chops will be in their first season as top affiliate of the NHL&#8217;s Anaheim Ducks, who previously had their AHL team in Portland, Maine.</p><p>For whatever reason, AEG, which manages the Sprint Center, has shown little inclination to bring in an AHL team to Kansas City until an NHL franchise becomes available. So in the meantime, with Des Moines just three hours away, the AHL is the closest high-quality hockey available to Kansas City fans.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d love for people to come up,&#8221; said Nitzel. &#8220;It makes a lot of sense from a regional standpoint.&#8221;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> @ Go to <strong>KansasCity.com</strong> to read news and notes from Top of the Mornin&#8217; columnist Jeffrey Flanagan in his blog, &#8220;Over the Top.&#8221;</p><p></div>