Nothing but The Summit remains for KC Roos hoop teams, which start league play Saturday
The KC Roos basketball teams are back where they started in conference play.
After a seven-year absence, the Roos are back in The Summit League, with a few changes on both sides. The Summit picked up a couple of members in the interim — Denver and North Dakota — and Kansas City has re-branded its athletic programs.
Known as UMKC in its first tenure, the school now prefers “Kansas City” and “KC Roos” for its athletic teams.
By whatever name, men’s coach Billy Donlan believes the task will be difficult when league play begins Saturday for the men’s and women’s teams. They play at North Dakota on Saturday and Sunday.
“This is a great league we’ve joined,” Donlan said.
On Wednesday, The Summit ranked 19th of the 32 conferences in Ratings Percentage Index, according to the website warrennolan.com. The Roos’ former league, the WAC, ranked 25th.
Good news for the Roos: Leading scorer Brandon McKissic, who recently explored transferring, has withdrawn his name from the NCAA transfer portal, Donlan said. McKissic, a senior guard, leads the Roos with 15.8 points per game.
Kansas City, 4-5, seeks its first victory over a DIvision I opponent. The Roos have played at Minnesota, Kansas State, Saint Louis and Toledo among its Division I opponents.
The Roos’ women’s team, 3-3, seeks its first victory since defeating Southern Illinois on Dec. 12.
The Summit will play a unique schedule this season, with all games played on consecutive days against the same opponent. After this weekend, the KC Roos return to Kansas City to face South Dakota on Friday and Saturday.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 1:41 PM.