Rockhurst University basketball wins first Great Lakes Valley title. What’s next?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Rockhurst clinches first outright GLVC regular-season title in 23 years.
- Hawks ride 10-game streak and 22-5 record under second-year coach Blackbourn.
- Dinkins and Wesley pace offense; Rockhurst ranks second in Midwest region.
Kansas City has a historic conference champion in college basketball. No, not the KC Roos, who are in shifting times.
It is the Rockhurst Hawks who are on the rise.
The NCAA Division-II Hawks won their first regular-season Great Lakes Valley Conference title Thursday with a 73-58 win over McKendree. It’s the program’s first conference title of any kind in 23 years: The Hawks previously shared a league title in 2003 while members of the Heartland Conference.
Rockhurst’s historic season comes under second-year head coach Kyle Blackbourn, a former near decade-long assistant coach at Wisconsin. With a 22-5 record, Blackbourn has helped garner the most wins in a season for the program since 2001-02.
The Hawks were 17-12 last season, a 7-seed in the GLVC tournament. Now ranked No. 19 in Division II, Rockhurst is on a 10-game winning streak, the Hawks’ longest since 1978.
This season’s Hawks are led by a duo of senior guards in Drenin Dinkins (22.7 points per game, 45% shooting from the field, 40.5% on 3-pointers) and Jaylen Wesley (21.3 ppg., 52.8% from the field, 41.4% on 3-pointers). Rockhurst has a lethal 3-point attack with four players shooting 40%-plus from deep.
The Hawks are the second KC-area team to clinch a D-II conference title this season. The Washburn Ichabods won the MIAA’s regular-season title last week.
Several KC-area D-II programs could be NCAA tournament bound with strong showings down the stretch. The D-II tournament has eight regionals, similar to the D-I tournament, but teams are ranked throughout the season by region.
Rockhurst ranks second in the Midwest region, while crosstown rival William Jewell is eighth with an 18-9 record. Washburn (27-1) is first in the Central region, Central Missouri (22-8) third and Missouri Western (19-10) sixth.
The Hawks have one final regular-season game at home against Illinois Springfield on Saturday at 2 p.m. before heading to St. Louis for the GLVC tournament, which starts Thursday.
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 6:49 PM.
