Impact sure isn’t measured in miles for Kansas City. 
 
The Roos’ road trip to Missouri on Monday was the shortest on their 2021-22 schedule but produced the team’s biggest win-to-date under Billy Donlon. The program picked up its second straight win over the Tigers in resounding fashion, keeping them at a comfortable distance for the majority of the second half in a 14-point victory. 
 
Donlon talked about what he saw on Monday that he didn’t in season-opening losses to Minnesota and Iowa. 
 
“Having swagger,” he said in the postgame press conference. “I thought our guys passed up shots in the first two games that when they’re open, you’ve got to shoot it.” 
 
Senior point guard Evan Gilyard II certainly fit that bill. The New Mexico State transfer poured in 28 points on the strength of a six-for-eight shooting night from deep, the first time a Roo has hit six three pointers in a game in nearly two years. Paired with a boisterous outing from fellow senior guard Marvin Nesbitt Jr. (20 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists), the Roos weathered a foul-plagued night from Josiah Allick and bounced right over their state’s flagship university.
 
“A lot of times [against Minnesota and Iowa] I was kind of in a rush. I felt like I had to do more than what was expected,” Gilyard II said in the postgame press conference. “[Tonight] I just came out there doing what I had to, getting my teammates involved and the game just opened up for me.” 
 
The landmark win in Columbia, Mo. was just one of a number of notable non-conference results early on for the Summit League. Over the season’s first week, Summit teams picked up two wins over power five competition but, as impressively, have already doubled their win total from last year against other mid-major leagues. Summit teams went 3-21 against mid-major competition in last year’s stop-and-start non-conference season, but went 6-4 from Nov. 9-15.
 
Poise has been at the heart of some of the sparkling wins. 
 
That was there in Mizzou Arena as the Roos broke a timeout quickly called by Donlon after the Tigers had cut a 22-point lead down to 14 with just under 10 minutes left. Gilyard II immediately knocked down a deep three out of the break to snuff out Mizzou’s only real push of the second half. Similarly, Donlon credited a three-point play by redshirt sophomore Sam Martin in the second half as helping reverse a Tiger comeback. 
 
That same sort of composure was there for Western Illinois in their opening night win at Nebraska. After trading leads for much of the second half, the Cornhuskers seemed in control over the final four minutes until Trenton Massner calmly hit a three from just beyond the key to draw the Leathernecks within one with 20 seconds left. It was part of a 21-point Leatherneck debut for the Northwestern State transfer.
 
After Nebraska split a pair of free throws, graduate forward Luka Barisic hit the biggest shot of the night, rising up to nail a go-ahead three with six seconds left. 
 
"I didn't think about it. I just wanted to make the shot. I didn't have a very good shooting night but I made the last shot, the most important one," Barisic said in a team release. 
 
The clutch shot ultimately gave WIU its first power conference win under second-year coach Rob Jeter, and was the program’s first such win, period, since beating Wisconsin in November 2015. It also dramatically reversed a trend of double-digit losses to Big Ten opponents to open the past two seasons, a clear building block as Jeter and the Leathernecks look to climb the league standings. 
 
North Dakota may not have ruined a power conference team’s night on Monday, but it had just as much reason to get excited. The Fighting Hawks’ thrilling comeback win against Montana in Grand Forks not only ended a nine-game losing streak against their former Big Sky foe, but also gave the Summit an impressive win over a program that has made two of the last four NCAA Tournaments. 
 
It was junior guard Caleb Nero that played the clutch card against the Grizzlies, putting the cherry on a 14-point comeback by slicing through the left side of the lane for a game-winning layup with three seconds left. Paul Sather saw his team out rebound Montana, shot nearly 50 percent from three and get big scoring nights from the front court pair of Mitchell Sueker and Brendan Howard, all of which surely provide reason for optimism. 
 
The state of South Dakota on the whole has also not been without its contributions. 
 
Preseason favorite South Dakota State has racked up a trio of notable wins before the season has hit its second weekend. The Jacks dropped a Missouri Valley opponent in Bradley on opening night, traveled to Texas and beat a Stephen F. Austin team projected to finish third in the WAC and then sprinted past a Montana State team similarly pegged at third-best in the Big Sky on Wednesday. South Dakota, for its part, picked up a gritty win over Air Force and former Denver coach Joe Scott in their opener at the Sanford Pentagon. 
 
There have been a couple of lower profile firsts worth mentioning as well. Denver got 21 points off the bench from Michael Henn to give Jeff Wulbrun his win over a Division I team in a rout of IUPUI in San Antonio. Further East, St. Thomas knocked off St. Francis (NY) in Brooklyn to get its first win as a Division I program, and celebrated accordingly. 
 
“It’s a great confidence builder for our team,” Donlon said after the Mizzou win.
 
Those same thoughts could echo around the Summit, as the league’s strong start hopefully foreshadows another month of strong non-conference outings and a thrilling league season ending in Sioux Falls.