Anderson Kopp’s senior year at Kansas City surely was not what he expected. In the end, it amounted to four games and just 124 minutes spent on the court because of a season-ending injury.
 
Yet in a way he could not have envisioned, he was still a constant for the Roos. There he always was, sitting on the end of the bench, watching, learning and waiting. 
 
For his coach, it was easy to sum up what it was like seeing that in one word.
 
“Painful,” Marvin Menzies said. “It was painful for him, me, his family, his teammates and the university in total.” 
 
A year later, the other side of that adversity could be ready to bloom for the Kopp, Menzies and Kansas City. The Houston native is back for his fifth season, and is set to be a major player, and difference maker, for a Roos program looking to push forward in Menzies’ second year. 
 
As the team ran out to a 6-4 start in league play last year without him – ultimately finishing 7-11 – Kopp was not simply a passenger. He said he was able to dig in on film, watch in practice and create relationships with the returning players that he thinks will make him a better teammate and leader. In all, it gave him a new perspective heading into a new, healthy year. 
 
“It was really tough not being able to compete with the guys,” Kopp said. “I’m just super excited for this year. I feel recharged.” 
 
For Menzies, Kopp being out hit especially hard. The guard immediately bought in when Menzies took over in April 2022, acting as a glue guy from the roster that the longtime college head coach had inherited. Menzies said he had a productive individual offseason, and that showed in the limited time Kopp was able to get on the court. 
 
His stat line from his four games was impressive (13.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 44 percent from 3-point range) but, even more so, those were meaningful minutes. Kopp rarely left the floor in each of the Roos’ wins over Toledo – the eventual MAC champion – and Indiana State, a pair of victories that kickstarted the Menzies' era, and were two of the better non-conference wins in recent program history. 
 
Losing him hurt, but the work he continued to put in should make a difference this season. 
 
“I felt really bad for him that he had to go down,” Menzies added. “He’s improved. He probably may have benefited in the long run from the maturity and all the tape he watched and watched how we coached without being a player, actually looking at it from a coach’s perspective.” 
 
On the court, to say that Kopp gives the Roos what they were missing is an understatement. 
 
Per kenpom.com, just one team shot worse from the three-point line than the Roos did collectively last season (27.3%). And while Menzies’ teams over his 13-year career have never been heavily reliant on the outside shot, it was simply something the Roos did not consistently have up their sleeve a year ago. 
 
That will change with a healthy Kopp. The graduate student shot 41.9 percent from deep over his lone full season in Kansas City in 2021-22, cashing in on the shooting potential he had shown over his first two collegiate seasons at Lamar, where he was a double-digit scorer (10.5 ppg). And in his limited time last year, he splashed in 11 of his 25 attempts.
 
But to Menzies, to lump Kopp as just a shooter would be wrong. 
 
“That’s one of his strengths, but it’s just one of them,” he said. “I feel optimistic about his shooting, but there’s so much more he brings to the table.” 
 
Kopp will no doubt be pivotal as the Roos enter the season pegged at second-to-last in the preseason poll. That certainly makes sense, as the program lost a boatload of production with its two top scorers – RayQuawndis Mitchell (17.3 ppg) and Shemarri Allen (17.0 ppg)  – having transferred out. Minutes are up for grabs in the backcourt alongside Kopp, though that was the case a year ago. Neither Allen nor Mitchell were the high-volume scorers they had been until last season. 
 
What Kansas City does have is Menzies’ long track record of building teams that dominate the opposition in the paint. His teams have finished in the top-25 in the country in offensive rebounding in eight of his 13 seasons as a head coach, including last year, where the Roos finished eighth in the country per kenpom.com by grabbing nearly 36 percent of their misses. 
 
With sophomore Jeff Ngandu (5.9 rpg) and junior Allen David Mukeba (7.5 rpg) back, the Roos have two of the league’s best rebounders to carry forward that philosophy. And that’s no mistake. It’s an emphasis that Menzies said comes from a deep dive into which statistical categories influence winning at a high level. Kansas City looks for it in recruiting, and hones it through drill work and keeping an eye on rebounding in scrimmages.
 
“You can only emphasize so many things,” he said. “You don’t want to be a jack of all trades and a master of none, so you need to figure out what you want to master and how that ties into winning.”
 
Like it did last offseason, the Roos will need to find the backcourt pieces to complement that interior presence, whether that be Junior College transfer Jamar Brown, Lincoln transfer Artese Stapleton, Chattanooga transfer Khristion Courseault or others. What they do have is a recharged Kopp armed with a new perspective, which could make plenty of difference as Kansas City tries to climb the Summit ladder.