When you’ve been a head coach for 14 seasons, there isn’t much that will faze you, and that includes competing in a conference that is far from settled as the schedule winds down. That’s just where Kansas City coach Marvin Menzies finds his Roos.
At 14-15 overall, 8-6 in the Summit and riding a season best four-game winning streak, Menzies’ team could find itself slotting into any number of spots when the Summit League Tournament opens in under two weeks.
But all those potential permutations? They aren’t worrying the longtime coach.
“I’ve been doing this a while so it doesn’t bother me as much when you look at where you’re sitting in conference, how many games are left or who plays who in front of you and the probability of you climbing up the ladder,” Menzies said. “It really doesn’t matter. You just need to go back and make sure your guys are improving collectively.”
The Roos – currently the hottest team in the Summit – have done just that.
As winners of four straight, and six of their last eight, Kansas City still has a chance to finish with a share of the regular season title, though that same possibility is in play for plenty others in a thrilling Summit race. Similarly surging North Dakota State (8-6), a very good North Dakota team (9-5) and the presumptive favorite South Dakota State (10-4) all have similar plans over the final week.
That jumbled madness, and the trio of teams trailing just behind, should make the Summit among the hardest to peg – and by definition, most exciting – League tournaments before Selection Sunday.
Kansas City has certainly made its argument for why punching its first-ever ticket to the NCAA Tournament is on the table, and that begins with its defense. In a League known for its offenses, the Roos have been kings of keeping points off the board, recently overtaking St. Thomas as the leader in KenPom defensive efficiency during League play.
For Menzies, it’s come down to the team learning to defend as a unit.
When you think of selfishness in basketball, you gravitate toward the offense, toward a player chucking up shots. But it works the other way too: players wanting to hug their man and shut him down all by themselves. Getting away from that has supercharged the Roos’ defense.
“They’re figuring out how to play connected on defense,” Menzies said. “With high-level guys, you’re not going to be able to stop them one on one, you have to guard guys like that as a team, and we’ve done a good job of that.”
In the last month, they’ve put the clamps on a slew of big-time scorers.
That has included the nation’s leading scorer, Denver’s Tommy Bruner, who scored just 12 points on a season-low 23.1% shooting in an early February KC win. SDSU’s Zeke Mayo, the preseason POY, has had his issues with Roos defense as well, registering his second- and third-worst shooting outings of the season in his two games against them.
Even in games where the opposing star has gotten loose, the Roos have been able to do enough to collectively shut down the opposition and win. Last week, Omaha’s Franke Fidler scored 29 points, but overall Kansas City held the Mavericks to just 36.2% shooting in a win.
Their array of quality perimeter defenders – like Jamar Brown, Cameron Faas and Babacar Diallo – have been backed up by a team that, in typical Menzies’ fashion, can dominate the glass. Could that be enough to continue winning down the stretch? Much depends on the other side of the ball, which Menzies said can be hit or miss depending on the night.
Brown, for his part, has been hitting in a big way lately.
The Phoenix College transfer wing just took home his first TicketSmarter Peak Performer of the Week award after averaging 24.5 points per game during close wins against South Dakota and Omaha. Despite not starting, fellow newcomer Khristion Courseault leads the Summit in assist rate (40.7%) while shooting over 45% from three during League play.
That pair has given the Roos the type of offensive options that were sorely needed when their two leading scorers transferred away during the offseason and Anderson Kopp – the team’s best player – suffered a season-ending injury in mid-December for the second consecutive year. Menzies said Kopp has remained a huge part of the program, serving almost as an additional coach on the bench, but his loss on the court could’ve derailed the Roos season.
It didn’t, and they now find themselves with a flicker of a chance in that Summit mix.
SDSU and UND meet in a mammoth clash in Grand Forks on Thursday in a game that will go a long way to deciding the regular-season crown and No. 1 seed in Sioux Falls. The Jackrabbits could make it academic and end the drama in one night. But, should B.J. Omot and the Fighting Hawks win and keep their chances at a title alive, SDSU would then be faced with a game at rival – and red hot – NDSU with everything still on the line.
If Dave Richman and the Bison know anything, it’s how to win as the calendar winds down, and they’ve done just that in recent weeks. NDSU has won five of its last six with junior forward Andrew Morgan enjoying a dominant run in the low post.
That Kansas City, with games at Denver and Oral Roberts, still has a vested interest in that race would’ve seemed far-fetched when they sat at 1-3 or 4-6 in League play. But Menzies said his Roos – whose top five minute-getters are newcomers – have been resilient.
“Even when you drop a game you need to look at what the lessons were and how do you teach those so they’re embraced heading into the next game, and that’s where we’ve been pretty successful,” he said.
One lesson that the Summit has taught the broader college basketball world this year? Keep watching, because you just don’t know how it’ll all play out.
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