Game 3: GMU (2-0) at Showdown in St. Pete - University of Missouri-Kansas City (1-1) on Thursday, November 12, at 3:00 PM.

[Patriotsince81]

The game is on YouTube.

UMKC plays at Jacksonville on the 9th and against Florida A&M on the 11th. Updates will be made after each game.

This year the Roos are 1-1 with a 76-61 season opening loss at Creighton and a 100-93 win over Southern Illinois.

Preseason notes:
UMKC competes in the Summit League.
In preseason voting the Roos were picked to finish last in the league.
Jaylen Smith was voted onto the Preseason 2nd Team.

Last year they finished 4-27 overall and 1-15 in league play. They were 3-11 at home, 1-15 on the road, and 0-1 at neutral sites.

26-27 Schedule:

2026-27 Men's Basketball Schedule - Kansas City Roos

The official 2026-27 Men's Basketball schedule for the Kansas City

kcroos.com

KenPom: Gives us an 86% chance of winning.
GMU - 103
UMKC - 257
NET: N/A
Mason -
UMKC -

This will be the first meeting between the two teams.

Probable Starters:
5’11” Jaylen Smith - 13.5 ppg & 5.5 assists - Senior
6’6” Sebastian Hartman - 11.0 ppg & 8.0 reb - Senior
6’3” Carl Daughtery Jr. - 13.0 ppg - 5th year
7’0” Atuka Bakhatadze - 5.0 ppg - Freshman
6’9” Assane Diop - 7.0 ppg & 5.5 reb - Senior

Reserves averaging 10+ minutes:
6’6” Lincoln Goodwin - 19.0 ppg - Freshman
6’6” Matija Samar - 9.0 ppg - Sophomore
6’8” Jibbe Sicking - 4.5 ppg - Freshman
6’4” Josh Kori - 4.0 ppg - Freshman

Roster:https://kcroos.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

Stats:

UMKC averages 80.5 points per game while giving up 84.5.

The Roos shoot 53.2% from the floor and 46.7% from 3.
Opponents shoot 45.6% from the field and 33.3% from 3.

They shoot 68.6% from the free throw line.

The Roos have been out rebounded by 1.5 boards per game and average 16.5 turnovers per contest.

26-27 Stats:

Men's Basketball Cumulative Statistics

@description

kcroos.com

Thoughts: This game will be UMKC’s 3rd game in 4 days so any fatigue factor should work in our favor. UMKC is VERY young with 9 freshmen on the roster. Transfers come from Chattanooga, East Tennessee St., UC Davis, and San Diego.

Mark Turgeon, formerly at Maryland, is entering his first year as head coach at Kansas City. He has a career record of 476-275 over 24 years. He has taken teams to the NCAA Tournament 10 times with 2 Sweet 16 appearances. Additionally, he has taken teams to the NIT 4 times with one semi-final appearance in the 12-13 season. He is clearly trying to build for the future with this young roster.

It’s going to be interesting to see how we do at a neutral site against a weak opponent.

Discuss.

 

[Portlandian]

Wow 3 games between now and playing Mason. Let's hope they pick up a win or 2 in that time and also are too tired to compete with Mason when the time comes to tip off.

 

[GMU1983]

Our Kenpom down to #102

 

[GunstonsGhost]

There's only room for one Roo and that's Kanga...

 

[NewPatriot]

The game is on YouTube.

Mark Turgeon, formerly at Maryland, is entering his first year as head coach at Kansas City. He had a career record of 476-275 over 24 years. He has taken teams to the NCAA Tournament 10 times with 2 Sweet 16 appearances. Additionally, he has taken teams to the NIT 4 times with one semi-final appearance in the 12-13 season. He is clearly trying to build for the future with this young roster.


It’s going to be interesting to see how we do at a neutral site against a weak opponent.

Discuss.

Turgeon's record...not to mention the number of NBA players that he has produced speaks for itself.

They will get a lot better.

KC will turn out to be a sneaky good win by the end of the season.

 

[Patriotsince81]

UMKC beat Southern Illinois 100-93.

https://kcroos.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2026-27/southern-illinois/boxscore/8920

 

[tblack33]

Turgeon's record...not to mention the number of NBA players that he has produced speaks for itself.

They will get a lot better.

KC will turn out to be a sneaky good win by the end of the season.

I’ll be surprised if this isn’t a Q4 game by the end of the year, even on a neutral court.

 

[GMUgemini]

I’ll be surprised if this isn’t a Q4 game by the end of the year, even on a neutral court.

I know Kenpom and NET rankings don’t always match up, but even if they climb 50 spots in Kenpom they’re still a Q4 game.

Bradley is a bigger concern. They are good enough to catch Mason napping and snag the upset if they aren’t paying attention. I expect this one will be a win.

 

[True2TheRoos]

Hello Patriot fans, KC fan here. We’re looking forward to playing GMU next week, who will likely be our toughest non-conference opponent besides Creighton. I’m hopeful we should be 3-1 heading into this matchup, though I agree with the posts above that you’ll catch us at the right time after playing two games earlier in the week.

A little bit about the Roos: We’ve undergone a complete 180 since last season, which saw us finish 4-27 (only one D1 victory), finish 358th in KenPom, and head coach Marvin Menzies’ departure after four seasons.

Mark Turgeon has quickly assembled (in my opinion) the best team in school history. We finished with the 94th-ranked recruiting class according to 247Sports, poached Colorado’s associate head coach Mike Rohn for the same position, and assembled a strong combination of portal transfers (including two with P5 experience and the reigning SoCon 6th MOTY) and international players, some with professional experience. I have a good feeling we’ll finish top 2-3 in the Summit and contend for the conference’s autobid. We’ve parlayed this momentum into moving back downtown to historic Municipal Auditorium, which has hosted more Final Fours than any venue and was previously home to the NBA’s Kings; the city also announced on Thursday a $70M renovation to the arena beginning next year, which we’re excited about.

The OP did a good job highlighting our key players, but a little scouting report:

1. Freshman guard Lincoln Goodwin is our best player, who didn’t play in the Creighton game (injury) but scored 19pts off the bench as we eased him back into the lineup. He’s an under-recruited local kid who will not be at UMKC long.
2. Former ETSU guard Jaylen Smith would likely be on a P5 team today if he was taller. A true three-level scorer with great vision, though he’s made a few too many turnovers early on looking for open guys.
3. We have several players who are excellent three-point shooters, including Oregon State transfer Matija Samar, Chattanooga transfer Sebastian Hartmann, and UC Davis transfer Carl Daugherty Jr, in addition to Goodwin and Smith.
4. Our two key big men are San Diego/Colorado transfer Assane Diop and Georgian freshman Atuka Bhaktadze. Assane is likely the better of the two with some decent shooting, while Autka is a great shot blocker but can be a liability handling the ball outside the paint.

We’re very optimistic about this season, and I think people will quickly realize this is not the same KC team from years past (not a single player or coach from the previous season). I’m excited to face the Patriots, who I believe will be a great challenge for us and should make some noise in a very competitive A-10. I also have a ton of respect for your program; as far as mid-majors go, yours is one the rest of us look up to given your history and success. Hopefully both teams can stay healthy and go onto to have success the rest of the season after this game.

Who are some players that Roos fans should watch out for?

 

[Jack Strop]

Who are some players that Roos fans should watch out for?

All of them. (Welcome! )

 

[Old Man]

Hello Patriot fans, KC fan here. We’re looking forward to playing GMU next week, who will likely be our toughest non-conference opponent besides Creighton. I’m hopeful we should be 3-1 heading into this matchup, though I agree with the posts above that you’ll catch us at the right time after playing two games earlier in the week.

A little bit about the Roos: We’ve undergone a complete 180 since last season, which saw us finish 4-27 (only one D1 victory), finish 358th in KenPom, and head coach Marvin Menzies’ departure after four seasons.

Mark Turgeon has quickly assembled (in my opinion) the best team in school history. We finished with the 94th-ranked recruiting class according to 247Sports, poached Colorado’s associate head coach Mike Rohn for the same position, and assembled a strong combination of portal transfers (including two with P5 experience and the reigning SoCon 6th MOTY) and international players, some with professional experience. I have a good feeling we’ll finish top 2-3 in the Summit and contend for the conference’s autobid. We’ve parlayed this momentum into moving back downtown to historic Municipal Auditorium, which has hosted more Final Fours than any venue and was previously home to the NBA’s Kings; the city also announced on Thursday a $70M renovation to the arena beginning next year, which we’re excited about.

The OP did a good job highlighting our key players, but a little scouting report:

1. Freshman guard Lincoln Goodwin is our best player, who didn’t play in the Creighton game (injury) but scored 19pts off the bench as we eased him back into the lineup. He’s an under-recruited local kid who will not be at UMKC long.
2. Former ETSU guard Jaylen Smith would likely be on a P5 team today if he was taller. A true three-level scorer with great vision, though he’s made a few too many turnovers early on looking for open guys.
3. We have several players who are excellent three-point shooters, including Oregon State transfer Matija Samar, Chattanooga transfer Sebastian Hartmann, and UC Davis transfer Carl Daugherty Jr, in addition to Goodwin and Smith.
4. Our two key big men are San Diego/Colorado transfer Assane Diop and Georgian freshman Atuka Bhaktadze. Assane is likely the better of the two with some decent shooting, while Autka is a great shot blocker but can be a liability handling the ball outside the paint.

We’re very optimistic about this season, and I think people will quickly realize this is not the same KC team from years past (not a single player or coach from the previous season). I’m excited to face the Patriots, who I believe will be a great challenge for us and should make some noise in a very competitive A-10. I also have a ton of respect for your program; as far as mid-majors go, yours is one the rest of us look up to given your history and success. Hopefully both teams can stay healthy and go onto to have success the rest of the season after this game.

Who are some players that Roos fans should watch out for?

Welcome. I think you've got a great coach in Mark Turgeon. I've been watching him since we beat him twice when he coached Wichita State in the Bracket Buster game and the Sweet 16 in 2006. So Turgeon is familiar with Mason and Coach Skinn (CTS) since CTS was the point guard on that team.

O'Conner and Okoji bringing the ball up and Kanga down low. Basically everyone else is fairly new to us, too.

I look forward to a good game.

Go Mason!

 

[True2TheRoos]

Welcome. I think you've got a great coach in Mark Turgeon. I've been watching him since we beat him twice when he coached Wichita State in the Bracket Buster game and the Sweet 16 in 2006. So Turgeon is familiar with Mason and Coach Skinn (CTS) since CTS was the point guard on that team.

O'Conner and Okoji bringing the ball up and Kanga down low. Basically everyone else is fairly new to us, too.

I look forward to a good game.

Go Mason!

Funny enough, he’s had connections to several of our early non-conference opponents; Creighton and SIU were Valley rivals while at Wichita State, and now connections you mentioned with GMU.

Was O’Connor the guard who injured himself in the first game last season? What a bummer that was; I hope he has a great bounce back season against everyone except Kansas City. I also remember Okoji when Memphis made the tournament a few years back. Like I said before, we have our work cut out for us. This will be a huge challenge for us.

 

[psyclone]

Looking at the Kenpom data, UMKC (#257) is indeed a good 3 pt shooting team--14th in the country at 46.7%.
On the other hand, Mason (#103) is pretty good (#74) nationally in 3 pt defense and very good (#24) in 2 pt defense (#1 in country in average 2 pt distance).

UMKC's defensive efficiency is poor (#324), whereas Mason's is good (#77).

 

[Old Man]

Funny enough, he’s had connections to several of our early non-conference opponents; Creighton and SIU were Valley rivals while at Wichita State, and now connections you mentioned with GMU.

Was O’Connor the guard who injured himself in the first game last season? What a bummer that was; I hope he has a great bounce back season against everyone except Kansas City. I also remember Okoji when Memphis made the tournament a few years back. Like I said before, we have our work cut out for us. This will be a huge challenge for us.

Yes, O'Conner was injured at about the 15 minute mark of the first game last season. We're very glad to have him back and healthy this year. And FWIW, Okoji began his college career at Mason under CTS, so Okoji shouldn't have the typical learning curve associated with transfers under a 'new' coach.