It would have been easy for the University of Missouri-Kansas City men’s basketball team to pack up shop early Sunday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
Down 19 points to No. 4 Kansas University just five minutes into the second half, a comeback looked bleak for UMKC, picked to finish in the bottom half of the Summit League standings this year.
But quitting just isn’t this Kangaroos team’s style. Not with first-year head coach Matt Brown energetically roaming the sidelines, anyway. Facing a large deficit, Brown implored his team to stay positive, fist-pumping, clapping and high-fiving players at every timeout.
Behind Brown’s exuberance, UMKC crept back within 10 points before falling, 85-62. And even after a 23-point defeat, Brown still made sure to shake all of his player’s hands as they walked off the court.
“He’s like that at the games and at practice,” forward Dane Brumagin said. “It’s the same intensity level every day. When you practice like that, it carries over into the game. He gets very excited and very ecstatic, and that rubs off on us as players.”
A 17-8 run midway through the second half, spearheaded by six Brumagin points, had the Kangaroos believing they just might pull of a monumental upset. Although it never materialized, the beginning of the Matt Brown era proved the Kangaroos have plenty of promise.
“A lot of people that have a renewed interest in the program saw that our kids do compete and play hard,” Brown said. “We actually play until there is zero left on the clock.”
Like Brumagin, guard Reggie Hamilton knows where that mentality comes from.
“We’re energetic, so we expect our coach to be just as energetic as us, and he is,” said Hamilton, who scored 16 points with seven assists. “He’s really energized, and we love him for that.”
Brugamin said Brown’s team-first attitude has helped make the Kangaroos a tight-knit group in only a short time span.
“He emphasizes that every single day,” Brugamin said. “I think no matter what happened in the game, we bounced back, and we were all together and picking each other up. We’re going to get better and better if we play every game like this.”
Brown wouldn’t give himself a letter grade in his debut, but he gave his team an A for the effort and poise the Kangaroos exerted under hostile conditions.
“I told the kids tonight that the staff and I were extremely proud to be their coaches,” Brown said. “We didn’t come to show up. We came to win the basketball game. If you saw the game tonight, we did. We weren’t scared.
“In terms of building a program, for people that have never seen us play before, hopefully that will open some eyes.”
