By MATT PIKE
The Missouri Western Griffon men's basketball team saw a massive turnaround in the first year of the Brooks McKowen and look to keep that momentum rolling.
In year one at the helm, McKowen led the Griffons to their first 20-win season since 2003, finishing 21-12, with a 12-7 record in the MIAA, and the first berth in the NCAA tournament since 2021 where the season ended falling to St. Cloud State 83-65. The goal for the Griffons in year two is to keep that pace, losing players like Devin Butler, Noah King, Ty Henry, and Marko Pavlovic, but still bring back a solid returning group.
With that success in year one, McKowen says what he learned about himself is that simply having good players makes a good coach.
"We were fortunate enough to have some good players last year, some good leadership in Noah King, Ty Henry, Dev Butler, and then added a couple pieces with Will Kiburis, Gavin Hershberger, Trey (McKowen), Bode (Goodman)," McKowen tells reporters. "It's been a lot of guys that came together, played really well together, when you look in the warmup line, we weren't always winning the warmups, but when we got on the court, we usually competed with teams and gave ourselves a chance to win."
This year's squad brings players like Kiburis, Hershberger, Trey, and Goodman back, while also filling gaps with talented freshman and transfers. In all, eight new players come on with seven returners. McKowen says having those key returners makes parts of his job easier.
"I can call out a drill in practice now, and I don't have to stop and explain it to everyone in the gym, so that's kind of nice, being able to just kind of have that feel of how I want to have things go on a daily basis," McKowen explains. "When you've got a full new team, everybody is trying to figure things out, and figure out their roles, and figure out how I run practices, and what to expect."
"And when you bring back seven guys, those guys know what to expect, and those guys teach the other eight guys pretty quickly on how we do things and what to expect, and where to be, and how to do it."
Both Kiburis and Hershberger were two players that followed McKowen from Upper Iowa to MoWest along with King last season. Kiburis echoes his coach saying it's nice to have more than just three players knowing what McKowen expects coming into the season.
"Now we have seven or eight that know what's going on, so makes it a lot easier to teach the new guys coming in," Kiburis says. "Really just makes that process of figuring out what to do go a lot smoother instead of everyone get thrown into the fire, now you've just got a couple guys you've got to bring along with you."
Even while hoping to build on the success of last season, after getting his first look at it last year, Hershberger knows how tough the MIAA is night in and night out.
"Doesn't matter who we play, it's going to be a battle either way, doesn't matter who we play 14th seed or whatever, every team is good," Hershberger says.
The Griffons were picked to finish third by MIAA coaches and fourth by the media in the preseason polls. MoWest opens the season on November 9th on the road at Quincy.
Interviews
Head Coach Brooks McKowen
Gavin Hershberger
Will Kiburis
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.