Roo basketball is the bomb again

Listen for the buzz. Can you hear it? If you're still having trouble, perhaps your radio dial isn't lined up properly to WHB 810 Sports Radio. Then again, maybe it's time to let loose of the extra $35 bucks a month it would take to get cable hooked up so you could watch Metro Sports on occasion for local sports information.

Needless to say, the word you could have heard, that talk about the new and improved UMKC sports attitude likely would have you brimming with anticipation about the upcoming season and the many seasons yet to come. There's a new sheriff in town and he's sporting a pouch and a blue handkerchief.

Local sports talk radio host Steven St. John who makes up half of WHB's Border Patrol 9(Nate Bukaty is the other half), a 6-10 a.m. time slot designed for sports enthusiasts during their morning drive, is especially jazzed about the new Roo attitude. The UMKC Alum and former U-News sports editor is almost giddy about what's happening around town.

"It seems to me that [UMKC] is reaching out to the fans and reaching out to the alumni," St. John said. "In Tim Hall [UMKC Director of Athletics] and Matt Brown [UMKC head basketball coach] you see two guys who are aggressive and understand how important the alumni and the fans can be. I feel like the university finally has the right [Athletic Director] and the right head coach and the program is moving in the right direction."

St. John, who was on campus for the Morning Madness event held on the first Monday after the NCAA allowed full practices for basketball to commence, said he was absolutely thrilled with everything currently going on. Arguably the most popular sports 'shock jock' in Kansas City's early morning radio time slot, St. John will be the host for the live weekly press conference that Brown will put on most Tuesdays at 1 p.m. (barring other scheduling conflicts) at the WHB 810 Sports Zone in Leawood, Kan.

Another WHB radio broadcaster, Danny Clinkscale will enter his seventh season of what he calls his "favorite assignment" as the voice of the Kangaroos. He also will host the Matt Brown radio show on WHB during the season, which airs weekly on 97.3 FM. He looks forward to new and exciting challenges for the team this year.

"When a new coach [Brown] comes in there's a great sense of excitement," Clinkscale said. "It's gonna be a new team and a new coach with a lot of the same guys. It should be exciting to watch them adapt to a new style of play … to watch them grow."

Clinkscale, a University of Kansas graduate, almost seemed to wax poetic about the long bus rides and commercial flights that are common place at mid-major institutions like UMKC. He also joked about getting off on the right foot with UMKC Athletics by leaving his golf clubs at home when the squad traveled west to face the University of Arizona in mid-November.

Metro Sports reporter Brad Porter, who also attended UMKC, seems equally jazzed up about the transition, though he's not ready to sell the farm just yet.

"I think it's always wait and see," Porter said. "Though when your coach comes in from West Virginia and every coach on the [new UMKC] staff has been to the NCAA tournament … it's a big thing."

It would seem that with as many media members in Kansas City as there are pulling for the Kangaroos, Hall and company have already won half the battle. But if someone's counting, don't forget to add the self-proclaimed "Jack Nicholson of UMKC basketball" himself, Kansas City Royals color commentator Ryan Lefevre.

dstroud@unews.com