Dean Demopoulos is the new head basketball coach at UMKC. Demopoulos was introduced today as the man who will replace Bob Sundvold, who was fired last month. Demopoulos spent 17 years as an assistant to John Chaney at Temple, and says the players he will be coaching at UMKC were a big factor in deciding to make the jump. He says he is very comfortable with Bob Thomas, UMKC’s athletic director. Thomas says he chose to go with Demopoulos because of his coaching background at Temple, where the Owls reached the NCAA tournament in 16 out of 17 years. Demopoulos inherits a team that won 16 games last year, and returns all of its starters, including Mid-Continent conference player of the year Michael Jackson. Demopoulosbeat out two candidates with strong ties to Kansas City. South Carolina assistant John Cooper played basketball at Rockhurst high school, and won a state title there, and Illinois assistant Derek Thomas, the son of former Chief cornerback Emmitt Thomas, played at Hickman Mills.
