Lee’s Summit West enjoyed a strong run over the past few years, highlighted by the last two years with Christian Bishop, Mario Goodrich and others helping lead the Titans to a state title game and three straight 19+ win campaigns.

But remaining from the run will be guard Rich Johnson. The 5-foot-11 senior averaged 15 points per game last season, and will be looked to for scoring and leadership.

Joining Johnson will be a cast of guards, including talented sophomore Colby Baggett (6-foot-3). Senior Miller Kinder (6-0) and sophomore guard Mike McKnight (6-0) also will comprise an athletic, but smaller lineup.

Inside will be sophomore forward Vance Avila (6-foot-5) and junior Josh Butler (6-foot-3).

 “We’re going to be young and play a lot of guards,” said Titans head coach Michael Schieber. “We’ll try to get it up and down the court and see what we can do. We can shoot better than recent years, but will need more ball movement. We need to be a lot better in that aspect in trying to get good looks.

The Trojans endured some veteran fixtures, but will look to a nice inside-outside duo in 2018-19.

Park Hill, which lost to graduation the services of the likes of Ronnie Bell, Cecil Lee, Willy Majok and others, will look to 6-foot-1 senior guard Ryan Graves (5.5 ppg, 2 assists). Up front, senior Nic Zeil returns as well. The 6-foot-7 forward notched 6.1 ppg and 5.6 rebounds a year ago, and scored 25 in am 84-83 season-opening win over North Kansas City. Nyk Bryant added 20 in the victory too.

“We are going to have to play fast,” said Chad Jones, in his third season as Park Hill’s head coach. “We are very athletic but don't have much size after Nic. We will need to use our athleticism to score. Pressure defense will be a key for us.”