Lonnel Johnson won’t join the exodus from the Missouri Western men’s basketball team after all.

The Griffons’ second-leading scorer from last season will return for his senior season, coach Tom Smith confirmed Thursday.

Smith cleared out most of his roster at the beginning of the summer following the worst season in his 20 years at Western. That included leading scorer Reggie Bunch, and Johnson’s status was in doubt as well. Had Johnson not returned, Western would’ve entered the 2008-09 season with just 3.7 points of offense returning to a team that averaged 57.9 last year.

Johnson scored 15.7 points a game and shot 39 percent from behind the 3-point line in 2007-08. However, he had to play point guard for most of the season after a couple of players backed out of their commitments to Western. Johnson, a smooth shooter who seemed better suited to play the off guard, struggled at the point, recording 75 assists and 101 turnovers in 27 games.

Smith hopes to move Johnson to shooting guard this season and thinks an improved work ethic and different group of players will bring out a better side of the soon-to-be senior’s game.

“He got caught up on the wrong side of things last year. I think he learned his lesson a little bit,” Smith said of Johnson. “He will be helped by having one or two true point guards on the team. That will make him a better player. He won’t have to make so many decisions.”

Besides Johnson, only three other players with any game experience return for next season — Brandon Beck, Mike Sylvara and Luke Anderson.

Johnson’s familiarity with the rigors of the MIAA season and the lessons learned from last year when the team splintered should provide the new Griffons with a better idea of what it will take to turn around a program that used to contend for the conference crown on an annual basis.

“To go out and find someone with any more talent than Lonnel would be hard to do,” Smith said. “If Lonnel will work hard and give himself to the team, I think he is a very talented young man. There is no question.

“Some of his thing is the criticism. When you were critical of Lonnel, he got uptight last year. We are past that now. After going through a year in the MIAA, he has a healthy respect for everyone in the league. I think that will help. He is ready to buy into what we want to do.”

Western releases fall practice schedule

Missouri Western football will begin its fall practices Aug. 7 and continue through Aug. 24. The Griffons kick off their season at Northern State on Thursday, Aug. 28.

Western starts its season two days earlier and begins practice five days later than it did last season.

“It was just kind of how it all hit,” coach Jerry Partridge said. “We probably practiced too long last year. We’ll get it done. Whatever amount of time we have, we’ll get the work in.”

The tentative schedule calls for 21 practices — five days of which include two-a-days.

MIAA adds women’s golf to line-up

The MIAA announced Thursday that it will add women’s golf as a championship sport for the upcoming season.

The conference approved the measure during its CEO Council meeting last month. The addition of Nebraska-Omaha to the conference made the move possible. The Mavericks bring the number of schools that sponsor the sport to five.

Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri State have women’s golf. The Bearcats officially added the program last year. Truman State and Fort Hays are the other two schools to sponsor the sport.

“Women’s golf is a sport which has tremendous growth potential,” MIAA commissioner Jim Johnson said in a release. “While we have five schools participating at the present time, that number could easily increase in the next three to five years.”

The women’s championship will be played with the men’s competition April 19-21.

Western baseball brings 17 into fold

Baseball coach Buzz Verduzco announced his 2008 recruiting class this week.

Western signed 17 players — 14 of whom are collegiate transfers. Verduzco’s class comes from six different states, including five from Missouri and six from Kansas. None are from the News-Press’ coverage area. See page C4 for the full list of recruits.

“We are very excited about our 2008 recruiting class,” Verduzco said in a release. “We had many seniors to replace from last year’s squad, and we feel fortunate to have these new young men be a part of our program.”

The Griffons, who had 11 seniors on their roster in 2008, went 25-24 last year and earned a spot in the MIAA tournament for the fourth time in six seasons.