The Oakland men’s basketball team opened their season with a tough 92-48 loss in an exhibition matchup at Little Caesars Arena against the Michigan Wolverines on Sunday, Oct. 20.
Although the Golden Grizzlies were able to hang with the Wolverines early on in the game, offensive struggles began to mount. Miss after miss started to pile up for Oakland, especially from the three-point line, and an overpowering Wolverine offense started to pile up.
Graduate student Jayson Woodrich provided an early spark, connecting for two threes in the game’s first seven minutes. However, from that point on, the Golden Grizzlies missed the rest of their three-point attempts, finishing the game with a 6.7% conversion rate from deep.
“So if my math is right, that’d be 27 consecutive misses,” head coach Greg Kampe said regarding missed threes. “It’ll probably be 41 more years that I’ve coached before I see that again, so I’m not worried about any of this.”
Despite the showing, Kampe remained optimistic about the rest of the season and believes in his team’s ability to move forward.
“So it’s great teaching, great learning experience for us. You know, we take it for that,” Kampe said. “We want to play these games for this reason. We want to see teams do things like that against us so that we have film, and I can take 11 new guys and teach them. You know, this is what happened, and now we fix it.”
Woodrich, who led the Golden Grizzlies in scoring with 18 points and played the most minutes, shared the same sentiment. For Woodrich, it was less about the result and more about growing together as a unit.
“I mean, we have 11 new guys, so this is our first game ever playing together in a big atmosphere,” Woodrich said. “So, you know, it was a great experience for us, but it’s just something that we’re gonna learn from.”
Looking ahead at the rest of Oakland’s non-conference slate, Michigan isn’t the only formidable opponent the Golden Grizzlies will face. A minimum of four more Power Four opponents, including Illinois, Kansas, Michigan State and Arkansas, await.
However, this demanding non-conference schedule is done for a reason: to make the team better.
“If we play, you know, division six teams and win 105 to 70 or 50 or 30, we’re not going to get better. And then we go to Kansas or those places, we’ll run into this,” Kampe said. “By playing here tonight and experiencing this, we’re going to get better.”
Additionally, this isn’t the first time the Golden Grizzlies have had a disappointing start to their season in an exhibition game or against a Power Four opponent.
Just last season, Oakland lost to Walsh College in their first exhibition game, 75-69. Notably, Walsh College competes in Division II, yet the Golden Grizzlies went on to have one of their most successful seasons since entering the Horizon League in the 2013-14 season.
In the 2004-05 season, the Golden Grizzlies lost their first six games, four of which came from Power Four opponents. That same season also marked the first time Kampe led Oakland to the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.
“I think we have a chance to be really good, really good,” Kampe said. “Not good, really good.”
Next on the agenda, the Golden Grizzlies will play their final exhibition against Rochester Christian University on Friday, Oct. 25, on the road. Oakland’s official start to the season will come on Monday, Nov. 4, against the Defiance Yellow Jackets at the OU Credit Union O’Rena at 7 p.m.