Oakland Basketball: 3 takeaways from overtime loss to Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines welcomed Oakland Basketball for what turned out to be a quality matchup between the two.

Michigan and second-year head coach Juwan Howard entered today’s game with high expectations after a disappointing finish to the 2019-2020 season. Coach Greg Kampe in his 34th year as head coach and Oakland Basketball team from the Horizon League is hoping for a better season after three straight years of falling below .500 and a 0-3 start to this season.

Oakland entered today’s game with eight freshmen on its roster. Kampe and his program had five players from last season’s team go into the NCAA transfer portal. However, his most talented player in Rashad Williams returned as well as fellow returning starter Daniel Oladipo. The Golden Grizzlies also brought back impactful players in Kangu and Blake Lampman.

Two impactful transfers in Jalen Moore and Zion Young are starting for the Golden Grizzlies this season and two impactful freshmen in Trey Townsend and Micah Parrish have been consistent contributors this season as well.

Let’s take a look at the three takeaways from today’s game.

Oakland hustled, dove for loose balls, and gave all the had on the floor

It was apparent from the start of the game that Oakland wanted to not only be competitive but to win this game. The Golden Grizzlies out hustled the taller and bigger Wolverine players and they dove on the floor and came up with the 50/50 loose balls.

Parrish fought hard against the bigger Michigan big men and Townsend another freshman held his own as well and fought for every rebound and steal. Moore kept attacking the Wolverines interior defense and Oladapo and Young did enough to keep the Michigan defense honest.

Oakland led Michigan 33-31 at the half and was tied with the Wolverines at 67 points apiece at the end of regulation. The most impressive stat is that Oakland caused the Wolverines to turn the ball over 20 times for the game.

The Golden Grizzlies 1-3-1 zone defense was very effective slowing down Michigan’s offense

Oakland in the past has played more man to man defense than any other type of defense. At Xavier, they primarily played a 2-3 zone defense but against the Wolverine, they displayed a quality and effective 1-3-1 defense which held Michigan to 29.6% three-point shooting on 8 for 27 shooting from beyond the arc.

The Golden Grizzlies defense came up with an impressive 11 steals on the game to go along with their 33 rebounds. Besides over time, the 1-3-1 defense was very effective in slowing down Michigan’s offense and forcing the Wolverines to settle for outside shots.

Oakland almost won the game despite poor three-point shooting

Two of the Golden Grizzlies’ best three-point outside shooters did not shot well from beyond the arc against Michigan. Prior to the game, if you had said that Oakland had on the road after starting the season 0-3 against a top 25 ranked forced overtime, you would have thought it was because of excellent three-point shooting.

However, the Golden Grizzlies shot a combined 8-34 for only a 23.5% shooting percentage. Lampman and Williams considered Oakland’s two best three-point shooters shot a combined 2 for 16 from behind the arc.

Overall, Oakland played very well and can build on this game as the head on the road to play Purdue and Oklahoma State. Kampe and his team look to avoid a 0-7 start to their season by upsetting a Power 5 Conference team during their next three games.