Oakland Basketball: Grizzlies having busy offseason with 2021 transfer portal

The good news for coach Kampe is that his star player and 1st team All-Horizon League player Jalen Moore is returning for another season as he led the Golden Grizzlies to the conference title game this past season. Two other full-time starters in Trey Townsend and Micah Parrish are returning as well as six-man Zion Young. However, Oakland Basketball has had multiple players enter the transfer portal including two starters.

The biggest transfer leaving Oakland is three-point specialist Rashad Williams.

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Williams was hurt for a portion of the season but had some great games against Michigan State, Oklahoma State, and Youngstown State in the conference tournament. He was the Golden Grizzlies starting shooting guard and this will be the second time he has transferred and due to the new NCAA rule, he will have to get a waiver to play next season due to him previously already had transferred from Cleveland State to Oakland.

The second starter to enter the transfer portal is Golden Grizzlies big man Daniel Oladapo.

Prior to coming to Oakland, he transferred from Chipola college and became a starter in his second year as a Golden Grizzlie. In four of his last five games last season, he scored 17 or more points and had double digits in rebounds in three of his last five games to end the season. He has not announced where he is transferring to but Wright State is considered a favorite landing spot.

Other Oakland players who announced that they have entered the transfer portal are Kevin Kangu, Yusif Jahid, PJ Joseph, and Joey Holifield. Kangu and Holifield are the two guards of the group as the other two players are big men. Oakland did get one player that announced that he is transferring to become a Golden Grizzlie next season.

Jamal Cain confirmed that he is transferring from Marquette to Oakland and will be imminently eligible to play for the Golden Grizzlies for the 2021-22 season. Even though Oakland will miss Williams and Oladapo’s offensive production, the Golden Grizzlies will get a player in Cain who could do a little bit of everything and who comes from a strong Big East program.

Oakland especially if they get another incoming transfer or two, should be among the favorites to win the Horizon League next season. Moore is the favorite to be player of the year in the conference and Parrish and Townsend were true freshmen who started last season. Young more than likely is to take the starting guard spot from Williams’ departure and Cain will start and fill the void of the departure of Oladapo.

Coach Kampe will more than likely get another player to commit to the Golden Grizzlies from the transfer portal and the incoming freshmen will look to contribute off the bench in the quest for Oakland to win the Horizon League and make the NCAA tournament in 2022.