Oakland Basketball was the top team in the Horizon League last season, thanks to Conference Player of the Year Trey Townsend, along with three other top scorers. One of them was Jack Gohlke, who had the season-high 32 points in the NCAA Tournament win over Kentucky.
It’s been hard for the Golden Grizzlies to replace all of the production from last season, especially Gohlke’s sharpshooting. Entering the Diamond Head Classic Tournament, Oakland ranked as one of the worst shooting teams in the country, making fewer than 28% from three-point range.
However, the Horizon League team managed to put up some impressive outings through the three games. They defeated Loyola-Chicago in the opening round game while having second-half leads over Oregon State and host Hawaii before ultimately losing the games.
So much Jack Gohlke in Malcolm Christie....
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) December 26, 2024
One real positive that emerged from this tournament was the play of Malcolm Christie, the 6’5 transfer guard from Canada. He got off to a rough start this season, averaging around 6.0 ppg through his first eight games. But he’s had at least 15 points in each of the last five games, including 20 against Loyola-Chicago and 18 versus Oregon State. And on Christmas Day, Christie scored 27 points on a whopping 7/22 from three-point range.
Christie shot a combined 17/49 on the three-game series, good for 34% from deep. Considering how many offensive issues they’ve been having on the season, seeing Christie become a true threat on the three-point line will hopefully open things up for others such as DQ Cole and Allen David Mukeba.
Oakland may have only gone 1-2 in the Diamond Head Classic, but considering how close they were to winning all three games and having a go-to option emerge, this has to be viewed as a successful MTE for the program. They have a road game at Arkansas up next in a rematch with former Kentucky HC, John Calipari. We’ll see if Coach Greg Kampe’s new sharpshooter can go off against Coach Cal one more time.