March 15, 2009

• OU's CIT Tournament Central

ROCHESTER, Mich. - After winning a Division I era record 22 games, the Oakland University men's basketball team (22-12) was rewarded by getting an invitation to play in the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, announced on Sunday night. The Golden Grizzlies will face Kent State (19-14) from the Mid-American Conference on Tuesday, March 17, at 7 p.m. inside the Athletics Center O'Rena.

"It's great that we are going to be playing in the postseason," said OU coach Greg Kampe who now has 418 career victories. "It's even better that they thought highly enough of us to give Oakland a home game."

The 16-team tournament will be single-elimination consisting of four rounds, with all the rounds being played at on-campus sites, which will be determined by seeding.

FIRST ROUND
Tuesday, March 17
The Citadel (20-12) @ Old Dominion (21-10)
Rider (19-12) @ Liberty (22-11)
Kent State (19-14) @ Oakland (22-12)

Wednesday, March 18
Mount St. Mary's (19-13) @ James Madison (19-14)
Austin Peay (19-13) @ Bradley (18-14)
Belmont (19-12) @ Evansville (17-13)
Portland (19-12) @ Pacific (19-12)
Drake (17-15) @ Idaho (16-15)

OU set a new school record with a nine-game winning streak (Feb. 5-March 10) before falling to Summit League champion North Dakota State in the closing seconds 66-64 in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Golden Grizzlies finished 12-3 over their last 15 games.

The Golden Flashes fell to Buffalo in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament 65-62. KSU finished 10-6 in league play and this will be the first-ever meeting between the Golden Flashes and Golden Grizzlies.

Oakland currently holds the 11th-best home winning streak in the nation with 13 straight. The Golden Grizzlies defeated Toledo (67-58) and Eastern Michigan (66-53) out of the MAC and are 5-1 against teams that hail from the MAC in their last six.

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