Jan. 3, 2016 
Oakland University guard Kay Felder grabbed teammate Martez Walker by the jersey and unleashed some pretty harsh words.
This was at midcourt during the Golden Grizzlies 86-68 victory over Cleveland State Saturday afternoon at the O'rena as the Golden Grizzlies opened Horizon League with a bang in more ways than one.
"Shoot the ball," Felder would say to his teammate.
To the casual outsider the heat brought upon Walker seemed unfair and uncalled for. However, Felder's anger was justified. Moments earlier inside the Golden Grizzlies dressing room Oakland coach Greg Kampe had his own fire and brimstone speech for Walker.
This is the way the Golden Grizzlies family handles their business. It is tough love for a team with growing expectations.
"When I played with him in high school he was a scorer and always thirsty for shots," Felder said. "Now it is like he is trying to become a passer. We tell him every day you are a scorer. That is why we brought you here. Today it kind of hurt me to not see him score. That is why I got up in him. He knows his role. He has to knock some rust off I guess. He will get it."
If Oakland (9-5 overall, 1-0 in league play) is to make a magic run through the Horizon League and the NCAA tournament, it needs all hands on deck. That includes newcomer Walker who hopes to be in sync by Monday when Oakland plays host to Youngstown State (7 p.m.).
In high school Walker hit off-balanced shots, floaters in the lane and shots from downtown. Now he is a percentage guy. He says he wants to make the right play and keep contested shots to a minimal. That is a nice and safe approach with most programs. That isn't the right approach at Oakland.
"You've got to score. That is why we brought you here," Kampe said to Walker. "We ran stuff (offense) around you."
In his defense Walker is new to this program. He left the University of Texas and played his first game two weeks ago at Washington (Dec. 19). It was one of those games where the Golden Grizzlies saw his potential. He scored 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting. And when Washington made a run to slice a 20-point deficit to 10, Walker scored eight points in a row. He brought high hopes for a program that is gaining recognition and wants to be on the big stage during the NCAA tournament.
Walker is one of those key pieces. Unfortunately since the Washington game, he is 8-for-21 from the field and has averaged 6.8 points a game. The team expects more from him.
"We've got to keep pushing him," Kampe said. "I think he is in a real difficult situation to come into a situation like this. On one side, I wish my coach had told me to shoot the ball, but on the other side he's not the most mature basketball player I've ever coached. And there is a growth process involved and our system is not easy."
Walker wants to do the right thing and sometimes he feels turning down low percentage shots and feeding teammates is the right thing to do.
"Some of my shots I think are bad shots," Walker said. "He (Kampe) thinks are good. I let the game come to me. If I don't feel the shot I wasn't going to shoot. But he wants me to shoot more and more and more. I've got to learn and get back to my high school days. In high school I wasn't taking shots that were good shots for me, but they looked good (to coaches)."
Walker's way might be the right way in many places but not at Oakland.
"I am just so used to making the right play," he said. "Guys here sometimes make the wrong play but it is right to him."
In the first few minutes of the game Walker rose for a jumper, changed his mind, and put the ball back on the floor where he was called for a travel. Kampe pulled him and inserted three-point specialist Max Hooper who sank a three-point basket in transition.
For the game Hooper was 4-of-5 from the three-point line and finished with 15 points.
"For me the reason I know I was brought here was to take threes, make threes and take a lot of threes," Hooper said. "That (shooting) is not a real challenge for me. My role is to shoot the ball. My mind set is when I come off the screen I am thinking shot immediately. If the shot is not there I act accordingly."
Oakland is not going to win a title with a lock down defense. It uses its defense to quicken the pace and to get transition points.
That is why scoring is so important.
Big man Percy Gibson was guilty of passing up a shot near the end of the first half the team. He got the ball within five seconds of an inbounds pass but passed up an easy baseline jumper which is not the Kampe way.
"You've got to know what's going on," Kampe told Gibson. "We got the shot with in five seconds. You even didn't look to score."
Kampe isn't upset with the shots players take. He becomes upset with the ones they don't take.
"I am a percentage dude," Walker said. "That is what I go for. I want my percentage to be high. I don't want to take shots I know I am not going to make because I don't want to embarrass myself."
Later he said: "I've just got to be more aggressive and give the team what it wants. I will be good."
#WEARtheBEAR
