ROCHESTER, Mich. – Oakland University Men's Basketball is set to take part of the 2022 Nassau Championship hosted by Baha Mar Hoops November 25-27 with three guaranteed games over three days, starting with Long Beach State on Friday at 8:00 pm. 

Trey Townsend secured both the tying and game-winning shot in the team's 92-90 overtime win against Eastern Michigan last Saturday en route to a team-high 17 points, a feat which he shared with Keaton Hervey. Will Shepherd scored 12 points en route to a 4-4 night from the three-point line, setting a career-high for the Dallas sophomore. 

Jalen Moore has moved up to 11th in NCAA Division I in assists per game with 7.2, totaling 29 so far in the season as the most by a #HLMBB student-athlete. Moore is also 21st in the nation in minutes per game with 36.4 per contest.

Keaton Hervey leads the squad in rebounds, averaging 8.4 boards per game while the graduate student scores the second-most points on the team at 14.8. Rocket Watts has now moved into a double-digit average of 10.0 along with Blake Lampman at 11.4. This makes five Golden Grizzlies with double-digit scoring averages.

Oakland has one of the best offenses in the conference, averaging 83.6 points per game though the team gives up 81.4 to the opposition for a combination that posts a sixth-best Horizon League scoring margin of 2.2. However, the team is the best of the 11-member league in free throw shooting with a 74.3% (75-101). 

With its 4.8 turnover margin, coughing up 10.4 a game while forcing 15.2 on their opponents, the Golden Grizzlies once again have the best mark in the conference while also boasting the best assist/turnover ratio of 1.50, a tie for 36th in the nation. 

Townsend was named to the Lou Henson Award Watchlist on November 22 as one of four #HLMBB student-athletes listed.

Moore was the lone Golden Grizzly named to the Preseason #HLMBB All-League Team honor with OU predicted fourth with two first-place votes in the preseason poll as Purdue Fort Wayne and Northern Kentucky tied for the top honor. The Horizon League and ESPN released the annual wildcard selections for national telecasts with Oakland on four of the five potential selected dates, denoted on the team's schedule page and the game notes. 

Head Coach Greg Kampe enters his 39th season at the helm for Oakland University as the second-longest tenured coach in NCAA Division I basketball behind Jim Boeheim from Syracuse, who is in his 42nd season. Kampe has posted a 664-506 (56.8%) career record.

Michigan State was recently ranked No. 12 in the latest AP Top 25 poll as the only ranked  non-conference opponent the Golden Grizzlies will potentially see. Toledo came close with a receiving votes ranking ahead of the matchup back on November 16.

The early signing period has come for OU as Aundre Polk will join the team on The Blacktop in the fall of 2023. Polk is a former MAC All-Freshman Team member at Central Michigan.

SCOUTING REPORT

For this scouting report edition, we will preview the three other teams in Oakland's side of the bracket and offer a larger preview for the four other teams on the opposite side. You can also expect short preview for future opponents in the recaps after each day.

LONG BEACH STATE
The Beach and Oakland have never meet on the hardwood but LBSU enters the Bahamas as the reigning Big West Concerence champions from a year ago with a 2-2 2022 mark. In the Big West Tournament Championship, LBSU fell to No. 2 seed Cal State Fullerton by a single point 72-71 to send them to the NIT where it once again fell to No. 2 seed BYU 93-72 in the first round.

Only three Long Beach State student-athletes post a double-digit scoring average with Joel Murray leading the way with 14.0 per game, Marcus Tsohonis and Aboubacar Traore just behind with 11.5 and 10.0, respectively. Traore also has a team-leading average of 9.3 boards. As a team, The Beach allow the ninth-most points in the Big West Conference per game at 9.3, holding steady at ninth in the scoring margin at 1.8. 

NORTH TEXAS
The Mean Green have the 11th-best scoring offense in Conference USA, which is last, at 55.75 points per game while ironically restricting their opponents to a league-best 52 points per game for a 3.75 scoring margin. UNT enters the tournament 3-1 overall in the early 2022 slate with only one NCAA Division I victory over Fresno State while defeating Southern Nazarene (NCAA Division II) and Paul Quinn College (NAIA) at home in Denton.

The team will first have to get through San Jose State in the game before advancing as Tylor Perry leads the Mean Green with 15.5 points per game while Abou Ousmane and Aaron Scott each carry a team-high 6.3 rebounds into the tournament. Last season, UNT won the regular season Conference USA crown with an NIT appearance that featured a 67-63 overtime win over Texas State in the first round before falling to Virginia 71-69 in overtime five days later.

SAN JOSE STATE
San Jose State enters 4-1 on the year with a first round bout against North Texas before either taking on Oakland or Long Beach State. The Spartans have only one true road game like the Golden Grizzlies, a 80-69 win at Northern Colorado in Greeley. SJSU stands middle of the pack in offense and defense in the Mountain West Conference following a 1-17 league mark a year ago.

Omari Moore spearheads the Spartans with 16.2 points per game, the eighth-best in the Mountain West Conference, while Alvaro Cardenas and Sage Tolbert III average 12.2 and 10.0, respectively. Tolbert also posts 9.4 rebounds per game as the Spartans are one of the better teams in that category in its league as Tolbert is first at that mark.

And for longtime SJSU Sports Information Director Lawrence Fan, who worked on-campus for the Spartans for four-plus decades, passing away in February of 2022, you are missed. 

THE REST OF THE FIELD
Oakland fans may remember Vermont from a year ago as the Golden Grizzlies clawed down the Catamounts 63-61 in the first round of the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida a season ago. Vermont is on the opposite side of the bracket following a American East championship and a 75-71 loss to Arkansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season. 

Missouri State, Hervey's undergraduate institution, will also be appearing with a first round game against UNC-Wilimington out of the Colonial Athletic Association. The Bears earned a NIT bid as well in 2021-22 while the Seahawks won the CBI final in double overtime 96-90 against Middle Tennessee State. Lastly, Ball State bounced out of the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament to Ohio last spring as the final team to enter the Nassau Championship field with a game against Vermont out of the gate.

In its last two multi team events, Oakland has gone 3-3 against the competition with a win over the aforementioned Gulf Coast Showcase against Vermont, Rice, and Delaware last season while falling to Xavier, Toledo, and Bradley in Cincinnati as part of the Xavier Invitational during the wild 2020-21 campaign.

 

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TOWNSEND NAMED TO LOU HENSON WATCHLIST
The Oxford native was one of four #HLMBB student-athletes on the Lou Henson Award Watchlist announced on November 22. The third Golden Grizzly on the prestigious list in two seasons.

DA-DA-DA  DA-DA-DA
Moore and Hervey connected from a steal for the off-the-glass slam by the grad transfer from Missouri State for the team's first #SCTop10 of the 2022-23 season, coming in at No. 10 in the daily ESPN show on October 20.

NEW FACES
The Golden Grizzlies welcome in four transfers, two from the power five-level, Rocket Watts (Mississippi State), Lorne Bowman (Wisconsin), Keaton Hervey (Missouri State), and Chuol Deng (Hill College). Three freshmen join the new class Cooper Craggs, Dominic Capriotti, and Evan Solomon.

NEW HEAT IN MIAMI
Oakland's own Jamal Cain has earned a contract with the Miami Heat for the upcoming season wearing No. 8. Cain is just the latest active Golden Grizzly in the NBA with Kendrick Nunn, a regular part of the Los Angeles Lakers rotation.

GET YOUR TICKETS
Season tickets can be purchased through the Athletics Ticket Office by calling (248) 370-4000 or emailing outickets@oakland.edu. Single-game tickets and mini-plans are also available for the 2022-23 basketball season. 

NEW HOME FOR OAKLAND BASKETBALL
Oakland recently announced a partnership with Audacy that made 97.1 The Ticket HD3 and The Bet 1270AM (WXYT-AM) the official radio providers for the department. With this new partnership, 97.1 The Ticket HD3 and The Bet 1270AM (WXTY-AM) will provide coverage for all Oakland men's basketball games and the Greg Kampe Radio Show.

BACK FOR ANOTHER RUN
Kampe enters his 39th season at the helm of the Oakland men's basketball program. He is the second-longest tenured active coach in Division I, only behind Jim Boeheim (Syracuse, 45 seasons). Kampe's 664 career wins rank 12th among active Division I coaches.

PUTTING OAKLAND ON THE MAP
Kampe joined Oakland in 1984 after six seasons as an assistant coach at Toledo (1978-1984). Formerly known as the Pioneers, OU had only six winning seasons in 16 years of competition before his arrival.