ROCHESTER, Mich. – The 2022-23 Oakland University Men's Basketball season tips off in the Athletics Center O'rena on Monday, November 7 at 5:30 pm with a match against NCAA Division III Defiance College (Ohio).

Last Tuesday, Oakland escaped Rochester University with a 66-64 win as Trey Townsend sank a go-ahead layup with a few seconds to go to head into the regular season 2-0 from exhibition play as the slate is cleansed for the upcoming year. Townsend led the way with 20 points and three rebounds with a team-high two blocks while transfer Rocket Watts posted 15 points and four assists.

Graduate transfer Keaton Hervey registered a double-double in the win at Garth Pleasant Arena with 12 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, dominating the glass with 12 defensive boards through 30 minutes of play. Blake Lampman threw in 13 field goal attempts which, if this game were in the regular season, would have tied for a career-high while the Haslett native also tied with Watts with four assists. 

Lastly, Osei Price started Tuesday night following a 2021-22 season that had the sophomore see floor action right out of the gate eight times in his 32 games played. Chris Conway made a contribution off the bench with six points to his credit with a 75% (3-4) field goal percentage tacked on by three offensive rebounds.

Will Shepherd, Lorne Bowman, and Brody Parker also saw action with the three combining for 16 minutes off the bench. 87% of the team's scoring offense came from the starting five of Price, Townsend, Watts, Lampman, and Hervey, collectively scoring 58 of the squad's 66 points. 

Looking ahead to the season, Oakland returns three starters from a year ago in Jalen Moore, Townsend, and Conway while adding veteran transfers Watts, Bowman, Hervey, and Chuol Deng. Moore will be looking to facilitate the offense following two seasons in a Golden Grizzlies uniform that had the Cloverdale, Indiana native first in assists per game in 2021 and second in 2022 in all of NCAA Division I.

Last Tuesday's starting five commanded 85% of the minutes from the exhibition match, trending with the playing time that Moore and Townsend saw last season that ranked the two fourth and 22nd in the nation, respectively, in NCAA Division I. 

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 on 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. 

The preseason KenPom rankings revealed Oakland as the fifth-best in the Horizon League at 225th overall out of the competing 363 teams.

With the release of the AP Top 25 Poll, Oakland will not play a ranked opponent in non-conference play but will do battle with the No. 31 (Michigan State), No. 54 (Syracuse), No. 86 (Toledo), and No. 87 (Boise State) teams in the KenPom rankings, respectively. 

SCOUTING REPORT

DEFIANCE
The Yellow Jackets and Golden Grizzlies have met seven times in the regular season on the hardwood with the most recent clash coming in 2017, a 91-47 win for OU. Defiance was selected sixth in the preseason Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) poll with five players (Dejsani Beamon, Kiewuan Graham, Merrell Jordan, Sherod Brooks, and Landen Swanner) selected to the conference's watch list.

Three of those five players in Beamon, Swanner, and Jordan are returning starters from an 11-11 team that finished third in the HCAC standings a year ago. Jordan is the team's leading scorer from 2021-22 with 18.9 points per game while Beamon and Swanner averaged out to 8.9 and 7.8, respectively. 

Defiance has found two transfers in Brooks and Graham from Siena Heights University (Mich.). Graham was fourth on the team in scoring for the Saints from last season with 9.8 points per game with 20 starts and an average of 28.1 minutes per contest. Brooks played in two games from the 2020-21 season at SHU. 

 

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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.