ROCHESTER, Mich. - The Golden Grizzlies men's basketball team is set to open up its preseason against the University of Michigan Sunday, at 5:00 p.m. ET, inside Little Caesars Arena in an exhibition game benefiting Forgotten Harvest.
 
Forgotten Harvest is a non-profit food insecurity organization whose vision is to work with communities to end hunger and create individual, neighborhood, economic, and environmental health. Food insecurity is one's inability to obtain sufficient food for their household's needs.
 
The Golden Grizzlies are coming off a historic season, winning their first-ever Horizon League title and securing a victory over Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64. The defending Horizon League regular season and tournament champions were selected to finish fourth in the 2024-25 Horizon League Preseason Poll, receiving five first-place votes. Milwaukee and Purdue Fort Wayne, both teams the Golden Grizzlies defeated in the #HLMBB Tournament, were picked ahead and placed first, while Northern Kentucky sits right ahead of the Golden Grizzlies at three.

Senior guard DQ Cole was named to the Preseason All-League Second Team after a strong junior campaign. Cole hit the decisive three-pointer in the win against Kentucky and returns to the team after averaging 9.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game with 71 total assists last season. He played in 27 games, starting 20, and shot .461 from the field, including 34 made three-pointers. As a key player for Oakland, Cole will look to lead the team in its bid for another successful season.

With only five returning players from last year's squad, including two regular starters in Cole and Isaiah Jones, who started 22 games with 4.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, as the Golden Grizzlies will look to utilize its transfer players and freshmen this season. Including Cole and Jones, Buru Naivalurua, Zavier Banks and Cooper Craggs return as Naivalurua looks to build off last season, having played in all but one game, while Craggs saw action in three games and Banks redshirted.

Oakland brought in a plethora of talent through both the transfer portal and freshman, as the 11 new faces consist of three freshmen, two sophomores,three juniors, one senior and two graduate transfers. Notably, and not an unfamiliar face to the OU Credit Union O'rena and the Golden Grizzlies, is grad transfer Jayson Woodrich who previously played for the Horizon League's Cleveland State. While with the Vikings, Woodrich played 127 games in four years, knocked down a total of 151 threes and averaged 8.0 points per game his senior season.
Joining Woodrich as the other grad transfer is Allen Mukeba who played two seasons at UKMC where the Belguim native played in 54 games and started 24. His senior season, he shot at a .539 clip from the field for 7.3 points per game and averaged 8.2 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game in his two years.

Along with Mukeba and Naivalurua, Oakland rosters a total of six players from outside of the U.S., as Chang and Jack Hoth, who are twins, along with Deng Majak, are from South Sudan, while senior guard Malcolm Christie is from New Brunswick in Canada. Speaking of Christie, during his final season with Dalhousie University, he was the AUS Conference MVP, a First-Team All-Star, a First-Team All-Canadian, an AUS Championship Tournament MVP and a Final 8 USports National Tournament All-Star. He also averaged 22.1 points per game and set a school record for most points in a game at 51, and set an AUS record for 3-point shots made in a season at 79.
 
Both Jack and Chang Hoth come from Western Oklahoma State College where the duo spent the last two years. Jack was named All-Region Second Team, was an All-Region Second Freshman Team selection and averaged 18.4 points per game and shot at a .397 clip from three during his two seasons. His brother Chang was an All American, averaged 22.2, shot at a .504 clip from the floor and started all 61 games points during his two years, made the most 3-pointers in JUCO and averaged 1.3 blocks. Furthermore, Majak, from Turalei, South Sudan, played two years at Indian River State College and was an Honorable Mention All-Conference player his freshman year, was named Second Team All-Conference his sophomore year and averaged 13.4 points and 9.0 rebounds per game and shot at a .548 clip from the floor in 2023-24.

Jeremiah Bembry and Jaylen Jones round out the sophomore class at the redshirt sophomore Bembry comes to Oakland after having spent a season at West Virginia where he played in eight games. J. Jones, younger brother of Isaiah, played his freshman year at Tennessee State University where he played in 31 games and averaged 9.2 points per game for the Tigers.

The Golden Grizzlies bring in an impressive freshman class, all of which are from the state of Michigan, as Nassim Mashhour, Luke Gelow and Warren Marshall IV will rep the black and gold.
Mashhour, who played at Dearborn High School, was a KLAA All-Conference Select Team East honoree, a First-Team All-Area West honoree, was a 2023-2024 KLAA Conference Champion and two-time District Champion while averaging 22.0 points and 6.0 assists per game.

Gelow has an impressive resume from his time at Gaylord High School as the guard was All-State and All-Area all four years, named to the All-Conference First Team Twice and averaged 31.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game his senior year.
 
Marshall IV was 1st Team AP All State, All Catholic League, All League and won the Catholic League title in 2022-23 at Brother Rice High School and he averaged 12.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 3.0 APG and shot at a .390 clip from three and .570 from the field.

Head coach Greg Kampe, the longest-tenured head coach at one school in Division I, will lead the Golden Grizzlies for his 41st season. Kampe, who currently sits at 699 wins, ranks in the top-10 for most wins by active Division I head coaches. With 11 new players and eight transfers, the bench boss is no stranger to bringing in successful transfer talent as well. Most recently, Jack Golhke (2023-24), a grad transfer from Hillsdale College, was the Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year and recorded 32 points in the teams NCAA Round of 64 win against Kentucky as he hit 10 threes for t-2nd in NCAA Tournament history for most threes made in a game. Gohlke went on to sign an NBA Summer League contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
 
SUNDAY, OCT. 20
OPPONENT: Michigan*
*Exhibition Game Benefitting Forgotten Harvest
TIME: 5:00 p.m. ET
LIVE STATS
LIVE STREAM: B1G+
LIVE AUDIO: 97.1HD-3/1270am/Audacy App
TICKETS
 
The Wolverines hired Dusty May to take over the reins of the basketball team after he had a successful six seasons with Florida Atlantic, including an appearance in the Final Four (2022-23). During his tenure with the Owls, May went to the NCAA Tournament twice and finished with an overall record of 126-69.
 
The Wolverines enter the season after it struggled last season as it went 3-17 in B1G play and was 8-24 overall. Nimari Burnett returns as the Wolverines top scorer as he finished the season with 9.6 points per game and 4.1 rebounds per game. From the floor, the graduate student shot at a .399 clip and made 52 shots from range. He's also the only returning starter for the Wolverines as he was the only player last season to start all 32 games, and one of two to play in all games.
 
The Golden Grizzlies hold a 1-8 record overall against the Wolverines in the regular season as the Golden Grizzlies sole win came in 2000 inside the OU Credit Union O'rena. The two teams have played at a neutral site two times, both at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., with 2011 being that last time the two teams played on the same court the Detroit Pistons played on. The last time the teams met was in the 2020-21 season as Oakland took the Wolverines to overtime but fell, 81-71.

The charity exhibition games marks the sixth time Oakland will have played inside Little Caesars Arena, as it has played Michigan State three times, with a matchup against the Spartans inside LCA later this season. The Golden Grizzlies have also played three Horizon League Tournament games inside the Arena, as Oakland is 1-5 in those six games.

FOLLOW OAKLAND
Stay up to date on everything Oakland basketball via social media platforms. Follow our Instagram and Twitter at @OaklandMBB.