ROCHESTER, Mich. – The Oakland men's basketball team is set for a road trip to Orlando, Fla. to face Johnny Dawkins and the UCF Knights Monday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. ET.

The Golden Grizzlies (1-3, 0-0 HL) picked up their first win of the season in front of a home crowd in the OU Credit Union O'rena, driving past Defiance, 113-47 on the Blacktop.

Fifth-year senior Brett White II led Oakland with 18 points coming off the bench, converting four 3-pointers and recording three steals. Fifth-year senior Tuburu  Naivalurua posted a perfect shooting performance, scoring 17 points on 8-for-8 from the field and adding three steals, as senior Brody Robinson contributed 17 points while successfully converting seven of 10 free throws for a career-high and dished out five assists. Senior Ziare Wells scored 13 points and collected seven rebounds, along with four assists and two steals, as senior Nate Deer picked up his first NCAA career double-double, shooting 11 points and picking up 10 boards.

The Golden Grizzlies are coming off of a three-game stand of the No. 7 and back-to-back No. 1 teams in the country to open the season, touted as the hardest schedule in Division I Men's Basketball and to KenPom.com's strength of schedule rankings at +32.13 net rating.

Tip-off in Orlando slated for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+ with Austin Lyon (PxP) and Mike O'Donnell (Color) on the call. The Voice of the Golden Grizzlies, Neal Ruhl, will be on the radio call on 97.1HD-3/1270am or the Audacy App online.


SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS 
UCF has started the 2025-26 season 3-1, coming off of a road win at Texas A&M last week. The Knights lone loss came as Vanderbilt posted triple-digits inside Addition Financial Arena on Nov. 8. Dawkins and the Knights are currently second in the nation shooting 52.4% from beyond the arc, led by Riley Kugel with 65.0% three-point shooting and 18.0 ppg and a familiar face to the Golden Grizzlies in Milwaukee transfer Jamichael Stillwell with 8.3 ppg. 

​​Oakland and UCF have never met in program history. UCF's Senior Deputy Athletics Director, Rich Zvosec, was the head coach of Kansas City's Men's Basketball team from 2001-07, when Oakland was a member of the Summit League.


How to Follow Oakland Men's Basketball: For complete information on Oakland Men's Basketball follow the team on X at @OaklandMBB and head coach Greg Kampe at @KampeOU. The team is also on Instagram and Facebook.