Oakland Preview

Greg Kampe has coached at Oakland for 40 years. It's incredible in this world.  They were DII when he got there, and he has now taken them to 3 NCAA tournaments.  He's a Falcon...played football and basketball for the Falcons.  This year, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the National High School Hall of Fame.

He has been very successful...however, based on kempom, last year was their worst year since 1999, which is as far back as the records go.  They were 13-19, but were 2-11 at one point.  He plays real schedules...they played the #21 non-conference schedule in the country last year. The kenpom was 272.

This will be the 12th meeting between BG and Oakland. BG has won the last 3, including last year at Oakland. 

I mentioned they play a tough schedule.  They are 0-2 this year, with losses to Ohio State and Illinois, both on the road.  They showed up both times.  At OSU, they led as late as 9 minutes left to play and against Illinois they led with 11 left and the game was tied with 7:30 to play.

They have shot 47% of their field goals from 3, one of the highest in the country.  They make 34.5%, which is above average but not great.

Their leader to date is Trey Townshend.  He's 6'6", scoring 18 PPG on 41% shooting, almost all from 2FG.  He also averages 9 RPG and has made all 7 of his FTs.

Their second leading scorer is Hillsdale transfer Jack Gohlke. He's scoring 12 a game on 8 of 24 shooting---each and every one of them from 3FG. He's 6'3".

Blake Lampman has 11 PPG on 40% 3FG shooting.

So 2-0 meets 0-2.  Kenpom has this ranked as pretty much a toss up.  Should be an interesting game, taking place at the same time as the BG-UT game!