The Oakland Golden Grizzlies are the men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

team that represent Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Michigan, United States. The school's team competes in the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

and plays their home games at the

Athletics Center O'rena Athletics Center O'rena is a 4,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Auburn Hills, Michigan Auburn Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 21,412 at the 2010 census. Before incorporating as a city in 1983, ...

. The Golden Grizzlies are coached by Greg Kampe. Kampe is the second longest-tenured Division I head coach, behind Jim Boeheim. Oakland last played in the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams fro ...

in 2011. Through December 29, 2020, Oakland has made a three-point field goal in 1,014 consecutive games, the fifth-longest active NCAA Division I streak. They last finished a game without a three-pointer on January 30, 1988.

History

The Oakland men's basketball program began competing in the 1967 season, 10 years after the university opened. Originally nicknamed the Pioneers, they won their first NCAA game 109–106 in overtime against

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

. The Pioneers were without a conference until 1974 when they joined the

Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) is a competitive college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The GLIAC was founded in June 1972. Its ele ...

(GLIAC). The first year as members of the GLIAC, Oakland hired Greg Kampe, who is still the head coach at the university. Kampe has the fifth-longest tenure of all active Division I coaches. Oakland won two regular season GLIAC championships, in 1995–96 and 1996–97, their final two seasons in the league. In a 1993 game against Madonna, Oakland scored 91 points in the first half, on their way to a 189–107 victory. That game set school records for most points in a half (98) and largest margin of victory (82). The next three seasons, OU scored more than 100 points 30 times, winning 29 of those games. Oakland played at the Division II level until 1997 when they changed their nickname to the Golden Grizzlies and began the transition to Division I. OU opened the

in 1998 against

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...

. When the O'rena was being built, home basketball games were played in the Sports Dome, an inflatable "bubble" used for practice by Oakland's athletic teams during the winter. The original basketball stadium was in the Hollie L. Lepley Sports Center. The Golden Grizzlies completed the transition to Division I in 1999 and joined the

Mid-Continent Conference The Summit League, or The Summit, is an NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic conference with its membership mostly located in the Midwestern United States from Illinois on the East of the Mississippi River to the Dakotas and Nebraska on t ...

(now known as The Summit League). The Golden Grizzlies joined the

starting in the 2013–14 season.

Postseason history

Oakland competed in

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

since the inception of the basketball program in 1967 until they moved to

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athleti ...

in 1997. The Golden Grizzlies reached the Division II postseason four times in their final four seasons at that level.

NCAA Division I Tournament results

The Golden Grizzlies have appeared in three Division I NCAA Tournaments. Their overall record is 1–3.

NCAA Division II Tournament results

The Golden Grizzlies have appeared in four Division II NCAA Tournaments. Their overall record is 3–5.

NIT results

The Golden Grizzlies have appeared in one

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York City ...

. Their overall record is 1–1.

Vegas 16 results

The Golden Grizzlies participated in the first and only Vegas 16. Their record was 2–1.

CIT results

The Golden Grizzlies have appeared in Four CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournaments (CIT). Their overall record is 4–4.

All-time win–loss record

''Through 2020–21 season''

Records

Media

OU men's basketball games are broadcast on WDFN (1130 AM). The play-by-play commentator is Neal Ruhl, with former Oakland and professional player, Dan Waterstradt. Oakland home games are simulcast on

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communication ...

, WMYD and WDFN. Mario Impemba, also the play-by-play commentator for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

on Fox Sports Detroit, broadcast Oakland games from 2006–2013.

Oakland players who played in the NBA

* Keith Benson * Jamal Cain * Kay Felder *

Rawle Marshall Rawle Junior Kalomo Marshall (born February 20, 1982) is a Guyanese-American professional basketball player who last played for Shahrdari Gorgan of the Iranian Super League. Early life Marshall is a 2000 graduate of Detroit's Mackenzie High Sc ...

Kendrick Nunn Kendrick Melvin Nunn (born August 3, 1995) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini and the Oakland Golden ...

Footnotes

: The official Oakland record book lists

Reggie Hamilton Reginald Lamont Hamilton, Jr. (born May 23, 1989) is an American professional basketball player. In 2011–12, his senior year at Oakland University, Hamilton averaged 26.2 points per game to lead all of NCAA Division I in scoring. He scored 2, ...

in third place with 548 career assists from 2010–2012. That includes the assists he accumulated while at UMKC from 2007–2009, which is inconsistent with how the rest of the record book handles transfer player statistics. : The official Oakland record book lists Marshall's total at 199, but the addition of his individual season's statistics makes the total 198 (80 in 2002–03, 59 in 2003–04, 59 in 2004–05). : There is a discrepancy between sources for Brock's 2016–17 season block total. The official Oakland record book lists 72, while other sources list the total as 69. This is due to a difference in total blocks for the December 10, 2016, game against Robert Morris. Both school box scores list 7 blocks while ESPN and sports-reference.com list 5.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oakland Golden Grizzlies Men's Basketball