In his 41st season as head coach at Oakland, there is one program dream Greg Kampe has yet to realize: beating in-state rival Michigan State.
Kampe and the Golden Grizzlies will get another chance to do so when No. 20 Michigan State and Oakland hook up in Detroit on Tuesday.
Kampe and Oakland achieved one dream this past March when it had a magical NCAA Tournament run that started with an upset of blue blood Kentucky before taking eventual Final Four team NC State to overtime.
Seemingly the only thing Kampe hasn’t done in his career yet is knock off Michigan State. The Golden Grizzlies have lost all 22 meetings against the Spartans.
It’s definitely not the same team Oakland (3-5) had last year, given the only regular from the playing rotation is DQ Cole, who is third on the team in scoring at 11.1 points per game.
Transfers Allen Mukeba (13.6 ppg) and Buru Naivalurua (12.6 ppg) are the team’s other players averaging in double figures.
In order to compete with Michigan State, the Golden Grizzlies are going to have to fix some offensive issues that saw them score just 50 points in a loss to Youngstown State on Dec. 7.
“I’ve got some tough decisions to make,” Kampe said. “Counting the exhibition season, we are 10 games in. By the time you are there, you should have a pretty good idea of your personnel and what’s going to happen. I’ve got to make some decisions on playing times and minutes.”
“I’ve got to figure out what can we do offensively to have success,” Kampe continued. “Because right now what we are doing is not working. It’s not successful.”
On the other side, the Spartans (8-2) have been successful scorers this year. They are averaging 82.3 points per game this year and have seven players who are averaging at least 7.6 ppg in what has been a balanced attack.
Senior Jaden Akins leads the team in scoring at 13.0 points per game, while freshman Jase Richardson (10.3 ppg) and transfer Frankie Fidler (10.2 ppg) are also averaging in double figures.
Michigan State enters having won six of its last seven games.
“Consistency is what I want to see now,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said. “Can we stay consistent? Can we stay level-headed? Can we keep working? Or do we let the outside world get us? It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let that happen this year. I said it at the beginning of the year, I say it now: I like the team. Sometimes it’s coach-speak. This one wasn’t.”
Despite his team’s historical dominance over Oakland, Izzo is wary of his good friend Kampe and the problems the Golden Grizzlies can present.
“Why (do) I keep playing that game?” Izzo quipped. “I got to be insane. I think they’re really good. They beat Toledo this year. They’re really good. And yet that’ll be a Christmas, Fourth of July for them down there. I’m anxious to see if it’ll be a Christmas, Fourth of July for us.”
–Field Level Media
