Mid-major teams usually play difficult nonconference schedules, often out of financial necessity more than anything.
But the nonconference schedule that Oakland has is even more extreme than usual, with the next daunting task being a game at No. 1-ranked Purdue on Friday.
Oakland stayed in state and played at No. 7 Michigan to open the season on Monday, and after meeting the top-ranked Boilermakers, the Golden Grizzlies will be in action at No. 2-ranked Houston on Wednesday.
It’s quite a gauntlet, but one that longtime Oakland head coach Greg Kampe isn’t regretting.
Even after a 121-78 loss to Michigan, he said it’s all about developing his team for the season against the best squads in the country. The Horizon League team, as a No. 14 seed, defeated Kentucky in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
“I think we picked up ourselves well,” Kampe said after the game against the Wolverines. “You lose by 40 and you sit there and say, ‘I don’t think we played that poorly.’ I don’t think we did. I saw a lot of really good things.”
Kampe will hope to see more good things from his team against Purdue, which opened its season with an 82-51 triumph at home over Evansville on Tuesday.
It was the first glance at a Purdue team with national championship aspirations, and head coach Matt Painter said the best way for his team to manage those sky-high expectations is through humility.
“You want to be ranked there at the end of the season and maybe you want to earn that too,” Painter said. “We didn’t earn (the No. 1 ranking). You can say we earned it from previous seasons, but we didn’t earn it this season. We’re still on proving ground. We just got to stay grounded and worry about Oakland, because they can come in here and beat us.”
To avoid an upset by Oakland, Purdue’s frontcourt will have to contain Oakland senior Tuburu Naivalurua, the preseason Player of the Year in the Horizon League.
Naivalurua scored 18 points against Michigan.
Purdue can counter with quality frontcourt players, including senior Trey Kaufman-Renn, 6-foot-11 South Dakota State transfer Oscar Cluff and 7-foot-4 sophomore Daniel Jacobsen, who was supposed to be the heir apparent last year to Zach Edey before suffering a season-ending leg injury in a preseason game.
Kaufman-Renn didn’t play in the opener, breaking his string of 110 consecutive games, because of a hip injury and could be out Friday, the coach said.
Painter said Cluff and Jacobsen had solid debuts for Purdue in the season opener.
“I thought they were good,” he said. “I thought Daniel had some opportunities that he’d like to have back just around the rim and closer. Daniel just needs to stay aggressive. I thought Oscar looked comfortable on a couple of post moves.
“Oscar Cluff has averaged 18 points in a college season before. So like he’s done that. He’s not going to get the same volume with us, but there can be particular games where he does. We need him to score with his back-to-the basket and we need Daniel to keep being a lob threat.”
This will be the fourth all-time meeting between Oakland and Purdue. The Boilermakers won all three previous meetings, including a 93-50 victory in December 2020 in the last clash between the teams.
