by Commissioner » Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:27 pm
Oakland
When: 7:00 p.m., Friday, January 31, 2020
Where: Historic Calihan Hall
TV: ESPN 3, WADL-38
Radio: AM 910
So, is this a rivalry or not? Since OU entered the league in the fall of 2013, they've beaten the Titans 11 of 13, including 6 in a row. Think about this: if we win this week, and then keep beating OU, we won't even the series (since 2013 anyway) until late in the 2024 season. I've written elsewhere that the series was, at least for a few years, closer than the ultimate W/L tally suggested. But as I've also been noting elsewhere, this ain't horse shoes, and close doesn't count. If this is going to be a real rivalry, we need to win now and then.
There's no reason why the Titans shouldn't win on Friday. The game is at Calihan. The Titans have been playing better of late, and OU is, frankly reeling.
Oakland enters this game having lost 4 in a row, 7 of 8, and 11 of 13 (unfortunately, one of those two wins was over the Titans). Oakland started the season plausibly well, and was 5-4, with no distinguishing wins or losses, after beating Western Michigan in Kalamazoo in early December. They lost their next game by 3 at Bowling Green--no shame in that--but then the roof fell in. They were hammered at Michigan State; lost soundly at Syracuse, and then lost at home to a very average Fairfield team. They rebounded to beat our Titans at home, but have lost that 7 of 8 since. Did things bottom out last week-end, when the Grizzlies were slaughtered at home by 30 points by UIC, and then lost to IUPUI? Let's hope the Titans respond and drive them lower.
Oakland had expected a lot more out of this season. Even after the off-season transfers of Braden Norris and Jaevin Cumberland, they were expected to be in the top half of the league. Their front line looked to be the best in the conference with Xavier Hill-Mais, a returning all-conference player; Brad Brechting, who averaged almost 17 points and over 10 rebounds over the last 11 games of the 2019 season; and promising juco Daniel Oladapo, who won the league Player of the Week recognition in the opening week of this season.
OU's problem is no secret--lack of guard play, and especially weakness at point guard. Braden Norris, last year's surprise star at the point, became the surprise spring transfer, and Greg Kampe hasn't found an adequate replacement. Some were hoping it would be freshman C.J. Gettelfinger, but Gettelfinger was nowhere near ready. He hasn't played 10 minutes in a game since the Michigan State loss, and didn't play at all last weekend. The rumor is that he will transfer after the season. The point job initially fell to Kevin Kangu, a juco transfer. Kangu has done OK--he averages almost 4 assists per game, makes an occasional three, doesn't turn it over too much. But he not's a standout in any area and hasn't been able to really make OU click. Tray Maddox got a shot, but while he's a good player, he's really not a point guard. Madison Monroe, a freshman, and Blake Lampman and Zach Goodline, a pair of freshman walk-ons, all got a shot.
For the last two weeks, Rashad Williams, the sophomore transfer from Cleveland State, has gotten his turn. Williams, you may recall, sought a waiver of the mandatory transfer redshirt year, which was finally granted in mid-January. At that point, with half the season gone, I'm a bit surprised that Kampe didn't opt to redshirt Williams. But apparently he felt that this season could still be salvaged (or maybe that if you redshirt them, they'll just leave for year 5 anyway). Williams is a good player, but coming in in mid-January is difficult. Others have been playing real games for more than two months, and are in mid-season form, while the new guy may find his timing a bit off, or his reactions a bit slow. Anyway, Williams has shot under 30%, with 13 turnovers and just 8 assists, and OU is 0-4 with Williams.
The bottom line is that OU has one of the most inefficient offenses in the country, #288 according to Ken Pom. Historically, OU played efficient offense behind a series of quality point guards (from 2007 through 2016 OU was in the top 100 in offensive efficiency every year). But this year the personnel simply doesn't fit Kampe's style. Other traditional OU strengths--three point shooting and free throw shooting--just aren't there, either (OU is shooting 29% from three and 68% from the line). The members of Oakland's vaunted front line have often seemed merely to be in one another's way. Recently, Kampe has tried to spread the floor and give the bigs room to operate by pulling Oladapo out of the starting lineup, but the team is just 1-5 since the change.
OU won the December meeting mainly on the defensive end. The Titans outrebounded that big OU front line, but shot a meagre 27% from the field, and couldn't get anything in the paint--46 of their 66 shots came from outside the arc, and the Titans were just 6-20 from inside the line. It took Detroit more than 6 minutes just to score, and they never made it back from that 0-14 opening deficit. Detroit stayed in it, to the extent it did, with free throw shooting (21 of 24, including 12-12 by AD) and rebounding (Brandon had 18). Hill-Mais had 19 points and 10 rebounds, for OU, and Lampman made 4 of 9 from three. Oakland has played very physical defense against the Titans in recent years, particularly hounding Antoine Davis. This game literally could depend on how the refs call it--if they call it tight, Detroit's foul shooting will come into play even as the Titans will have more room to operate and spring Davis for open looks. If they "let 'em play," Detroit could again have trouble in the paint.
We know that Kampe gets his team up for this game. But at this point, the Titans are playing much better ball than OU, and we'll be playing at home. If this is a real rivalry, the Titans need to win it.
Probable Oakland Starters
PG: Rashad Williams, 6-2 Soph., (13.5 ppg, 2.0 apg, 28.9% 3PtFG)
SG: Blake Lampman, 6-1 Fr., (6.9 ppg, 35.5% 3PtFG)
G/SF: Tray Maddox, 6-5 Soph., (9.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 33.7% 3PtFG)
PF: Xavier Hill-Mais, 6-7 Sr., (15.7 ppg, 7.6 rpg)
C: Brad Brechting, 6-11 Sr. (10.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg)
Key Reserves
PG: Kevin Kangu, 6-4 Jr., (6.0 ppg, 3.7 apg, 24.1% 3PtFG)
PG: Madison Monroe, 6-3 Fr. (2.6 ppg)
G: Kenny Pittman, 6-3 Soph. (1.3 ppg)
PF: Daniel Oladapo, 6-7 Soph., (8.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg)
F: Jackie Harris, 6-6 Fr. (1.8 ppg)
Last edited by
Commissioner on Fri Jan 31, 2020 5:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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