As the de facto writer for Oakland men’s basketball, I try really hard to provide content that Oakland and Horizon League fans may find interesting. I’m not huge into writing game recaps. I tweet incessantly during most of them and beyond that, if you’re reading this you’re probably a fan already and well aware of what happened during a game.
Last year, Oakland made writing about the team pretty easy in the non-conference. As a matter of fact at this time last year they were the number one team in the country in the NET rankings. Granted, that didn’t end up working out so well in the end but it was pretty cool to see at the time.
As good as last year was for the Golden Grizzlies in the non-conference, this year could not be much worse. Outside of a win over Eastern Michigan and Emoni Bates, it’s been a pretty tough start. So what does one really write about? That led me to this tweet:
The answers to this tweet are perfect for summarizing where Oakland is at right now. So without further ado, here’s that article I feel you’re owed, brought to by other people’s tweets! Thanks to those that responded and contributed to the article. The writer job is always open if you’re ready to do the gig. And as far as the pay, well, it’s a labor of love and I don’t get paid. So… sorry not sorry.
Flosports is the worst option for having to view basketball. While I’m not going to say Oakland basketball has been the worst option for viewing basketball in this early season, it has been tough to watch.
See? Tough to watch. But much like being an Oakland basketball fan, you just keep coming back every year and hoping this time it’ll actually work as expected. So far neither Flo or Oakland has been able to do that. You could also draw parallels between the inconsistency of the two, but I think you get the point. BK is right, Oakland basketball and Flosports have a LOT in common right now and that’s not a good thing if you’re an Oakland fan or even a Horizon League fan.
Now here we have a tweet with some real suggestions for topics! Enough for it’s own article? Nah. But let’s take a look at these ideas!
Play through Townsend/Hervey: Hmm. Not a bad idea! These two, especially Trey Townsend have been the only real bright spot for this team so far this season. While both undersized (which has been discussed ad nauseum) they continue to still pull down rebounds and give Oakland a fighting chance in the paint. As fatigue begins to wear down players, especially in a tournament like the Bahamas, Townsend needs more help down low. We’ve seen flashes from Chris Conway and Will Shepard but they need more time and to step up in those minutes especially on the defensive side and rebounding. Offensively Kampe talks about playing inside out but the reality is we haven’t seen it yet. If they can find a way to do that and free up some 3 point shooting it would likely go a long way. Right now, it’s a lot of running the ball around the perimeter for 20 seconds and then someone forcing a bad shot after a jab step or two. That’s not going to win you many games.
Ditch the zone: Eh, I’m not sure man to man is any better for this team. Maybe FIX the zone is a better outlook? I think it can work but it needs to be tweaked and quickly.
Team needs to find its energy: Yup! They’re hurt on the perimeter with Jalen Moore’s ankle injury and Rocket Watt’s dealing with gruesome blisters on the bottom of one of his feet. That said, there’s just a lack of energy for 40 minutes. The team is still gelling but it’s a veteran team and they need to figure some stuff out internally it seems. The team is lead by two soft spoken leaders in Townsend and Moore, but someone needs to be the person to get this team going. It can’t always come from Kampe on the sideline.
That brings us to the best analysis for this team you can ask for. And more than I could have dreamed of trying to outsource an article.
Greg Kampe is a national treasure of college sports. No further analysis from me on this is necessary other than to say if I can score on you right now, there’s a problem.
And going with the #itsonlynovember:
It’s early. This team has issues on the court. Nobody is pretending otherwise. But the good news is it’s early. And with nobody pretending otherwise, there’s plenty of time to get things going in the right direction. This league will be a one bid league again this year. That means it’s about winning in conference play which starts this week.
Thanks to BK Macdonald (give him a follow for great music tweets!), Grizzly Fan, Logan Freewind and, of course, Greg Kampe for helping me get an article together. You’re all hired and I’ll triple your salary to keep you doing these for me!
