It will certainly be a step up in weight class for Oakland.
48 hours after notching win number one on the year, and win number 700 in the career of Greg Kampe, the Golden Grizzlies travel across the country to take on one of the best mid major teams in the country.
Boise State is picked to win the Mountain West, a conference that sent six teams to the NCAA Tournament a season ago. The Broncos have made three straight NCAA Tournaments themselves, and head coach Leon Rice has led the program to five tournament appearances, two regular season MWC titles, and an MWC tournament championship since 2013.
Big man Tyson Degenhart is the preseason player of the year in the Mountain West, while his frontcourt mate O’mar Stanley is preseason first team after an all league performance a year ago. Alvaro Cardenas is also a preseason first team member.
It’s safe to say the Broncos are loaded, and their top 40 appearance in the AP Poll backs that up. If Oakland is going to compete, they will need to play well.
Although the one day between games and a cross country flight may seem like a disadvantage for Oakland, there could be some positives from it. Boise State will come into this game with no exhibitions played, and this will be their season opener. Oakland will have played one exhibition on the road, one exhibition at a neutral site against a high major team, and a regular season game. The Broncos did participate in a secret scrimmage or two, but this will be their first time in a real game setting.
Monday’s game against Defiance saw no Golden Grizzly play more than 30 minutes, but Oakland took a little bit longer than expected to completely run away from their opponent.
The offense looked disjointed for much of the first half, and Oakland only put up 33 points in the first 20 minutes. The second half was a bit better, with shots falling from the perimeter and more of a scoring presence inside.
Part of the reason for the struggles could be attributed to the injury bug. A big storyline for Oakland in the near future will be the availability of Allen Mukeba. He turned his ankle in practice on Sunday and missed the season opener. If he can give it a go or not in Idaho will be a major key to the game.
If Mukeba can’t go, Oakland’s best shot on offense may be on the perimeter. After struggling in the exhibition season, Malcolm Christie finally broke out and made four threes in the season opener. Him and Jayson Woodrich will be big keys for success on offense Wednesday.
The game will top off at 9pm Eastern Time and will be broadcast on Mountain West Network.
