College basketball season is long, and in mid-major basketball, the emphasis is on one thing, winning the conference.
So, when you play three of the nation’s best teams in a row in November, it might not be smart to judge the team by its record, but rather if the team is getting better.
On Wednesday night in Illinois, Oakland displayed what everyone wanted to see.
Progress.
Oakland dropped to 1-2 on the young season with its 66-54 loss to Illinois. The Golden Grizzlies found themselves down 22-9 10 minutes in, but won the remaining 30 minutes to post a respectable score at a top 25 caliber team.
Defensively, Oakland came to play. After getting torched last week by Boise State, the Golden Grizzly defense forced 18 turnovers, and held Illinois to 66 points, after averaging 101 in their first two games. Illinois built their early lead with nine first half offensive rebounds, and Oakland was able to shut that down to stay close, only allowing three after halftime.
Greg Kampe has praised his team’s potential on the defensive side of the ball, and we saw our first glimpse of what they could be when firing.
Offensively, while it was better than the performance in Boise (and against Michigan), there is still so much to improve on.
While Oakland forced 18 Illini turnovers, they turned it over just as much. The three-point struggles continued as well, as Oakland shot 4-25 from deep.
Oakland is now shooting 19.3% from three on the year, that is good for dead last in the country.
The scoring attack, while low, was balanced, with six guys scoring six points or more.
Jayson Woodrich shot only 1-9 from three but found his way to 11 points to lead Oakland. The bigger story however will be his status after injuring his arm late in the game. He immediately left the floor and went straight to the locker room, and his status is unclear going forward.
The other Golden Grizzly in double figures was DQ Cole, who had 10. After a 3-21 shooting performance in Idaho, Cole looked more like what Oakland fans were used too. He made two of his seven threes and had four steals. A few turnovers were tough, but Cole looked like he was back on the right track.
Inside, Oakland held their own. Buru Naivalurua had eight points and four boards in 30 minutes. Allen Mukeba more than held his own on a few plays. His eight points and six rebounds were full of highlights. He had three monster dunks, the last of which was featured as the number three play on SportsCenter’s top ten plays. Mukeba is a force to be reckoned with as the man in the middle for Oakland.
Cooper Craggs chipped in a few nice finishes for six points, and Malcolm Christie saw a three fall while making four of his four free throws on his way to seven points. Christie was 1-5 from the three, him and Woodrich continue to search for a true breakout game.
One other Golden Grizzly who had an impact was Jaylen Jones. He moved back to the bench and had really good moments. In 25 minutes, Jones had four points, four assists, and three rebounds. The sophomore point guard was getting into the paint and creating scoring chances, displaying some nice playmaking ability against elite competition.
Elite competition is the name of the game during this portion of the schedule, as Oakland will travel to #1 Kansas next. That game will be Saturday and 6pm Eastern Time on ESPN+.
