While Feast Week was in full swing this week with teams all across the country playing in tournaments and taking trips, Oakland was at home, practicing and getting better.
On Saturday, they will be able to put their improvement to the test.
A trip to Toledo awaits the Golden Grizzlies this weekend, as what seems like yearly battle with Oakland and the Rockets takes place. The two schools have played each other 19 times, with Toledo leading the series 12-7.
Recently, Oakland and Toledo have played every year since the 17-18 season. Toledo has won six of those seven contests, with three of those wins coming with a margin of two points or less. The series skipped the 16-17 season but also played both seasons prior to that, with Oakland winning those two games, including a two-point win.
Another chapter of this series between two quality mid major programs will be written on Saturday, and history says we could be in for a good one.
This years version of the Rockets is much like the past few seasons. They score..alot.
Toledo has scored 80+ points in five of their seven games this year. They are 5-0 when they hit that number, and 0-2 when they don’t. Slowing them down will be a tough challenge, but it has been done. In the Boardwalk Battle, an eight team MTE, Toledo beat Stetson 103-78, and then took care of Jacksonville State 82-80. The offense was humming in those games, but an 80-45 loss to UC San Diego may have opened some eyes on the Oakland side.
Sonny Wilson leads the way for Toledo. He leads the team in both points per game (16.9) and assists per game (3.9) while grabbing 4.7 rebounds a game which is second on the team. The second year point guard is from U of D Jesuit high school in Detroit and made his decision out of high school between Toledo and Oakland.
Javan Simmons returns as a double-digit scorer last year and is just under 12 points a game this year. Sam Lewis joins Wilson in the backcourt and is the second leading scorer on this team right now, while Isaiah Adams and Seth Hubbard also averaging north of 10 points a game.
A high-powered offense has been the key to leading the way for the Rockets run to four straight MAC regular season championships, but the Rockets have been vulnerable on the other side of the ball.
Defensively, Toledo ranks close to 300th per Kenpom. While the Rockets have scored 80+ the majority of times, they have allowed 77+ in all but one of their games. Part of those point total numbers are due to a high pace, but it is a good indicator that there will be opportunities to score Saturday.
For Oakland, that should be music to their ears.
Oakland struggled to reach the mid-60s on their home floor last time out against Eastern Michigan, and is averaging under 60 on the year.
The Golden Grizzlies frontcourt has been the stable presence of points so far. Buru Naivalaura and Allen Mukeba are the two leading scorers so far, both averaging more than 11 points per game while being the top two in the Horizon League in shooting percentage. There should be some opportunities for these two to get some easy ones as Toledo does not go very big.
This could also benefit DQ Cole, who got to the rim at will late in the Eastern Michigan game. If those three are scoring by the rim, maybe seeing the ball go through the basket will spark some outside shooting as well.
Oakland will try to get back on track at 7pm on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
