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Photos by Joey Yashinsky
Coach Greg Kampe’s Oakland Golden Grizzlies entered the Horizon League tournament on the highest of highs. They made a late-season surge to capture the top seed for Motor City Madness at Joe Louis Arena. Then, right before the games began, the No. 2 seed Valparaiso lost their top player to injury (who also happened to be Horizon Player of the Year, Alec Peters).
Everything looked to be fine and dandy for OU's quest to make amends for last year’s one-and-done appearance in this same event.
Unfortunately, as Yogi Berra so prophetically said many years ago, “It was deja vu all over again.”
The chippy Penguins from Youngstown State pulled the upset this time, declawing the Golden Grizzlies, 81-80, courtesy of a layup at the final horn.
The game-ending sequence was a combination of pristine execution on the part of Youngstown and inexplicable defense from Oakland.
There were just 3.3 seconds left with the Penguins inbounding the ball down by a point. Of course, it’s not a great deal of time by any means; but still, it’s more than enough time to take a few dribbles, maybe set a couple screens, or in this case, make one pass.
Oakland forgot about that option. It was a collective brain cramp at the most inopportune time.
Cameron Morse, Youngstown State’s All-League performer and 34-point scorer on this night, surprised everyone in the building not by forcing up one more shot for all the glory; but by rising, and then dishing. His partner-in-crime, Jorden Kaufman, was all alone underneath the basket and he dropped it through the hoop for a soul-crushing Oakland defeat.
“We definitely thought he was taking that last shot,” said Oakland’s star junior, Jalen Hayes. “He had lit us up all game, so we thought they’d be going to him for the final shot. He made a great pass. Give him credit.” Hayes later added, “It still doesn’t feel real.”
Home Court (Dis)Advantage
You can’t blame him. This is the second consecutive year Oakland has locked up a precious top-two seed in the Horizon tournament, only to get sent right back to Rochester Hills after just a cameo appearance at Joe Louis.
Keep in mind, too, that this was what amounted to a road game for Youngstown State. The entire lower bowl was practically filled with Oakland supporters. This tournament is technically staged at a “neutral site,” but listen to the reaction anytime a call went against the Golden Grizzlies and then try to argue that this was an impartial environment.
Greg Kampe guided his troops confidently through the dog days of January and February, grinding out league wins and building up a stellar record. But then when the Madness of March has rolled around for Oakland, for whatever reason, this team just loses a little bit of its swagger. This is the third time in four years that Oakland has been eliminated after just a single game in the conference tournament.
So how did Kaufman get that wide open on the game’s final play? Kampe explained: “Well, a freshman (Isaiah Brock) made a mistake. Our big was supposed to stay at the front of the rim and protect it. Isaiah just got anxious.”
The tape of the final play confirms as much. Brock, recently named to the Horizon League’s All-Defensive team, made a Rasheed Wallace in the 2005 Finals type play. While Rasheed senselessly chased the ball and left his man (Robert Horry) wide open, Brock committed the same cardinal sin here.
Coach Greg Kampe and Jalen Hayes react to the last-second defeat
Like a Kid Playing T-Ball
Cameron Morse for Youngstown was out handling the ball 25 feet from the hoop. Brock was never going have any impact on Morse's potential shot, having started the play from the paint area. His role, as Kampe stated, was to simply stay put and prevent the ball from being delivered to someone right under the rim.
But like a kid playing T-ball, the freshman Brock saw the clock winding down and just ran after the player in possession of the rock. That lapse in concentration sent Oakland home for good.
The NIT still awaits, by virtue of their winning first place in Horizon League regular season. But Kampe wanted more. So did his team. They are by most anyone’s account the most talented, the most athletic team in the conference. But in March, you can throw records and most everything else out the window. These aren’t 4-out-of-7 affairs.
It’s like a car dealership running some slimy promotion: “One Day Only.”
Either bring your A-game or say goodnight.
Oakland fell victim to that cliffhanger scenario for the second straight year and are left to wonder what might have been -- had they just defended the basket for three more seconds.
Graphic by Oakland University
