OU has big hopes for lucky No. 7--The Detroit Free Press
Today's games--The Detroit Free Press
Oakland vs. IUPUI
Matchup: Oakland University 11-17, 6-10 Mid-Continent Conference; Indiana/Purdue-Indianapolis 18-9, 13-3.
Tip-off: 9:30 p.m., Hammons Arena, Tulsa, Okla.
Overview: This is a first-round game in the conference tournament. IUPUI won a school-record 13 conference games on its way to the second seed. Oakland guard Cal Wooten is the Mid-Continent newcomer of the year. Transfer Vova Severovas has averaged 15.2 points since becoming eligible in December.
The ripple effect--The Oakland Press
OU’s run last year still could reap rewards
Keith Langlois is a sports columnist for The Oakland Press. E-mail him at keith.langlois@oakpress.com.
AUBURN HILLS
Oakland University carries the same seed and the same long odds as last year into tonight’s Mid-Continent Conference tournament, where a lightning strike carried OU to the national stage 12 months ago. But there’s one critical component missing this time around.
Desperation.
A year ago, Greg Kampe had a team led by seniors Cortney Scott and Rawle Marshall who finally understood they were down to their last chance to make a mark.
Urgency is a wonderful motivator, and Kampe is desperately attempting to manufacture some for a patched together team of transfers and recruits that gives OU a deeper roster but one lacking the star power of last season’s.
Kampe always figured this year would be a work in progress. And he thinks this year’s Grizzlies are close to figuring out all of their moving parts.
But no matter what happens in Tulsa this weekend, Kampe bristles at any attempt to label this season a squandered opportunity to capitalize on the unprecedented notoriety that befell OU through three nationally televised games in an 11-day span — the Mid-Con championship game won on Pierre Dukes’ lastsecond 3-pointer, the play-in win over Alabama State and the first-round headon collision with eventual national champion North Carolina.
Look at the relevant examples in our state to understand how these things work.
The Fab Five might be erased from official record books, but until the NCAA threw the Wolverines in jail, they remained a powerful recruiting tool. The kids who were in fifth, sixth and seventh grades when the Fabs introduced bald heads and baggy shorts to college basketball were drawn to Ann Arbor years later.
Michigan State just landed a commitment from a high school junior in Georgia, Chris Allen, a likely McDonald’s All-American.
He was in fifth grade when Mateen Cleaves led the Spartans to the national title. For all the success the Spartans have had since, they hadn’t landed a true national recruit from outside the Midwest until Allen, who speaks of his fondness for those past MSU teams.
So anybody who anticipated Oakland was going to take nothing but great forward leaps is someone comfortable with nothing beyond linear equations.
One of the recruiting services ran a profile of a 6-foot-11 junior center from Wisconsin this week. Asked to list the schools that had dispatched coaches to scout him personally, the kid rattled off seven. Among the names were Virginia, Purdue and Illinois State. The school he mentioned second — before all three of those others — was Oakland.
Trust me. That wouldn’t have happened a year ago. And it wouldn’t have happened this year without what happened last year.
That’s the way recruiting works.
“It’s a two-year process,” Kampe said. “And because we had maybe one scholarship to give, we weren’t going to see it immediately.”
But Kampe gets in the living room of kids today that wouldn’t take his phone calls 12 months ago.
“Where you’ll see it is in next year’s recruiting. We’ve been involved with juniors ever since last year’s tournament. The kids we’re involved with are being recruited at a higher level.”
Kampe recently spoke to a group in northwest Ohio, where Bowling Green and Toledo have broad fan bases and deep basketball roots.
Toledo has long been considered the Mid-American school with the most potential, given its proximity to Detroit and Cleveland talent bases and its facilities and resources.
Bowling Green produced one of the NBA’s alltime great big men, Nate Thurmond.
“I asked them how many consider Bowling Green a traditional power, and 50 to 60 percent of the people raised their hands,” Kampe said. “Then I asked them if they were aware that Bowling Green had had an NBA lottery pick in the last 10 years and that they had guys in the Hall of Fame. And then I asked them if they would believe that the last time Bowling Green was in the NCAA tournament, Bill Fitch was the head coach and it was 1968.
“Then I asked them if they considered Toledo a power, and everybody raised their hands. The last time Toledo was in the tournament, I was on their bench,” — Kampe played on Toledo’s 1979 tournament team.
“It is so hard to get into the NCAA tournament, and we’ve done it as a school that’s just started in Division I. Now, ask me five years from now, if we haven’t gone back, if we’ve squandered our momentum, I would say yes.”
In five years, Kampe will be recruiting kids who were in fifth grade when Pierre Dukes’ 3-pointer cut a clean arc through the basketball cosmos and carried Oakland University to places it had barely imagined. No matter what happens in Tulsa this weekend, last year’s momentum retains plenty of shelf life.
KEITH LANGLOIS
IUPUI first up for reigning champs--The Oakland Press
By DUSTIN FRUCCI Special to The Oakland Press
TULSA, Okla. — The Oakland University men’s basketball team opens up defense of its Mid-Continent Conference tournament championship tonight against IUPUI, and at first glance, this team looks eerily similar to last year’s team entering the tournament.
Like last year, Oakland is seeded seventh, ended the regular season winning two of its last three games and comes into the tournament with at least 17 losses.
But OU head coach Greg Kampe doesn’t see any similarities beyond that.
“There are only four guys on our roster that were even part of last year’s run, and only three of them are playing,” Kampe said. “Those guys have stayed pretty quiet about that championship. This team seems focused on making their own name, and that starts with IUPUI.”
IUPUI shared the regularseason Mid-Con title with Oral Roberts. The Jaguars defeated OU twice during the regular season, including an 82-81 thriller in which OU led by as many as 19 points before the Jaguars’ Brandon Cameron hit two free throws with four seconds left to get the win.
“They’re a very good team, and we are going to have to do a few different things to have a chance,” Kampe said. “We have to defend the 3-point line, make our free throws and defend the ball. If we do all three, we got a good chance to win. If we only do two of the three, our chances go down dramatically.”
In the two regular-season games, IUPUI made 24 3-pointers and only turned the ball over 14 times. OU only made 10 3-pointers and turned the ball over 30 times.
“We’re just not a good enough shooting team to turn the ball over that many times,” Kampe said. “We have to concentrate on getting the ball inside, because when we run our offense through the middle, we don’t turn the ball over as much.”
Junior Vova Severovas might be the key to how effective OU is at the offensive end. In the two games against IUPUI, when OU concentrated on getting the ball inside, Severovas totaled 51 points and 14 rebounds.
“We certainly feel like we have an advantage inside against them, and Vova is one of those reasons,” Kampe said. “In the last road trip of the season, we feel like we started to become more conscious of getting the ball inside whenever possible.”
Though the similarities between this year’s team and last year’s team are apparent, Kampe hopes not everything goes the same as last year.
“Last year, nearly everything went wrong,” he said. “Our luggage was lost and we had to warm up in clothes we weren’t prepared to do so in. Actually, the outcome is the only thing I want to see a repeat of. With us, we just have to put all the distractions aside and focus on one thing at a time. If we can do that, we’ll see what happens.”
Oakland men vs IUPUI
What: Mid-Continent Conference tournament first round
When: 9:30 tonight
Where: John Q. Hammons Arena, Tulsa, Okla.
Up next: Winner plays UMKC/Chicago State winner, 9:30 p.m. Monday
Oakland men vs. IUPUI--The Oakland Press
— DUSTIN FRUCCI
What: Mid-Continent Conference tournament
When: 9:30 tonight
Where: John Q. Hammons Arena, Tulsa, Okla.
Records: Oakland 11-17 (6-10 Mid-Con); IUPUI 18-9 (13-3)
Broadcast: Webcast on www. mid-con.tv
Overview: OU had never won a Mid-Con tournament game prior to last year’s run to the championship. … IUPUI is coming off its first Mid-Con regular-season championship. IUPUI shared the title with Oral Roberts. … OU and IUPUI’s only game against each other in the tournament came in 2002, when the sixth-seeded Jaguars upset the third-seeded Golden Grizzlies. … IUPUI has played in the championship game three times, while OU has been there just once.
Up next: Winner faces UMKC/Chicago State winner, 9:30 p.m. Monday
Local pipeline fuels IUPUI's rise--The Indy Star
Mid-Con loss could end Jags' season--The Indy Star
Westerwinds hope fourth time is charm--The Macomb Journal
MEN’S BASKETBALL:Valpo quartet seeking redemption--The Post-Tribune
March 4, 2006
By Justin Breen / Post-Tribune deputy sports editor
VALPARAISO — With every tick of the clock, the careers of Valparaiso seniors Dan Oppland, Ali Berdiel, Ron Howard and Seth Colclasure come closer to striking midnight.
The last chapter is near for a foursome that’s been an integral part of the Crusaders’ program.
Their final chance at glory comes at the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament, which begins today. The fourth-seeded Crusaders face No. 5 seed Southern Utah on Sunday.
“It’s been a great four years with these guys,” Oppland said. “I guess all good things come to an end.”
Each Crusader senior has triumphed over adversity in a more-than-redeeming way.
Oppland has become a special player, while dealing with the departure of his twin brother, Mike, to Calumet College.
“He’s been a coach’s delight,” Valpo coach Homer Drew said. “You never have to motivate Dan Oppland. He has never seen a bad day of practice.”
Colclasure rode the bench for two years and experienced several injuries, yet became a valuable starter and reserve — especially from 3-point range.
Howard transferred from Marquette after his freshman season and admitted he was wide-eyed when he arrived.
Since then, he said he’s matured on and off the court.
“I could say I’ve grown a lot,” Howard said.
And Berdiel, who’s actually been at Valpo for five seasons, missed almost all of last season with plantar fasciitis (a painful foot injury). Berdiel didn’t know he’d even have a scholarship this season, yet has been the Crusaders’ fifth-leading scorer (8.9 ppg).
“I’m glad I’m here now,” Berdiel said. “Friendship-wise, this is the best team we’ve had. Whether we like it or not, we’re family.”
During the season, the Crusaders said they spend at least three to four hours a day together. On road trips, they’re almost never apart.
Through the years, the seniors have become ultra-close.
“Like brothers,” Berdiel said.
“They share the memories with you,” said Colclasure, who has made a VU-best 58 3-pointers this season. “With all the traveling, once in a while you say 'I’m sick of seeing your face.’ ”
Colclasure added that he was joking, as all the upperclassmen do from time to time.
They also know when one is having a bad day, and know how to cheer them up.
If Colclasure is having an off practice, one of the seniors will mention chicken and baked potatoes — what they think are the only foods Colclasure eats.
“Always makes him smile,” Howard said.
Said Colclasure: “That’s my joke. I guess my simple life just bothers some of my teammates.”
The group has lived the high of reaching the 2004 NCAA Tournament and the low of being eliminated in the first round of last season’s Mid-Con tournament.
Now they sit three wins away from another special moment.
“To (win those games), you’ve got to have a special togetherness,” Oppland said. “I think we can still get that.”
Contact Justin Breen at 648-3122 or jbreen@post-trib.com
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL:Last chance to dance--The Post-Tribune
March 4, 2006
By Steve T. Gorches / Post-Tribune staff writer
The multitude of injuries are behind her.
So are three years of hard work and sweat Jamie Gutowski has given for the Valparaiso women’s basketball program.
She’s hoping to have at least four more games to give everything she has. That would be three in the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament that starts Sunday in Tulsa, Okla., and maybe one NCAA Tournament game before graduating from VU in a couple months.
“I kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Gutowski said. “I was telling (fellow senior) Lauren (Bechtold) I’m just trying like heck to hang on to whatever we have left of this season.
“It would be real nice to go out playing four or five more games and do something the program’s never done.”
Achieving that lofty goal begins with UMKC at noon on Sunday. The Kangaroos not only eliminated the Crusaders from last year’s tourney in the first round, but also beat them last Saturday in the second-to-last regular season contest.
Needless to say, getting up for this game shouldn’t be a problem.
“You don’t even really need to come in with a pep talk when you play the team that knocked you out in the first round and just lost to,” she said. “We’re playing somebody that we respect, but we owe them something, too.”
Gutowski is hoping to go out the way she came into the program — with an NCAA Tournament trip. But it hasn’t been easy for her or the team down the stretch, with losses in four of the last five and some disturbing offensive numbers.
From a personal standpoint, the Andrean graduate has dealt with decreasing playing time the second half of the season.
That’s not uncommon for her in recent years with injuries piling up. Though none cropped up this year, it was a carryover effect from previous troubles.
“Jamie has been in a situation that she couldn’t practice all the time,” coach Keith Freeman said. “She can’t prepare the way she used to prepare because of her knees. It’s been hard to get the reps.”
Gutowski claims she’s up to specifications after a long, arduous season of recovering from knee and back injuries.
“I feel pretty good right now,” she said. “My legs have held up, my back has healed. I know my spirit and my soul are going to miss (coming back from injuries), but my body’s not going to.”
Even though Gutowski’s health is the best it’s been in a couple seasons, her playing time has decreased in the second half of the season. After averaging more than 25 minutes per game last year in limited action, she was right at that number again halfway through this season.
On Jan. 2 after playing Oakland, she was averaging 25.2 mpg. Three games later she was still at 24.5 mpg with one of those games a 19-point effort in only 21 minutes against Oral Roberts.
Following last Saturday’s finale, Gutowski was down to 21.5 mpg with outputs of 15, 12, 10, 8 and 3 minutes in the final 10 games.
“It’s not that much different — 25 minutes per game before and around 20 now,” Freeman said. “(Carrie) Myers has developed and it’s not that unusual for the rotation to change over the course of the time.”
Myers plays the same two-guard position as Gutowski with the same 3-point shooting prowess. Gutowski actually has a better percentage than Myers this season (45.2 to 41.0) with the second-most threes taken (42-of-93).
Despite going from a regular starter, which Freeman has said several times isn’t as important in the big picture, to the seventh, eighth or even ninth player off the bench in the span of two months, Gutowski accepts her new role like the good soldier she has been since her years as a 59er.
“The first three years has helped me understand (the new role) because I matured a lot as a player,” she said. “I understood more that every player has different roles. Maybe at first that wasn’t what I was expecting, but if it was good for the team it’s OK by me.”
With that light at the end of the tunnel getting closer, Gutowski hopes to add a lasting memory that’s as good as her favorite so far wearing brown and gold — almost beating Kansas State in the NCAA Tournament in Minneapolis as a sophomore.
Contact Steve T. Gorches at 648-3141 or sgorches@post-trib.com
Dan's Plan--The NWI Times
It's now or never--The NWI Times
No concession to W. Illinois--The Spectrum
Mid-Con tourney seems wide open--The Spectrum
Women: Thunderbirds going into tournament on good note--The Salt Lake Tribune
Oakland Women's Basketball Gets Set for Mid-Con Tournament--OUGrizzlies.com
QUEST FOR MID-CON TITLE BEGINS SUNDAY AT 6:00 P.M.--www.valpo.edu
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