Johnson, Moore Dominate Oakland 82-67

Ninth ranked Purdue hosts Oakland in college basketball tonight, and the Boilermakers should have their first significant test of the evening. The Golden Grizzlies return the bulk of a roster that made it to the NCAA Tournament a season ago out of the Summit League. Indiana college basketball fans should be familiar with them, as they share a conference with IUPUI and IPFW.

Travis Miller from Hammer & Rails recently spoke with Corey from Golden Grizzlies Gameplan about tonight's game:

Corey: Oakland returns three starters from last season, all three of which are seniors now. So Keith Benson, Will Hudson, and Larry Wright are all very experienced players who have seen it all. They've lost a conference tournament on a last second shot (well Larry was redshirting that year due to transferring from St. John's), they've won a conference tournament, and they've been to the Big Dance. However, they were not happy with the way their NCAA Tournament game against Pittsburgh ended, so this year's motivation is to get back and have a better showing. Having those three guys leading the way is pretty significant, especially since a number of the other contributors and role players this year are freshmen and sophomores. 

T-Mill: You're playing a manly non-conference schedule this year that includes West Virginia, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Illinois, and Tennessee. Any chance of an at large bid if you swing some upsets and run the table in the Summit League?

Corey: (as an aside, I pretty much wrote a whole article on this here) It's so incredibly difficult for a league like The Summit League to get an at-large bid. So many things have to go right, and oftentimes in the past teams from these one-bid leagues who do have a successful season still end up on the outside looking in. The main thing for  a school like Oakland is winning the conference tournament and not letting it come to an at-large discussion. Now the great thing is that Coach Greg Kampe always has a brutal non-conference schedule, where the team could be in that discussion if they did win 2-3 of those games and kept the others fairly close while going 17-1 or so in conference play. In recent history, Oakland hasn't been particularly competitive in these games against Big Ten teams and the like, but with senior big men Keith Benson and Will Hudson in the middle, the games will more or less come down to guard play. Against West Virginia, the guards struggled. So if they can hunker down on defense and get active on the offensive end, these match-ups become a little less one-sided for Oakland.

T-Mill: What type of style does Oakland play and how does it match up with Purdue?

Corey: I've seen both Purdue games this year, and through those two games the Boilers have just absolutely manhandled their opponents. Quick, athletic, talented at every position, guys capable of knocking down the three. That is a combination which frustrated Oakland against West Virginia, particularly the three-ball. I'm hopeful that Keith Benson will more or less contain JaJuan Johnson in the paint, or at least match his offensive output. Oakland will no doubt be looking to get Benson involved first and foremost, and from there opening up good looks on the perimeter. If those two aspects of the game aren't clicking, then Purdue's quickness and defensive tenacity will most likely result in a lot of fastbreak points for the Boilers. On the other hand, Oakland's guards looked great and played solid defense in their last game against the defending MAC champions, so if they can build on that here, this game will be much closer than the two you've had already.