Oakland University men's basketball has now come full circle under the direction of head coach Greg Kampe. After 25 seasons at the helm, Kampe has led the Golden Grizzlies to NCAA Tournaments in both Division II and Division I, along with 20-win seasons on seven occasions. Since leaving the Division II ranks where his teams were winning 20-plus games and making NCAA Regional tournaments, Kampe has guided Oakland to a contender for D-I NCAA Tournaments each and every year. The Golden Grizzlies have been to The Summit League Championship game in three of the last five seasons, claiming the title in 2005. Kampe has led the OU to winning seasons in five of the 10 at the D-I level, including three consecutive seasons of 17 or more wins. He has been the one constant in Detroit sports over the last 26 years. During his tenure at Oakland, Michigan State has had two new head basketball coaches and seven football coaches. Michigan has had five basketball coaches and four football coaches. Detroit has had five basketball coaches, Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan each have had four new basketball coaches, while Central Michigan has had five new basketball coaches. In the professional ranks, the Pistons have had 11, Lions 10, Red Wings eight and Tigers seven. Only four active Division I coaches have been at their respective schools longer than coach Kampe, trailing Syracuse's Jim Boeheim's 33 seasons. He currently ranks 31st amongst winningest active D-I coaches with 419 career victories, seven behind George Mason's Jim Larranaga. Only five times in his career has his team finished its conference season with a sub-.500 record, with his squads finishing .500 or better in conference play in a string of 15 straight conference seasons (1986-2003). During his 25 seasons at the helm, he has produced 23 professional basketball players, including one to the NBA in the form of Rawle Marshall (Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, Phoenix Suns). Maybe an even better accomplishment than former players making the professional ranks, is seeing former star player Brian Gregory, head coach at the University of Dayton, leading the Flyers to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances, including a second round appearance this past season. The 2008-09 season came close to being a banner year for the Golden Grizzlies. Kampe led Oakland to a D-I era best 23 wins, second most all-time, and an appearance in the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. OU fell in the final seconds of the Summit League Tournament, 66-64, and suffered another tough loss in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, losing on a 75-foot buzzer beater at Bradley, 77-76. Oakland had big non-conference wins at Oregon, 82-79 (OT), and versus Mid-American Conference power Kent State, 80-74, in the opening round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The Golden Grizzlies also won a school record nine straight games at the conclusion of the regular season and to the title game versus North Dakota State (Feb. 5-March 11). OU also had its first NCAA statistical champion in its 10 years of D-I competition as Johnathon Jones set a new Summit League single-season record with 290 assists, leading the NCAA with 8.1 per game. Another first for the Golden Grizzlies was Erik Kangas competing at the ESPN Three-Point Championship at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Kangas made it all the way to the finals, finishing runner-up on national television. The senior guard broke the league single-season record in treys made, finishing with 135. Only Oral Roberts' 63 wins tops OU's 59 wins over the last three seasons in The Summit League. The Golden Grizzlies posted their highest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) finish this past year, ending at No. 121. That finish ranks higher than teams such as Iowa (124), Georgia Tech (142), UMass (154), DePaul (206), Indiana (211) and Valparaiso (260). OU also finished higher than all schools in the state of Michigan with the exception of Final Four participant Michigan State (4) and Michigan (40). The 2006-07 season was another successful season for Oakland, as Kampe led the Golden Grizzlies to a then-school record 19 victories in a 19-14 campaign. He took a team that was picked to finish fifth and led it to a 10-4, second-place Summit League finish as well as taking the squad to The Summit League championship game for the second time in three years to earn his second conference Coach of the Year selection. Perhaps the 2004-05 season was the most memorable in Kampe's long career. After starting the season 0-7 against a schedule that was rated as the nation's toughest to that point, Kampe saw his team rebound to finish tied for fifth in The Summit League standings. From there the season turned magical as the Golden Grizzlies stunned the Summit League by sweeping through the tournament, capping off the run on a last-second three-point shot that propelled OU into the NCAA Tournament. There, in front of a national television audience, the Golden Grizzlies upended Alabama A&M in the opening round before falling to eventual national champion North Carolina in the first round. Under Kampe the Golden Grizzlies enjoyed 12 straight winning seasons from 1986-1998 after only posting one winning campaign in the previous 12. Six of those winning seasons ended with at least 20 wins. Oakland finished in the top four in the GLIAC and had a .500 or better league record in each of the final 11 years, something no other league school had done. OU's GLIAC record prior to Kampe's arrival was 37-92. The 1993-94 campaign saw Oakland earn a first-ever berth in the NCAA Division II Basketball Tournament, and post a school-record 21 wins, one of 28 different school records tied or broken by the team. In 1994-95 Oakland made its second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament in another record-breaking season. OU posted another 20 victories and its highest national ranking ever, that of seventh. In 1996-97, the Golden Grizzlies set the school record with 24 wins, surpassing the previous record of 21 victories held by the 1995-96 and 1993-94 squads. Kampe's .774 winning percentage in 1996-97 is the highest in Oakland history. OU also made its fourth straight NCAA Division II Tournament appearance. In his first 14 years Kampe brought his OU teams to the top, establishing the team as one of the best in the GLIAC, winning two conference titles in the final years in the GLIAC and making it all the way to the DII Sweet 16 in 1997 before being eliminated by eventual national champion Northern Kentucky. The 1997-98 season marked the first of the two-year transition for Oakland from NCAA Division II to Division I athletics, and OU came up with a solid 15-12 mark as a Division II independent, including notching Kampe's 250th career victory. The 1998-99 season was the final for Oakland as a transitional Division I school and the Golden Grizzlies finished at 12-15 overall. The 12 victories were against a schedule that was tabbed during the year as the toughest in the nation by Jeff Sagarin of the Sagarin Ratings (USA Today). The first win of the season was at Illinois State (72-71) and has been said to be the biggest win in the history of Oakland basketball. Although Oakland wasn't eligible for The Summit League Conference race, the Golden Grizzlies competed in a full Summit League schedule and finished 8-8 overall, which would have been good for fifth place. Following the 1999-00 season, Kampe was recognized for his accomplishments when he was named the NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year by College Hoops Insider magazine. This honor came after Oakland, in its first year eligible, won The Summit League regular season title with an 11-5 record. The squad's 13-17 overall record was highlighted by the 60-41 victory over Big Ten opponent Northwestern. The Golden Grizzlies then added another Big 10 school to its list of victims at the start of the 2000-01 season when they knocked off Michigan at home in front of a sellout crowd. The 2001-02 season proved to be valuable for the Grizzlies as the team edged its way one step closer to making it into the NCAA Tournament with a DI record 17 victories. Big wins included Detroit, Western Michigan, and Western Illinois, which helped the Grizzlies finish tied for second in the Summit League. However, the Grizzlies fell short of their goal to win the conference title in their first year of eligibility for the conference tournament with a loss in the quarterfinals against IUPUI, to whom the Grizzlies had beaten twice during regular season play. Oakland posted its second straight 17-win season in 2002-03, claiming wins over every Summit League school but Valparaiso and finishing tied for second in the conference standings. Despite a first-round loss to Southern Utah at The Summit League Tournament, Oakland swept The Summit League awards at the end of the season, with Mike Helms being named the Player of the Year and Rawle Marshall the Newcomer of the Year, as the Golden Grizzlies established themselves as one of the league's top programs after just five short seasons. OU's success under Kampe is not just limited to the hardwood. The OU program has been outstanding in the classroom, something the coach takes great pride in. The Golden Grizzlies had a player on the Academic All-GLIAC team every year of Kampe's tenure, including a league record six players in 1995-96 and five players in 1994-95 and 1993-94. In 1989-90 guard Brian Gregory, now the head coach at Dayton, earned an NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship and third-team GTE CoSIDA Academic All-America honors. Gregory is one of four Golden Grizzlies to be honored nationally for his academic and athletic prowess. "We have a quality program that turns out talented student-athletes," Kampe said. "We try to do things the right way with good people who receive a good education and then go out into the world and have success after basketball. That's what our mission is." Kampe came to OU from a program that has a long history of combining athletic and academic excellence. The Golden Grizzly coach spent six years as an assistant coach at the University of Toledo before coming to OU. During Kampe's six years at Toledo, the Rockets captured three Mid-American Conference (MAC) basketball championships and compiled a 117-57 overall record. The school earned two NCAA tournament bids and one to the NIT. Academically, 91 percent of Toledo's basketball players earned bachelor's degrees during Kampe's tenure, with 33 percent of those continuing to earn graduate degrees. Kampe is a 1978 graduate of Bowling Green State University with a bachelor's degree in business and journalism. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Toledo before accepting the full-time assistant coach's position in 1979. He earned a Master of Arts degree in physical education while at Toledo. Kampe personally combined excellence as an athlete and in the classroom in college. He is the only athlete in MAC history to earn first team all-Academic honors in both football and basketball. He earned dean's list honors with a 3.40 grade point average at BGSU, and received the President's Award as an outstanding senior student. His late father, Kurt, was a guard on the University of Michigan's 1947 Rose Bowl and national championship football team, which went 10-0. Brother Kurt Kampe III, was a two-year letterwinner for the Wolverines in 1974 and `75 as a defensive back. Kampe's oldest son, Keith, played baseball at Oakland for two seasons (2008, `09) and is a current student. Year-by-Year Record
Totals: 25 Years, 419-314 (.572), 128-87 (.595) GLIAC, 92-66 (.582) Summit *First year of GLIAC Tournament $First year of eligibility for Summit League Tournament |
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