Oakland University head basketball coach Greg Kampe criticized the team’s student section for not attending games.
“Our student section is terrible,” Kampe said. “ESPN called our student section the best mid-level student section in the country, and where are they?”
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Oakland is off to a 4-5 start this season. The Golden Grizzlies have had a busy schedule to start the year. They opened the year with Michigan, Purdue and Houston, the latter teams ranked No. 1 in the country at the time they played. They lost every game by double digits, including the Michigan and Houston games by more than 30 points.
Despite a slow start to the season, Oakland has won three straight games. Kampe thinks playing on ranked teams and the way they played in close losses should be enough to convince fans to come to games.
“You watched us play Purdue and play the way we played, you watched us play Houston, you watched us go to Central Florida and it was a one-possession game until the last minute,” Kampe said. “You saw us score 100 points a game, you saw dunks, great plays and an incredible point guard. Where are you? I’m pretty upset about that.”
Kampe also said Utah State head coach Jerry Calhoun admired the Oakland student section a few seasons ago when Calhoun was at Youngstown State.
“He told me three years ago that we just wanted to be like you guys,” Kampe said. “We want to be like Oakland because we never want to play Oakland. It’s not like that right now.”
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Two seasons ago, Oakland pulled off an upset in an NCAA tournament, beat Kentucky in the first round as a 14th seed. The Golden Grizzlies lost in the next round in overtime to North Carolina State. The Golden Grizzlies did not make the NCAA tournament last season and are 20-24 since the game against Kentucky.
Kampe is the longest-tenured coach in college basketball. This is his 41st season as coach at Oakland University.
He’s also not the only coach to notice the absence of student sections; Missouri head basketball coach Dennis Gates also decried the lack of Notre Dame fans when the two teams met..
