(No caption)
On a day when Ben Wallace’s jersey is being retired at the Palace and the world’s best team (Golden State) is in town for the only time this year, you’d be surprised to find out that the basketball buzz around Detroit on this winter Saturday was at Calihan Hall at the University of Detroit Mercy.
But that was indeed the case today, as the “Metro Series” between Oakland and Detroit took shape, the burgeoning rivalry set for its sixth edition.
The old hoops barn on McNichols was packed with over 6,000 fans, a healthy contingent being represented from both schools.
On this day, it was the visiting Oakland University Golden Grizzlies strutting away with the victory, 86-82 over the UDM Titans, in a game filled with hard fouls and giant swings of momentum.
The star of the show, not surprisingly, was Oakland’s sensational point guard Kay Felder. The 5-foot-9 dynamo mostly got wherever he wanted on the court, though the Titans did limit him to some degree (22 points, 9 assists, 5 turnovers). There were 11 NBA scouts in attendance, and you need not be Dr. Naismith to determine who it is they were there to see.
The Titans countered with their own force of nature in Jaleel Hogan, an undersized player like Felder at just 6’6”/240 as a PF/C, still managing to have his way with the massive Percy Gibson of Oakland. Hogan missed a number of bunnies, but still dropped in enough buckets to register a career-high 20 points.
Coach Ray McCallum was very happy with the performance of Hogan.
“He’s just a sophomore and he knows his game. A lot of guys don’t want to play in the paint, but that’s what he wants to do. His teammates have a lot of confidence in him. He was really relentless throughout the game."
Ultimately, it was the more veteran Oakland squad that kept their calm with the stakes at their highest. The Grizzlies would smartly run offense and let Felder drive and dish to set up teammates. The Titans got to the basket and drew fouls similarly, but turned ice-cold from the foul line down the stretch. They would finish 13-of-22 from the charity stripe, and that doesn’t include precious misses on front-ends of a 1-and-1.
Mostly, the takeaway from the afternoon is the rivalry between the two Michigan schools and the energy it has brought to the local hoops scene.
Greg Kampe, Oakland’s emotional fireball of a coach even after 32 years on the sideline, was enamored not only with the result of the contest, but for what this Oakland-Detroit annual battle is becoming.
“You look at the media attention this game got," Kampe said. " One of their players guaranteed victory yesterday, and I’m glad he did it. I’m glad it means that much. I’m glad that it can mean that much to this community. You saw the amount of fans from Oakland that were here and what this means to our team.”
The teams will return to their normal schedules after today, taking on the Green Bays and Youngstown States of the world. But no game will bring this level of juice and sheer passion.
The end result was an Oakland win, their fourth in five Metro Series clashes.
But as Kampe and McCallum astutely pointed out after the game, the real victor on the day was the matchup itself, this OU-UDM rivalry, two smaller hoops schools in a big basketball market taking center stage for the afternoon.
