In like a lamb: 'M' mauled by Oakland

By Dan Williams

Daily Sports Writer

ROCHESTER - An animated Oakland squad relied on infallible 3-point shooting to ambush the Michigan men's basketball team, 97-90, in both teams' season opener.

Oakland's blistering performance from behind the arc - 15 treys on 29 attempts - permitted them to lead the game nearly wire to wire. Michigan was unable to get within six points of the Golden Grizzlies in the second half.

More than 100 buoyant Oakland students stormed the court following the final buzzer, reflecting the significance of the victory to the maturing program.

"It's the biggest win in school history, I don't think there's any question," Oakland coach Greg Kampe said.

Meanwhile, Michigan began the game with a makeshift starting lineup due to "academic irresponsibilities" And while the Wolverines showed individual spurts of proficiency, the team appeared generally disoriented.

"We didn't run our offense. We didn't execute a play the entire night," junior Chris Young said. "We didn't play any type of defense. Our transition defense was terrible. We came out and we weren't ready to play."

Freshmen Bernard Robinson, Maurice Searight and Avery Queen entered the game at 3:33, producing an unusual start at point guard for former walk-on Mike Gotfredson.

When the freshmen entered the game, Michigan had already fallen to a 9-4 deficit which they never recovered from.

Furthermore, Michigan's performance was hindered by persistent foul trouble. Josh Moore fouled out a minute into the second half, and both Young and Josh Asselin finished the game with four fouls.

With all three big men in foul trouble, Michigan was unable to receive consistent play in the post, where the Wolverines sporadically benefited from a considerable size advantage.

LaVell Blanchard and Robinson led Michigan in scoring with 19 points a piece, but neither player shot 50 percent from the field. Blanchard saw 34 minutes of action and tallied 13 rebounds after having missed 10 days of practice with an ankle injury.

Young was Michigan's highest scoring post player with 15 points. But much of his success came late in the second half as Oakland tried to hold on to a double-digit lead.

In the waning moments of the loss, the dejected faces of Michigan's freshmen illustrated an unpleasant college basketball initiation.

"The one real issue that our young guys have to understand, and I don't think they do, is that when we walk in the door, we are everyone's biggest game," Ellerbe said.

With a daunting stretch of games against highly ranked ACC teams looming just over a week away, Michigan appears in dire need of resurgent performances against Western Michigan tomorrow and Wagner Sunday.