Game 1: Oakland at Michigan Preview

Michigan opens the 2025-26 season tonight against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (8:30 p.m., FS1) on a banner night in Ann Arbor. It’s the official celebration of Dusty May’s first Michigan team, hoisting a Big Ten Tournament banner into the Crisler Center rafters, but also the debut of this year’s highly touted transfer class and revamped roster.

The Wolverines will meet a pesky in-state mid-major who is no stranger to facing a high-major opponent. The Golden Grizzlies are just two years removed from their NCAA Tournament upset over Kentucky and are among the most consistent and well-resourced programs in the Horizon League.

Kampe routinely schedules challenging non-conference games for his program. They played four high-majors last year and will face Purdue and Houston in the two games following their trip to Ann Arbor.

Oakland was picked 2nd in the Horizon League and is ranked 196th in KenPom’s preseason rankings. With Horizon Preseason Player of the Year Tuburu Naivalurua returning in the frontcourt, the Golden Grizzlies have a legit chance to compete in their conference and fight for an NCAA Tournament bid in March.

Kampe’s squad will lean on newcomers to run the backcourt, but if this group can master his unique zone defense, they are on pace for an excellent season.

The Golden Grizzlies

Oakland is famous for its unique zone defense, but Greg Kampe’s offensive scheme is an outlier as well. The Golden Grizzlies run the fewest pick-and-rolls in the country. Oakland finished 364th of 364 teams with just 4.4 ball screen plays (including passes) per game, per Synergy. That’s almost four plays per game fewer than Cornell at 363rd, while NCAA leaders are well into the 30s per game.

Instead, Oakland’s offensive scheme emphasizes off-ball movement, cutting, and post-ups. The Golden Grizzlies rank among the top 10 percent of teams nationally in off-screen, isolation, post-up, and dribble handoff volume. Kampe’s teams have consistently relied on undersized physical bigs to do the bulk of their scoring inside —the type of players who are small against Big Ten or SEC teams but can bully Cleveland State or Milwaukee.