Who Are These Guys? Grizzlies and Gaels
The college basketball landscape is a vast, vast countryside with rolling meadows, open plains, treacherous cliffs, and other various biomes ripe for hyperbole. 35seconds would like to help everyone explore this random land of wonderment by bringing to light some lesser known programs. Whether they have bracket-busting aspirations, interesting back stories, or just give good mascot, there’s always room for some mid-major lovin’.
Oakland University Golden Grizzlies (5-6, 1-1) RPI: 207, unranked
Notable Wins: Bowling Green
Notable Losses: at MSU, at Xavier, at Michigan
The Oakland Grizzlies are usually a staple of every midwestern tuneup schedule. Located in Rochester, Michigan and NOT the San Francisco Bay Area, the Golden Grizzlies have confused their fair share of uninformed freshman throughout the years. Led by coach Greg Kampe, Oakland U has one trip to the dance (2005) under their belts, and got the privlege of having North Carolina stomp on their face 96-68. Junior forward Derick Nelson leads the team in points and rebounds per game, just shy of a nightly double-double with 20-8. Sophomore guard Johnathan Jones leads with 6 assists per game. The Golden Grizzlies face a tough challenge in the Summit League, having to overcome the Oral Roberts, IUIPUIs, and IPFWs to get the conferences lone bid. This Saturday they have a chance to drastically improve their RPI when Oregon stops by for a visit.
St. Mary’s College of California Gaels (7-1, 0-0) RPI: 1, unrkanked
Notable wins: Oregon, Seton Hall, SDSU
Notable losses: at Southern Ill.
That RPI#1 is probably a bit deceptive given the small sample size an omission of the SIU loss, but the Gaels have a fine shot at the West Coast Conference if they can assert themselves against Gonzaga and Santa Clara. The Gaels’ junior forward Diamon Simpson averages 12.6 pts/game with 8 rebounds with the help of four Australian imports, juniors Ben Allen, Carlin Hughes, and Lucas Walker alongside freshman standout Patrick Mills (15.5 pts/game). Head Coach Randy Bennett certainly hopes to contend for a second bid from the WCC, if not win the conference outright. St. Mary’s 2005 team was the first WCC member to make the tournament as an at-large, and there’s a chance they can do it again. The Gaels travel to Austin to take on #5 Texas January 5th before starting conference play three days later at Fresno State.
1
The St. Mary’s mascot should fight with Big Red for the title of ‘most ridiculous inflated costume’.
Comment by SuperJew — December 19, 2007 @ 10:28 pm
2
Probably a tad early to be even mentioning RPIs, but hell, I dig this idea of talking about the lesser knowns.
The St. Mary’s mascot is a bit odd, eh? It kind of looks like Herm Edwards wondering whether or not he should throw the red flag to challenge a call. Squinty eyes, block head, biceps, blood shooting out the top off his head. Hmmm.
Comment by KC Resident — December 19, 2007 @ 10:43 pm
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Ahh, if you look at his chest, it looks as if he is holding a bong. Thus, the shit eating grin.
Comment by KC Resident — December 19, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
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St. Mary’s mascot name: Gael Force One.
With a name like that, I would try to wreck my memory with as many bong hits as possible. Seriously St. Mary’s? You couldn’t just call him ‘Braveheart’ or ‘Macbeth’ and leave the puns at home?
Comment by SuperJew — December 19, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
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Fantastic blog. Big fan of EDSBS and KSK. But I have to be a dick and point out a little error.
St. Mary’s is in the WCC, not the WAC, so they don’t open conference play with Fresno State. I know, it’s tough to figure us west coasters out with our silly acronyms with the letter W. I remember it like this:
WCC = Where Christ Coaches (All schools are religiously affiliated)
WAC = Shitty.
Comment by GolfTheClap — December 20, 2007 @ 4:40 am
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WCC = Where Christ Coaches
That’s excellent
Comment by Unsilent Majority — December 20, 2007 @ 4:08 pm