OU's basketball season ends in a controversy
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How much longer will Oakland University men’s basketball fans be tortured?
Since the 2005 Mid-Continent Conference championship game against Oral Roberts, when Golden Grizzlies guard Pierre Dukes hit a 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left to send the Grizzlies to the 2005 NCAA Tournament, OU has been dealt a historically harsh hand that came to a head Monday night.
In the CollegeInsider.com Tournament quarterfinal match on the road against Bradley, OU junior Johnathon Jones hit a brilliant jump shot with 0.9 seconds left in the game to put his team ahead 75-73. What happened next was nothing short of highway robbery, as Bradley’s Chris Roberts took the inbounds pass at his own foul line and with mere tenths of a second left on the clock, launched a two-hand, 75-foot 3-pointer that banked in to send OU home with a score of 76-75.
Replays clearly showed that Roberts took at least two steps without dribbling and head coach Greg Kampe has filed a formal complaint with tournament officials.
I would only hope that CIT officials take the complaint seriously and send OU to its rightful place in the semi-finals, if only for a proper send-off to three great OU careers.
Seniors Ricky Bieszki, Dan Waterstradt and Erik Kangas have left it all on the floor in the past two years and to see their careers finish up on a disputed, sour note should be painful, not only for Grizzlies fans but basketball fans in general.
This year’s indignity comes almost a year to the day after OU was eliminated in the Summit League Tournament semi-finals after being without guard Brandon Cassise, who was not allowed to compete due to a violation of team rules.
Even if the result is overturned, shame on the CIT officials for allowing such a travesty to occur in the first place. This is the first time that the CIT has been played and my best guess is, OU will not be attending any time in the future. If results like this continue, it’s safe to say that the CIT could soon be a one-year wonder.
That would make it a stark contrast to the careers of the OU seniors, which are greater than any game score. The three have broken numerous records en route to capturing the hearts of the OU commuity and it’s sorry to see that they won’t get a chance to do the same on a national stage.
If only Oakland had made the NCAA Tournament, then, just maybe, this injustice wouldn’t go unnoticed.
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