Following the departure of four Golden Grizzlies through the transfer portal last week, the Oakland men’s basketball team is set to lose two more players before next season.
At the time of this writing, standout All-Horizon second-team member Allen Mukeba has entered the transfer portal, and freshman Luke Gelow is retiring from basketball due to injury.
Below, you will find out each player’s role in the previous season and what their departure from the team means moving forward.
Allen Mukeba | F | 14.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.3 APG
As the most recent Golden Grizzly to enter the transfer portal, there are certainly big shoes to fill following Mukeba’s departure.
Last season for Oakland, Mukeba was critical to the team’s success. Mukeba led the team in scoring and rebounding while also recording the most blocks. Additionally, Mukeba posted the best field-goal percentage of any Golden Grizzly during the 2024-25 campaign.
It didn’t take long for Mukeba to establish his dominance in an Oakland uniform, as Mukeba dropped 19 points against the nationally top-ranked Kansas Jayhawks in the third game of the season before recording his first double-double of the season against Cleveland State in mid-December.
During the Horizon League tournament, Mukeba also had a dominant stretch, earning an All-Tournament team selection in the process, averaging 18 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks while shooting 64.7% from the floor through the three games Oakland played in.
Luke Gelow | G | 0 PPG, 0 RPG, 0 APG
Although Gelow didn’t make any appearances for the Golden Grizzlies last season, his departure still stings.
The Oakland offense and zone defense aren’t schemes a newcomer can come in and run with; it takes time to adjust. So, losing a player due to injury who’s spent a season learning how to best fit within the Oakland blueprint certainly isn’t ideal.
Looking Ahead
Before we discuss the holes Oakland will have to fill before next season, it’s essential to consider which players will join this roster first.
Starting with incoming freshmen, twin brothers Donny Yeager and MJ Yeager are committed to the program. Unsurprisingly, the duo of guards dominated together in high school, and they will look to do so at the next level of competition.
On top of the Yeager twins, Oakland will also have junior college product Amarco Doyle join the squad out of Southern Idaho. Last season, the freshman forward averaged 14.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, shooting 52.7% from the field and a blistering 49.3% from beyond the arc.
If we consider Doyle and the Yeager brothers and all of Oakland’s departures, that leaves at minimum three possible open roster spots at this time. Assuming the rest of the team stays intact, there are 12 players currently set to be on the roster next season.
However, the Golden Grizzlies might look to add more than four players ahead of next season.
Per the new NCAA rules, a team is allowed up to 15 scholarship athletes on a basketball roster. While teams of the past usually consisted of 13 scholarship athletes, with two of those spots given to walk-ons, the Golden Grizzlies have a chance to fill those three spots of the roster through the transfer portal.
While the Golden Grizzlies may not have to field as many players through the transfer portal as they did last season, it will be interesting to see how head coach Greg Kampe and the rest of the staff address all of these departures.
