After claiming the Summit League championship for the last two years and back-to-back trips to NCAA tournaments, the Oakland University men’s basketball team was picked second in the Summit League Preseason Poll with four first-place votes, while rival Oral Roberts received 27 of the 32 first place votes as the favorite to take the league championship.

“I don’t care about that stuff,” said head coach Greg Kampe, “I will tell you that I’m surprised that we weren’t picked to win (the league title) because we’ve won 50 of our last 53 league games.”

Regardless of outside opinions, coaches and players agree that team goals are more important than rankings and accolades.

“We are focused on us,” Reggie Hamilton, senior guard and All-Summit First Team player, said. “We know what this team is capable of.”

The departure of three of OU’s most-decorated seniors, including NBA draft pick Keith Benson and overseas professionals Will Hudson and Larry Wright, is the likely reason that voters were down on Oakland.

“If you put Michigan State jerseys on us the last few years, we could have been a Michigan State team with our size,” Kampe said. “We are going to be much different but that doesn’t mean we can’t be as good or better.”

Even with losing three starters in Benson, Wright and Hudson, the Golden Grizzlies return starting senior guard Hamilton and sophomore forward Drew Valentine.

Despite not being the starting point guard at the beginning of last season, Hamilton earned the position when Wright fell to injuries and finished as a top assist-men in the Summit League with 5.3 per game.

“(Hamilton) proved to me that he could still score and run our point,” Kampe said. “He’s pretty much going to have the ball and he’s going to have to make great decisions.”

Valentine, who led the Summit League with 1.7 steals per game last season, will be looked upon to continue growing.

“Drew Valentine is probably the best all around player in our conference,” Kampe said. “There’s a reason we’ve won a championship every year Drew Valentine has been in our program.”

Mid-Major All-American sophomore guard Travis Bader finished last season with 94 3-pointers made and shot 44 percent from the three-point arc, good for ninth place in the NCAA.

This season, however, he’s willing to further expand his role on the team.

“Anything I can do to help the team,” Bader said. “If they need me to pass more, I’ll pass more. If they need me to cheer louder, I’ll cheer louder.”

Without Benson and Hudson in the paint this season, Kampe and his staff will lean heavily on freshmen centers Corey Petros and Kyle Sikora for interior defense and rebounding. Both players were redshirted last season, but their teammates think they are ready to step up for the Grizzlies.

“The young guys have been doing a good job in practice and I think they are ready to show what they got,” Valentine said.

In three mid-August exhibition games, the Golden Grizzlies won two out of three games against the University of Windsor and Western Ontario, but Kampe admits to not having the full potential on the floor.

“My biggest concern about this team was rebounding,” Kampe said. “In those three Canadian games, we out-rebounded our opponents by 15 or 18 in all games; that made me feel a lot better about our team.”

Kampe expects to redshirt possibly two of the three incoming freshman because of depth.

They are Korab Imami, 6-foot-10 inch center; Matt Poches, guard from Hartland High School; and Dante Williams, 6-foot-6 inch forward and Ann Arbor native.

“I expect in the next four or five years that those guys will be big name players,” Kampe said. “I’ll be very surprised if they are not.”

The Golden Grizzlies open the 2011-12 season by traveling to Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Nov. 14 to take on the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, and then head to Arkansas on Nov. 16.

In the biggest home game of Oakland basketball history, the University of Tennessee Volunteers will be coming to the O’Rena on Nov. 28. To the cheers of many Grizzly fans in attendance at Midnight Madnezz, Kampe announced that the game would be televised on ESPN in their 9 p.m. primetime slot.

Other notable non-conference games include Michigan at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Dec. 10 and on the road against the University of Arizona on Dec. 20.

One major difference in scheduling, as opposed to past seasons, is the number of home games that OU will have.

“We’ve won 29 consecutive league games in here; it’s pretty amazing,” Kampe said. “Getting 15 home games should really help.”

Oakland will open at home against Spring Arbor on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. at the O’Rena.