Oakland University’s men’s basketball team (25-8) has reached the finals of the Summit League Tournament and will face off against the second-seeded IUPUI Jaguars (24-9) with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament at stake.

The conference championship game is tonight at 9 p.m. eastern time and will be televised on ESPN2.

Season series: Tied 1-1 (85-82 Oakland win on Jan. 2 and 78-54 IUPUI on Jan. 28)

All-time series: Oakland leads 20-13

The teams split the regular season series with the Grizzlies pulling out a narrow victory at the O’Rena on Jan. 2 and IUPUI winning by 24 points on Jan. 28 – Oakland’s only conference loss of the season.

Head coaches Greg Kampe (OU) and Ron Hunter (IUPUI) have been coaching against each other for well over a decade and have made it no secret that they are very good friends off the court.

“Everybody knows that Greg is one of my best friends, and I’m going to go bang on his (hotel) door … I’ll keep banging on his door all night,” Ron Hunter said following his team’s win on Monday night.

The top seeded team has won the Summit League Championship in each of the past four seasons. In 2005, Oakland won the conference tournament as the seventh seed.

Scouting report:

The Jaguars are the premier scoring team in the conference and won by an average of eight points in their games this season, compared to Oakland’s average five-point margin of victory.

IUPUI boasts the top two individual scorers in the conference in Robert Glenn and Alex Young, who average 19.3 and 18.8 points, respectively.

The team shot nearly 51 percent from the field, including 39 percent from 3-point range – both were conference bests during the regular season.

Last night against Oral Roberts, the Jags led by as many as 21 points in the second half, but allowed ORU to go on a 25-5 run at about the 10:00 minute mark and briefly lost the lead before recovering for a 69-65 win.

As for tonight’s game, it’s a clean slate and the regular season meetings will mean nothing. IUPUI’s Leroy Nobles summed up the game best at last night’s press conference:

“It’s going to be a different game just because it’s the finals. It’s going to be a game where everybody should be tuned in watching, so you better get your popcorn ready.”

Analysis (writer’s opinions only):

The biggest key for Oakland will be eliminating careless passes that result in turnovers. IUPUI is deadly on the fast break (as seen last night against Oral Roberts). If Glenn gets another opportunity for a slam dunk, then it could potentially sway what will be mostly an impartial crowd in Sioux Falls to root for the Jaguars.

Expect Kampe to shorten his bench in this game. Drew Valentine had one of the best games of his career Saturday night against UMKC when he had an opportunity for some minutes, but Kampe won’t have the luxury of taking a chance on a repeat performance. Johnathon Jones will undoubtedly play all 40 minutes tonight, and all five starters will likely play close to 35 minutes barring early foul trouble. Keith Benson didn’t commit a foul last night against IPFW and Oakland will need him on the court tonight more than ever.

The Jaguars have used a rotation of just six players regularly this season, so the team could be tired with the game beginning less than 24 hours after the end of Monday’s game.

IUPUI is 18-0 when it shoots 50 percent of better. Oakland will need to match the Jags shot-for-shot in the early going.

All in all, this should go down as one of the best games in conference history. It’s been quite a while since the two teams met, so I’m sure each team has a few new wrinkles to throw into their offensive and defensive schemes.

I’ll be posting game updates on Twitter, #theoaklandpost, throughout the game. Be sure to follow while watching or listening on television/radio.

A game story will be posted as soon as possible tonight following the post-game press conference. Wednesday’s edition of The Oakland Post will feature extensive coverage of the game and the tournament. Pick it up on news stands tomorrow.