Oakland Ready for Close-Up

They say that part of the beauty of the NCAA tournament is that almost any team can get hot at the right time and get in.

Oakland University -- not from the Bay Area, but from Rochester, Mich. -- is a prime example. The Golden Grizzlies have cracked the 65-team tournament field for the first time and will face Southwestern Conference champion Alabama A&M; (18-13) tonight in the play-in game at Dayton, Ohio.

Oakland is the only team in the tournament with a losing record, 12-18. And it’s only that good after four consecutive victories -- three in the Mid-Continent Conference tournament last week that earned the Grizzlies their spot in the Big Dance.

From this point, when and where the music stops almost doesn’t matter. Tonight, Friday against North Carolina, seeded No. 1 in the Syracuse Regional, should Oakland advance that far, or whenever.

Oakland didn’t play Division I basketball until 1998, and before an improbable shot by Pierre Dukes beat Oral Roberts for the championship of the conference tournament, 16,000 Oakland students could brag only about a video rental machine in their student union that is said to be the best in the country and a pond on campus called Beer Lake that has no beer in it.

“We’re a hidden gem,” Athletic Director Jack Mehl said, emphasizing the hidden part.

Conference tournaments are mostly a way to make money and fill hours on television, but the unintended byproduct is that the Oaklands of college basketball occasionally get a chance to shine -- however briefly -- in an arena normally dominated by the powerful and rich.

“It gives a Cinderella story a chance to emerge,” Mehl said.

For a school that has never had a sniff at national exposure, these are heady times.

“If people take note of us because of our 15 minutes of athletic fame, maybe they’ll spend time to know the university as a whole,” Mehl said.

Of course, Coach Greg Kampe wasn’t thinking about that last week when his team ventured into Tulsa, Okla. His goal was to win a game or two to salvage a miserable season. And even when the Grizzlies won their first two games, they were then faced with the unenviable task of playing top-seeded Oral Roberts -- winner of 25 games -- in front of a hostile home crowd.

But Oakland kept the game close, and Dukes, a role player who was told before the season that he wouldn’t play much, made a three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left to give the Grizzlies a 61-60 victory.

Switching planes in Chicago on the way home, Dukes carried the game ball through the airport and was mobbed by people who wanted to touch the ball or have his autograph.

“I thought it was a dream,” Dukes said.

Said Kampe: “It’s not as big for me as the kids. I’m just happy for the school that it’s happening.”

Kampe then allowed himself a trip into another fantasy world.

“We could go down in history,” he said. “No No. 16 has ever beaten a No. 1 before. Who knows if this Cinderella story is over.”