Oakland University will compete in the inaugural Vegas 16 men's basketball postseason tournament after accepting an invitation on Monday. The Golden Grizzlies will face Towson out of the Colonial Athletic Association on March 28 at 9 p.m. ET and will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network.
"We are excited to be part of the inaugural field for the Vegas tournament," said Director of Athletics Jeff Konya. "All the games will be nationally televised and allow us to represent the Oakland brand. Our goal was to give our team an opportunity to compete against teams that represent the upper echelon of the Horizon League, while being conducted at a neutral site location."
The tournament will take place at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The eight-team, single-elimination tournament will begin on March 28th with the quarterfinals, semifinals on March 29th and the championship game will be on March 30th. All games will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
This marks the seventh time Oakland (21-11, 13-5 Horizon League) has made the postseason in the last eight years. The Golden Grizzlies made NCAA tournament appearances in 2010 and '11, and competed in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason tournament (CIT) in 2009, '12, '13 and '15. The Black and Gold will be making their eighth overall postseason appearance, earning an NCAA tournament bid in 2005 (Oakland became eligible for NCAA postseason play in 2003).
Bob Cousy and Wooden Award Finalist Kay Felder continues to lead the way for the Golden Grizzlies. Felder is 1-of-5 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, given to the country's top point guard, and 1-of-15 finalists for the Wooden Award, given to the most outstanding college basketball player. He was named the Horizon League Player of the Year and leads the country with 9.3 assists per game, and ranks fifth in the NCAA by scoring 24.2 points per game.
Felder engineers the nation's top scoring offense at 86.3 points per game. The Golden Grizzlies scored 100 points or more five times this season and made 638 free throws, third in the country, and nine shy of setting a new single-season school record.
The Golden Grizzlies reached 20 wins for the first time in four seasons and for the fifth time since becoming Division I in 1999-00. Oakland won a program-best 26 games in 2009-10, advancing to the NCAA tournament. The 21 wins this season is tied for fifth in school history.
Oakland will play its ninth game on national television against Towson. The nine games marks a single-season high for the Golden Grizzlies as Oakland could play as many as 11 games on national television this season.
All games in the Vegas 16 tournament will be called by Neal Ruhl on WDFN-AM (1130) and available on the iHeart radio app.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Monday, March 28
• Game 1: Tennessee Tech (19-11) vs. Old Dominion (22-13) -- 3 p.m. ET
• Game 2: Northern Illinois (21-12) vs. UCSB (18-13) -- 5:30 p.m. ET
• Game 3: Oakland (21-11) vs. Towson (20-12) -- 9 p.m. ET
• Game 4: Louisiana Tech (23-9) vs. ETSU (23-11) -- 11:30 p.m. ET
Tuesday, March 29
• Games 5/6: Semifinals --9/11:30 p.m. ET
Wednesday, March 30
• Game 7: Championship -- 10 p.m. ET
(Release courtesy of Oakland Athletics)
Tags: Horizon League - Men's Basketball · Oakland - Men's Basketball
