X's and BrO's - Greg Kampe Interview - podcast episode cover

X's and BrO's - Greg Kampe Interview

Jul 25, 202418 min
--:--
--:--
Download Metacast podcast app
Listen to this episode in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episode description

Dennis Fithian fills in for Shep and welcomes Oakland men's hoops coach Greg Kampe to the program! Coach Kampe reflects on his team's monster upset over Kentucky in what would be John Calipari's final game as coach of the Wildcats, and discusses how he's adjusting to the world of NIL in college athletics.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Alrighty, welcome in Dennis Fifthy in here on ex'es and Bros. On the Michigan Sports Network. Coming up at the top of the hour, the immediate futures of Flaherty and schoolbl for the Detroit Tigers. We'll try to figure out make heads and tails on what those guys, what caps they'll be wearing for the rest of the summer. Right now, we're going to talk a little college basketball as we bring in the head coach from Oakland University. That's Greg

Campy, who joins us here on Exes and Bros. Good morning, coach, How you doing. I'm doing great, Dennis. How are you? Man? It's summertime be on the golf course. Well, I was going to say, I was going to guess that you're either get ready to go buy your pool, or you're you're driving to some non air conditioning gym to watch kids play pickup, or you're in the parking lot putting on your shoes at Oakland Hills getting ready to play the south course. Which one is it?

Well, it's kind of a combination. I'm heading into the office. We've got to work out this morning, our team does, and then we've got I can't play to day at Oakland Hills because of the US Junior AM's there. Oh yeah, I've been working that during this week. It's been kind of fun to see to see these kids hit that ball the way they hit it, it's crazy. But it's been quite a week. So yeah, I'm gonna do a little bit of both today. Well, we'll have

to ask you about Charlie if we have time coming up here. No, Oakland one of the big stories, not just the biggest story of the state of Michigan, but one of the biggest stories of the n n CUAA tournament this last year. You win the Horizon League, you you win the tournament, and you draw a blue blood in Kentucky in the first round. Let's start there. How did you get the team prepared for John Calipari's Wildcats. Well, we liked the matchup, you know, it was going into it.

As I was looking at we thought we were going to make it to be a thirteen seed and we didn't. So I was a little disappointed when I saw our name on the fourteen seed line because we had you know, we'd wanted Xavier. We had taken Ohio State in Illinois to the Wire. We had a tremendous conference season, so I really was a little surprised that we fell to fourteen. And then when Kentucky came up, I was really excited because you know, you knew you were going to get the primetime game

on Thursday night. It was either going to be Thursday or Friday night at seven o'clock on CBS. And you know, that's that's what this tournament's about, is getting an opportunity that's unbelievable and then doing something with that opportunity.

And you know, we felt we'd like to match up because you know, we play, this is this matchup zone that we play, and we can really really take something away in what they were best in the country at shooting at three and I thought we could take that away from him, and I wasn't too concerned about their scoring inside, and so the game plan, you know, it was kind of a matchup for us, you know, a good matchup, and it proved out that way. Yeah, it was such

an awesome game to watch all the way through. And you know, like I said, I think everybody would agree. He guys one of the stories of the tournament, but he also had a player on your team in that first game, and Jack Loki, you know, he's what the tournament's all about as well. You know, I don't know if the box score,

I don't know if the box score doesn't do it justice. I looked at it as ten for twenty from downtown, but I don't remember the stretch where he seemed like he made like eight in a row or whatever it was. He ends up with thirty two points. It was awesome. I mean, what about his performance. You get asked a lot about that, but you're probably not getting tired of talking about Loki. That was one of the great

performances that I've seen in the tournament. Oh It'll go down as one of the best in history because not just so much of you know that he made ten twenty from the three, but it was against and how important those shots were. It wasn't in a blowout, it wasn't in a you know, a ten point or fifteen point when it was in a game that came down

to the wire, and he did. He missed his first three, and he missed three in a row in the second half, and we forget that because he was I mean, the shots he was making, they were tough shots. He played with great confidence. They were deep. I mean, he he had a couple from the logo. I mean, he just but that's not the only time this year he did that. I mean, there's

something that he can do. And then you know his reaction to some of the shots and one Shining moment, you know, in the Shooting Star part of the one Shining Moment they had him and so it was it was really cool. You know, ten years from now when they showing up SAT, they're gonna show Jack Bokie making three and so he's kind of solidified his spot in that tournament more for a long long time. Greg Campy with us here on Axes and Bros. Across the state of Michigan. I've seen the shooting

exploits sometimes the videos. I'm thinking a couple of years ago Amani baits. I don't know, did he make fifty in a row or something? Golkie in practice? What kind of what kind of exhibition have you seen? Just you know, we saw it in the game, but proficient just lighting it up when he's just standing out there. What can you tell us there? Oh? Yeah, he I mean he had the day the day before the North Carolina State game. In front of the CBS cameras were at our practice.

He made like seventeen in a row, and then he threw he threw in the length of the court and it went in. You know, I mean you you see him do that often. I mean that all the great shooters I've coached can do that. You know. I've been bus that goes a lot of great shooters over my time. And you get them in a workout by themselves, just you know, spot shooting and passing it to them out, you'll see them make you know, eighty to eighty five out of

one hundred once they get that rhythm going bang and bang in. The difference between Goki and a lot of players is his Goki was better on the run than he was as a spot up shooter. He went to the three point shooting contest at the Final four, and I knew he wouldn't have much of a chance at that because you know, you've got to reach on a rack, pull a ball and shoot reach on her, and that's not who he

is. He's If you put little chairs out there and made all those shooters run around those chairs, hit him with a passing shooter, he'd have won that. Going away. It's like Vinnie Johnson back to the day he played for the Pistons. You get him a wide open shot. He's not hitting that, but you get a couple in the row. You guys draped all over him. There is something You'd rather have a guy like that than somebody that you need to have wide open now. So I like that part,

you know that go ahead. I'd like to have both. Well, you know, you play a game of a lifetime. Golkie did, certainly your team. And then the thing that was impressive that everybody saw is that afterwards, Yeah, you guys had your once shining moment, but you were ready. You guys are ready for the second round. That had to that had to impress you. You had to know your group. But you guys sound like, uh, yeah, you know, we're going to enjoy this for

a couple of minutes and then you know we're on the NC state. That was that was pretty sweet. Yeah, And I think that we were playing and I don't know if we could play at that level, you know, for four or five weeks, but we were at that time of the year. We were playing at a level that there were only two teams in the country. I didn't think we could be, and that was Purdue and Yukon the two teams that got to the final I thought we could beat anybody in

the country, and I think we showed that. I mean, you know, MC State went to the final four and we you know, we had the ball with ten seconds to go to beat him, and we didn't get a shot of them. But I just felt that the level we were playing, you know, I have really good players and Counseling and Golki and Latin in Conway and DQ Cole Rocket Watts. I mean, I had seven or eight high level players and we were playing at it at that level and it

was a lot of fun. It was great for our fans, and you know, I think we showed that the country that you know, you can play great basketball at the mid major level. You should have seen the party that I was at. It was a bunch of Michigan and Michigan State fans, but everybody's an Oakland fan. When you draw n C State, they're an eleven seed. But everybody's talking about oh DJ Burns and you know he's also Both n C State and Burns were what the tournament was all about.

But you know, you had Golkie in Game one, but Trey Townsend had thirty. What a player he is. Do you have any more former player or families that played basketball at OU that had some kids in the pipeline there, Greg, Yeah, I actually do so good. I kid name John Champaigne that his son is that Uh well, I can't say, oh,

that would be that would be illegal recruiting. So yes, I have a former player who's got a son that's one of the top ranked players in the STATA in Michigan this year that you know, we'll see what happens with him. And then there's a guy that played for me whose kid in Illinois is one of the top Illinois players. So I'm hoping that maybe that Towns didn't think, can you know, turn into another couple of those guys. Yeah, tell me a little bit about Townsend. You know, he had thirty

in that game. He was spectacular, and you know he's heading to a z Arizona as a transfer. But he reminded me I said this. I didn't have a lot of people saying, oh, you know, great comparison, great comp or anything else, but I could heard him to a former Piston in a great score in the NBA and Adrian Dantley in that you it's a team game, but you could just throw in the ball really anywhere, you could with a d out on the floor, Greig and he could just

take you and it was an instant offense. He kind of posted the jump from anywhere. Tell me about Townshend and his game and what you liked about him. We all saw him against NC State. It was awesome. We had a great year. I mean, he was the player of the year in our conference, in the conference tournament, finally at thirty eight without making a three. Now in the NC State game, he made a couple of

threes to get his thirty. But in the in the championship game when we needed him, he got his butt down by the basket and just dominated. And he's a guy that you know, we isolated him a lot on the elbow, So I think it's a pretty good comparison. We isolated him a lot on the elbow one on one, and he you know, obviously by the fact that he did those things, you know, he could take probably

anybody off the dribbles from fifteen twenty feet. What people because of Golkie, What people don't really realize is the second half of the Kentucky he ended up with. He had a bad free throw shooting night, which was unusual for him, but he ended up I think was seventeen and twelve in Kentucky, and they all came in the second half. I think he had two at halftime, and so when the game had to be won, you know,

Golkie put us in a position that want and portray. You know, he made some big free throws and he made some huge, huge post baskets against Kentucky, had three seven footers and down the stretch of that game and we were protecting that lead, we isolated him at the elbow and he you know, he really kind of won the game for us by you know, making a huge basket after huge basket. So he can play. You know, his chances of playing in the NBA are all going to be determined by how

his perimeter game improves. And he graduated from Oakland. He was with US for four years, and you know, he's got that COVID year and he decided to transfer and go to Arizona because you know, they paid him a lot of money, a lot more money than I could pay him. So he ended up going there for that last year, and I hope that he can develop that outside shot because hell of a player. It sounded illegally you're saying that, but of course it's not. Over the last couple of years,

Greg camp be with us. You were addressing what a Business seminar a couple of days ago, and the question was one you probably get a lot. What's the difference between you know, you've been at Oakland you for forty years, what's the difference between the players from twenty years ago from now? And you had You had a great line there, Greg, deliver it to the State of Michigan. It was fine because some people, some people got ripped me at you know, started ripping me on Twitter over the line.

And I didn't judge it. I didn't. I didn't say it was good or bad, you know, I just said this is the facts. And what I said is twenty years ago, if you ask a kid to jump, he would say how high? Ten years ago, if you ask him to jump, he'd say why. Now, if you ask a kid to jump, he's going to say, well, how much are you going to pay me? And it's true, it really is. It's just the evolution, you know, they asked me. You know, people are saying,

well, I shouldn't they And I'm not arguing the question. You know, I'm I've been a proponent for the NIL. I've been someone that believed the players. I mean, Jack Golkie is what the NIL was supposed to be. Here's a guy that nobody ever heard of. He doesn't look like a player. He goes out there and has the game of his life in front of eight million people on TV, and he ends up making hundreds of thousands of dollars in NIL opportunities. Turbo tax got him, you know, because

he's going to be an accountant. Right So Turbo Texas, you know, does commercials with them. He's you know, he's signing autographs, he's taken pictures, he's you know, he's uh doing commercials for a bunch of different things. That's what the NIL is supposed to be, not hey for play. You know. I I but I'm not. I'm not. I didn't in any way, shape or form. That statement wasn't saying this shouldn't be

happening. It was just this is the way life has changed, and this is what we're in now, and and uh, you know, we have to accept it and figure it out camp. He should be a fun year at oh U, certainly for the the opener and then all season long. I would imagine people are already like getting over to the arena. We go. They got you for a minute or two more. I want to take you back to the US Amateur over there at Oakland Hills. I don't know.

People probably asked you about Charlie Woods. Do you think is Woods? Is he going to be? Is he going to be somebody that's going to be a factor on the in the on the PGA. Would you bet against that? No? I would not bet against him. People got to remember this. He did not play well. Okay, I watched him in his practice round, and boy, he can strike the ball. He can really strike the ball. But you know, he's only fifteen, and he's physically

going to get bigger and stronger, and he is really good. Now is he that good? I don't know. You know, I think people came away from the weekend saying, oh my god, it's you know, he's not gonna you know, he's only there because Tigers is Tiger's kid. But no, he wasn't he qualified to be there. I mean, he shot sixty something to get there, and at fifteen years old, think about that, you know, I mean, he's got a lot of pressure on him. The most of the people that played in the in the US Junior M

had very small crowds walking around him. He had six hundred, eight hundred people on every hole following them around. Tiger was there, Yeah, Tiger was there. That that you know, it has to put pressure on you too. So yeah, I mean, can he could he be a guy on a PGA tour someday? Absolutely? Is it a sure slam dunk? No, No, it's not. But and then again, I'm missing evaluated basketball players now and then, so I'm not sure I'm really qualified to wait

a fifteen year old golfer. I know he's a hell of a lot better than I am. You know, I wanted to ask you about another He's a baseball player, obviously, but you know, el kayline, I remember eighteen years ago, it'd be around the batting cages or the dugout and people would always say, you know, the hell, hey, how you hitting them? And you know, I say, well, my back, it wasn't for my back, I'd be hitting a lot better. Did you ever

see Kayline out on the on the course there at Oakland Hills. Was was he something to behold or is he just a regular guy out there that happened to be one of of the you know, greatest baseball players. What can you tell me about mister Tiger? Yeah, well, I was very fortunate because growing up he was my hero. I mean I wanted to be bat Man and everything I did had a six on it. And I was very fortunate to get to know him, and he was We were talking about him

the other day on the golf course. I don't know if I ever met a celebrity of his stature that was as nice a person as al Kale. And I played a lot of golf with him. He was a really good golfer too, He really was. I mean he was. He could shoot his age all until the end of his life. He could go out there and you know, he could knock it down the puttage hit it. You know, he lost his distance like most people do. But when he was seventy seven, he could shoot seventy seven. You know, when he was

eighty two he could shoot eighty two. He was but more importantly, Dennis, he was just salt of the earth Man. He was as good a person as I ever met. I love it. Great story. Hey Greg, thanks so much for getting up early with us this morning here on EXUS and Bros. Great tournament. You guys were what it was all about and continued success. Love watching you there at OH You and hope I can watch

you again. An attorney, that's our goal. It's hard to get back at our level, that is the goal, so we're going to do everything we can to try. Have a great morning, Greg, thanks for having me on. Dennis, good talking to you.

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android