Walking wounded: Adversity-tested Golden Grizzlies hope to find remedy at Summit League Tournament
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
ROCHESTER HILLS — Oakland University rightfully earned the distinction as the “Walking Wounded” throughout the regular season.
The Golden Grizzlies lost several players to injury throughout the season, at least four with season-ending injuries, had one key player transfer over the Christmas break and several others spend time on the sideline with injuries.
There have also been several games where Oakland had to compete with only eight players, including a walk-on, as available bodies dwindled.
Junior center Brittany Carnago also missed four games due to injury, senior Anna Patritto heads immediately to the heating pad for her back each time she subs out from the game and redshirt freshman Elizabeth Hamlet has missed games with shin splints.
Still, the Golden Grizzlies women have forged on, tying for third in the Summit League at 12-6 and are 19-11 overall heading in to the conference tournament this weekend at Sioux Falls Arena in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Oakland, which garnered the No. 4 seed for the postseason tournament, will face Southern Utah, the No. 5 seed, at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The two split during the regular season, with the Thunderbirds earning a 60-49 victory last weekend.
“It’s tournament time,” said Oakland coach Beckie Francis “It’s time to get back to basics. We are 100 percent focused on Southern Utah.”
Oakland lost in the first round last season after falling in the championship game two years ago. Oakland coach Beckie Francis said that her team will not look past Sunday afternoon’s opponent, southern Utah, which defeated the Grizzlies less than two years ago.
“I think every coach in the country sitting in their press conference before they go to their postseason tournament believes they have a shot of winning it,” said Francis, whose team has made the NCAA tournament twice in the Division I era and each time the Grizzlies were not the No. 1 seed n the conference tournament.”
Oakland made the NCAA field in both 2002 and 2006.
“The fact that we have been to the NCAA tournament two times, the coaching staff, the assistant coaches who have been there as players and coached and played in the tournament, we know how to get a team ready,” noted Francis.
With an up-and-down conference season aided by the rash of injuries, Francis is confident that it has strengthened her team and that several players gained more crucial minutes this season than originally designed.
“This team, based on the adversity they have (faced), has come through and delivered,” added Francis, who said she will have nine, possibly 10, players available for the conference tournament. “I do feel really good about this team.
“At the beginning of the season, I would have said that we are a young and inexperienced team,” continued Francis. “But because of the injuries and because everyone has stepped up, (just) about every person on the roster has started a game and I feel like we are (now) an experienced team. I think that South Dakota is a neutral floor, so to speak, and that the freshman have had so many minutes that they normally don’t get, that it makes us more experienced.”
Junior guard Sharise Calhoun, an honorable mention all-conference pick, believes that Oakland has put last year’s tournament loss in the past, along with some hard losses this season, including a recent loss at Southern Utah (16-13, 10-8) and home losses to South Dakota State and IPFW — all where the Grizzlies played shorthanded.
Oakland defeated Southern Utah 68-39 back in December.
“This is a new year for us, so we’re really excited to back to the (conference) tournament and show all the people out there that Oakland is ready,” said Calhoun. “We’re really focused on the Southern Utah game.”
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Category: Colleges / Other, Oakland University
