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.