By MIKE BROWN Sports Writer on Feb 21, 2012, at 10:11 PM Updated on 2/22 at 2:06 PM
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ORU has Oakland head coach Greg Kampe to thank for the first-place vote it received in this week’s CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top 25 poll.
“Of course it was me,” Kampe said when reached by phone. “I did it because they deserve it based on what they’ve done this year. Their resume is as good as anyone else's. They went into (then-No. 8) Xavier and won. Tell me another team (in the CollegeInsider poll) who has beaten a Top-10 team."
Kampe was reminded that Xavier had three of its main players suspended when ORU won 64-42 on the Musketeers' floor on Dec. 18.
"I don't care," he said. "They beat the fire out of them. Everybody knows what they did."
The Golden Eagles wrapped up the regular-season Summit League title last week and take a 25-5 overall record into Saturday’s regular-season final game at Southern Utah.
ORU has tied a school record for regular-season wins and has four wins over teams rated in the Top 100 of the Ratings Percentage Index.
Kampe is one of 41 mid-major coaches who vote in the CollegeInsider poll and the only one from the Summit League.
The Eagles are 11th in the poll, up three spots from last week and matching their highest advance, which came on Jan. 30. ORU was the only team other than No. 1 Murray State and No. 2 Wichita State to receive a first-place vote in this week's poll. Murray State had 23 and Wichita State had seven.
Kampe said he’s been voting the Eagles progressively higher on his ballot each week, and felt justified in voting them No. 1 after the Summit’s top three teams swept opponents from the Mid-American Conference in nationally televised BracketBusters games last weekend.
ORU downed MAC-leading Akron 67-61, South Dakota State bombed Buffalo 86-65 and North Dakota State downed Western Michigan 86-73.
“It's not the kind of thing you want to do randomly, but because of all those (Saturday) wins, I felt justified in voting ORU No. 1,” Kampe said. “I also voted (South Dakota State) 10th and I think it helped them get back in the Top 25 (at No. 23)."
“I think it was great for the league that all those teams won. If the top four had won, it would be have been unbelievable. But we screwed up,” Kampe said.
Kampe’s Grizzlies, battling NDSU for third place in the league, played at Illinois State, the Missouri Valley's fourth-place team. Oakland led most of the way behind Reggie Hamilton's 34 points, but Illinois State rallied to win in the closing minutes, 79-75.
-- Mike Brown
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