The Oakland men’s basketball team released its schedule earlier this week and no surprise here, it’s a difficult one. The Golden Grizzlies have just two games at the O’Rena in the non-conference schedule, Rochester College to open the season on Nov. 15 and Toledo on Dec. 7. Oakland also has two games at the Palace against Michigan on Dec. 20 and Michigan State at Dec. 27.

I’m going predict Oakland goes 7-6 in its non-conference schedule. (For now, it’s still really early) That may be a little optimistic, but I think it’s doable. My prediction does include two wins in Las Vegas and wins over Green Bay and Michigan, which are all games that could go the other way. And wins over Toledo and Eastern Michigan are not guaranteed. But in the grand scheme of things what do these games really mean? Greg Kampe will be the first to admit it’s all about those three days March for teams at Oakland’s level and right now I still like Oakland to be the last team standing in South Dakota.

Here is my predicted results for the non-conference schedule.

W - Nov. 15 Rochester College
L – Nov. 17 at Oregon
L – Nov. 21 at Syracuse
L – Nov. 23 at Iowa
L – Nov. 25 at Kansas State
W – Nov. 28 Delaware State (in Las Vegas)
W – Nov. 29 Longwood/SE Missouri (Las Vegas)
W – Dec. 7 Toledo
L – Dec. 16 at Cleveland State
W – Dec. 18 at Green Bay
W – Dec. 20 Michigan (at The Palace)
W – Dec. 22 at Eastern Michigan
L – Dec. 27 Michigan State (at The Palace)