‘Mr. Oakland’ shows the nation what they’ve been missing
Trey Townsend adds Horizon League tourney MVP honors to regularseason Player of the Year
Typically, a four-and-a-half bus ride, in the middle of night, doesn’t sound like the best of times.
But the Oakland men’s basketball team turned its trip home from Indianapolis to the O’Rena early Wednesday morning into a dance party, with music blaring and players letting loose.
Hey, when in March … “Everyone’s getting into it,” Neal Ruhl, the team’s radio and TV playby-play man, said shortly before the bus arrived back on campus in Rochester before 5 a.m. “It’s pretty awesome. “It’s been a movie on this bus ride.” And if that’s the case, the best-actor winner is senior forward Trey Townsend, who turned in the performance of his four-year college career Tuesday night in beating Milwaukee, 83-76, in the Horizon League championship game at Indiana Farmers Coliseum, earning Oakland its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011.
Townsend scored a career-high 38 points to turn back every punch Milwaukee threw at Oakland, including 27 points in the second half. He scored 27 of Oakland’s final 40 points.
He was named the Horizon League tournament MVP, after he was named Horizon League player of the year.
“He’s one of my best friends, and he’ll be a brother of life,” said Blake Lampman, a senior guard. “I couldn’t be happier for his success.
“I cannot be more happy and proud of him.”
Said senior guard Jack Gohlke, shaking his head, with a smile, when asked about Townsend’s performance in the final: “Amazing performance. I told him when Milwaukee took back the lead … I knew it was his time, I told him it was ‘The Trey Townsend Show.’ … And he did more than put the team on his back.”
Townsend, 21, 6-foot-10 and 228 pounds, had his share of struggles throughout much of the Horizon League tournament, at least in terms of getting his open shots — Cleveland State was particularly stingy in the semifinal. He was typically double-teamed, as he was most of the season. But in the first two games of the Horizon League tournament, Townsend turned his own lack of opportunities into more opportunities for his teammates.