Oakland guard Larry Wright (2) celebrates with teammates Keith Benson (34) and Reggie Hamilton after the Grizzles defeated Tennessee.

Associated Press

Keith Benson headed to the locker room with an ankle injury midway through the second half Tuesday night. For the almost four minutes the Oakland basketball team’s star center was out, it looked like the Grizzlies’ chance at an upset over No. 7 Tennessee was over.

It just got started.

Benson returned and Oakland - which came up just shy against Michigan State and Illinois the past two weeks - finally secured an upset victory, shocking the Volunteers in Knoxville, 89-82.

Oakland's victory wasn't surprising to Big Ten coaches. Almost half of the league’s schools have played or will play Oakland (6-5) this season, including Michigan (8-2) on Saturday (noon, ESPN3.com).

“They are good, flat-out,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter, whose Boilermakers beat Oakland, 82-67, on Nov. 21. “… Sometimes in non-conference play you can oversell some people. I told them they were 17-1 in their league (last year). They can win games in the NCAA tournament, and I think they’ve proven that.”

Oakland’s rise can be traced to Greg Kampe, its coach the past 27 seasons. He maneuvered the tricky path from Division II to Division I in 1998. Then Oakland reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in 2005, even though it had a losing record. The Grizzlies then won the play-in game against Alabama A&M, 79-69, before being crushed by North Carolina, 96-68.

Last year, Oakland showed up in the NCAA tournament again, losing to Pittsburgh, 89-66. That team, with Benson returning, set up this season with an ultra-competitive non-conference schedule featuring five Big Ten teams, West Virginia from the Big East and other good mid-majors.

The Grizzlies lost to Michigan State by one point, 77-76, and lost to Illinois, 74-63, after leading at halftime, 28-23.

Oakland coach Greg Kampe says, "We're not scared of anybody."

Associated Press

“… I not only believe it is a tournament team, but a good team.”

But Oakland’s ambitious schedule has hurt. Besides Michigan State, Illinois and Purdue, the Grizzlies lost to West Virginia and took a bad loss to mid-major Wright State.

Then came Tuesday night, and Oakland's rough schedule paid off.

“We’re not scared of anybody,” Kampe told reporters Tuesday night in Knoxville. “We weren’t intimidated by the No. 7 team in the country, because we had just played Michigan State, and we should have won that game. We had just played Illinois, and we could have won that game.

“I think those are big and can help us.”

In order to have any chance at an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament Kampe almost had to schedule this way. The Summit League is a low-major conference. Oakland needs an extraordinary resume in case IUPUI, Oral Roberts or IPFW - three other consistently strong teams in the Summit League - knock the Grizzlies off in the conference tournament.

A win like the one against Tennessee will raise the profile of the entire league.

“For the league, I think it’s great,” IPFW coach Dane Fife said. “We constantly are fighting for name recognition and, ultimately, respect. And any time we can beat a top-ranked team like Tennessee was, it’s great for the league.”

Now that Oakland has a marquee win, the players will have more confidence, which should pose problems for the rest of the Summit League.

“It’s a program Kampe’s built for 27 years now,” Fife said. “They’ve been Division I since ’98.

“Oakland’s the benchmark right now, no question about it.”

And the Grizzlies, led by the 6-foot-11 Benson (18.1 points, 11.7 rebounds) and 6-foot-9 senior Will Hudson (13.3 points, 7 rebounds), are Michigan’s problem for the next few days.

That was evident Tuesday night. As Michigan was finishing off North Carolina Central, 64-44, Oakland was pulling off its upset.

And Oakland was part of the conversation in the Michigan locker room after the game.

“They’ve played so many tough games,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “They had a shot at Michigan State and couldn’t get it done. They are going to be very focused on this one.

“That will not salve their appetite. Knowing Greg and his team, they want to go and get that win over a Michigan team that they didn’t get over Michigan State, get us.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein