AUBURN HILLS ― Never again can Greg Kampe complain that power-conference foes won’t schedule his Oakland team.

The Golden Grizzlies are set to embark on a season-opening stretch for the ages, with their first three games against teams ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press’ preseason poll.

Oakland plays at No. 3 Michigan on Nov. 3, at No. 1 Purdue on Nov. 7 and at No. 2 Houston on Nov. 12.

“It’s tough. It’s very tough,” said Buru Naivaralura, a fifth-year forward for Oakland. “It’s always fun playing these big schools, ranked schools. The environment’s always crazy.

“These are all great places to play, especially if you’re a mid-major school. You don’t get many opportunities to go to these places and play these games. We’re never gonna see anyone that good for the rest of the season.

“It’ll give us a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season.”

Oakland typically has a pretty loaded nonconference schedule, built largely on Kampe’s 42 years at Oakland, during which he’s built a whole lot of connections and friendships in the coaching fraternity.

He uses his tough scheduling to get his teams ready for the Horizon League schedule. But more than that, it’s a recruiting tool. Players want to play the best, in the best venues. The games almost always are on national TV, too, and often draw hundreds of thousands if not millions of viewers.

Oakland can’t buy that kind of exposure. He also uses his tough scheduling to fund a program that in these days of revenue sharing are more expensive than ever to run.

Oakland will take home $270,000 for the three games against the top-10 teams, minus expenses.

The Golden Grizzlies are 2-21 against top-10 programs in their history, the stunner against No. 3 Kentucky in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Oakland also beat No. 7 Tennessee in 2010, for the first-ever top-10 victory in Oakland basketball history. Don’t tell these Oakland players more upsets couldn’t in the works.

“It’s just a privilege to be able to be on the court and play all these very big teams and showcase what we can do,” said senior point guard Brody Robinson, who transferred from UT Arlington to Oakland, which has 14 wins all-time against power-conference opponents.

“With what we’ve got, I think we’ll compete with anybody.”

Oakland was 16-18 a season ago, a year after its Cinderella run in the NCAA Tournament. These Golden Grizzlies are among the deepest teams Kampe has ever had, led by Naivaralua, who spurned the temptation to chase NIL cash elsewhere to return to Oakland. Oakland, led by several key transfers, could go 10 deep early in the season.

The Golden Grizzlies also have nonconference games at UCF, Eastern Michigan and Northern Iowa, and at home against Toledo, before playing its annual rivalry game against No. 22 Michigan State at Little Caesars Arena on Dec. 20.

Detroit Mercy, 8-23 last year in Mark Montgomery’s first season as head coach, also plays an intriguing nonconference schedule that includes road games at Notre Dame on Nov. 7 and Michigan State on Nov. 21.

It’s the first game between MSU and Detroit Mercy since 2020, the COVID year. Before that, they last met in 2001. Montgomery was a longtime assistant under Tom Izzo at MSU.

“I hope Coach Monty’s on our side,” Detroit Mercy guard (and Detroit native) Orlando Lovejoy said, with a laugh.

“It’s very exciting for me. I love Michigan State.”

In other men’s nonconference schedule highlights:

Eastern Michigan (16-16), under head coach Stan Heath, will play at Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and No. 11 Louisville.

Western Michigan (12-20), under head coach DJ Stephens, will play at Ohio State and Iowa.

Central Michigan (14-17), under first-year head coach Andy Bronkema, the former national-championship-winning head coach at Division II Ferris State, will play at Marquette, Loyola-Chicago and No. 24. Wisconsin.