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MILWAUKEE -- After 26 years at Oakland University, Greg Kampe has been asked so many times why he has resisted the temptation to leave for a better job at a bigger program that he has a standard response:

The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

Kampe told a tale Thursday of growing up in Defiance, a small town in Northwestern Ohio, where his father "put fertilizer on his yard, and he tried to make it as green as he could make it." Kampe used that as a metaphor for making Oakland a special place.

After listening to Kampe talk about his Golden Grizzlies playing Pitt today in the NCAA Tournament West Region first round, you get the impression that Kampe is either fantastic with fertilizer or he's full of you-know-what.

With March Madness comes the latest coaching carousel rumors, which have DePaul and Oregon chasing after Pitt's Jamie Dixon. Oakland doesn't have to worry about such distractions, even though it has a man who has won 445 games standing on its sideline.

"It's unusual to be in one place 26 years," Kampe said. "It's unusual that they want me. That's why I'd better look at it the other way around and say I'm the lucky one."

How refreshing Kampe is, with his candor, self-deprecating humor and necessary dose of perspective to the NCAA tourney.

Once a hotshot who quipped that his career goal was to coach UCLA, Kampe instead guided Oakland in its transition from Division II in 1999-2000 and decided it was where he wanted to build a program and raise his family.

"My wife was my best recruit ever," Kampe said, "because I didn't have to chase jobs."

Sue Kampe is a former automotive executive whose paycheck allowed her husband to focus as much on being a father in raising their three sons as he did on the demands of being a Division I basketball coach.

"I know one thing: I play golf in the summer, and I coached my sons' Little League teams," said Kampe, 54. "I promised my wife that I would not neglect our kids, that I would be like my dad was to me. I did that, and I'm proud of the fact that I did it, and I wouldn't change it in any way, shape or form. I'm not sure if I were the coach at UCLA I'd have gotten to do that.

"I'm an Oakland promoter, not a self-promoter."

By staying, Kampe has helped put Oakland (located in Rochester, Mich.) on the map. The Golden Grizzlies won 20 of their past 21 games and set a Summit League record by going 17-1.

But Kampe's best coaching performance was in 2005, when he led a 9-19 Golden Grizzlies team to an improbable NCAA berth by winning the league tournament on a last-second shot. They then beat Alabama A&M in the play-in game.

That might have saved his job, as it was sandwiched between 13-17 and 11-18 seasons.

"You talk about the guy that moved, but you don't talk about the 10 others that got fired during that time," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "What he's done in surviving is more impressive than anything."

So, making the NCAA tourney again is gravy for a guy best-known for wearing a bad rug, even though Kampe's hair is his own.

His candor comes just as naturally, as his players can attest, for better or worse. The fiery Kampe once made his players do push-ups on the sidelines during a game.

"He doesn't hold anything back," senior point guard Johnathon Jones said. "You know exactly what he wants out of you."

Adds senior forward Derick Nelson: "If you're really sensitive, you can't really play under him."

The real difference between coaching at a major program like Pitt and a mid-major like Oakland comes in their NCAA tourney expectations.

"We're not going to cut the nets down in Indianapolis," Kampe said. "We know that. Our kids know that. They have a goal to make it to the Sweet 16.

"We got to storm the court, cut the nets down at our league tournament. That's where the pressure was. You don't realize what pressure is (until) you can win 26 games, and if you don't win the last one, you're not going. That's pressure."

Doing so at Oakland is an act of Defiance, from a guy who's not just full of fertilizer.

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