Thursday night’s contest between No. 3 seed Kentucky and 14-seed Oakland was like something out of a movie.
From the classic underdog story to the electric performance from an unlikely hero to the four-team crowd — Oakland, Kentucky, NC State and Texas Tech — slowly siding with the Golden Grizzlies, Oakland’s 80-76 upset win over Kentucky was everything college basketball is about.
Jack Gohlke scored 32 points on 10-20 shooting from beyond the arc, and he will undoubtedly be the story of the game — and maybe the whole tournament, at this point — but head coach Greg Kampe can’t be overlooked.
Prior to the matchup against the Wildcats, Kampe talked at length about how an opportunity to face college basketball’s most storied program during primetime on CBS was a huge chance for his players and the university.
Kampe said on Wednesday it would be his players’ chance to step into the spotlight, but little did he know the spotlight would get brighter than anyone could have expected.
With each 3-pointer that Gohlke made, the social media attention grew.
As the clock continued to wind down, the eyes of the college basketball world began to descend upon a university that many people think is located in California.
Regardless of where people think Oakland is located, nothing was stopping the Golden Grizzlies from putting on a show on Thursday night.
Kampe’s team led for almost 28 minutes, and with Kentucky nipping at their heels late in the game, the Golden Grizzlies delivered with the biggest victory in program history.
On Wednesday, Kampe was hesitant to say a potential win over the Wildcats would be the best win of his career, but in the postgame press conference, about 15 minutes after the final horn went off, he changed his mind.
“This is the greatest win that I’ve ever been a part of,” Kampe said after the game. “As soon as that horn went off, I changed my mind immediately. This, on primetime, against the great coach, the great program and all that — and just the way we played.”
It may have been the biggest win for Kampe, his players and the program, but there’s a chance to one-up it on Saturday.
Oakland believes it belongs in the tournament, and it knows it can play with any team in the country.
“If we were pretenders, we would’ve folded,” Kampe said. “We don’t look at ourselves that way, we’re not pretenders. We believe that we belong here… We belong… We don’t want that Cinderella story. We want to be known as, when we’re playing on Saturday, whoever we’re playing, we want the respect that this is a good basketball team.”
As big as the win was for everyone associated with Oakland University, Kampe says the win changed his players’ lives.
“They understand that their [lives] got changed tonight. But they understand that it could get changed a hell of a lot more if we keep this thing going.”
Oakland will look to do just that on Saturday against No. 11 seed NC State. The game is set to begin at 7:10 p.m.