In his postgame interview with CBS’ Evan Washburn, Jack Gohlke, fresh off a captivating 32-point performance and a ginormous upset victory over Kentucky, said Oakland, although it’s a 14-seed, is “not a Cinderella.”
At first, it was an odd comment.
What double-digit seed that just pulled off the biggest upset of the NCAA Tournament doesn’t want to be the Cinderella? That’s what every mid-major program and player dreams of.
Oakland was the lowest seed to secure a victory on the first day of the NCAA Tournament, and it knocked off one of college basketball’s blue-bloods, but Gohlke insisted that the Golden Grizzlies aren’t a Cinderella and that they belong in the Round of 32 and maybe even further.
After the game, Gohlke was asked to clarify his comments given in the postgame interview.
“I’ve always had an interesting mindset about that,” Gohlke said. “Obviously, we come in, we’re the underdog by all measures, but you just gotta — as a player, you can’t think that way. You gotta go out there and think you have the same talent level as them. I know they have draft picks and I know I’m not going to the NBA, but I know on any given night I can compete with those guys and our team can. That’s why I say we’re not a Cinderella because when we play our A game, we can be the best team on the floor.”
Oakland’s upset over Kentucky was eerily similar to Saint Peter’s’ upset of the Wildcats two seasons ago. In 2022, 15-seed Saint Peter’s knocked off the second-seeded Wildcats, 85-79, thanks to a stellar, attention-grabbing performance from Doug Edert. On Thursday night, 14-seed Oakland defeated third-seeded Kentucky, 80-76, in large part due to Jack Gohlke’s 32-point showing.
Only time will tell if Gohlke will reach the fame that Edert had back in 2022 — another victory or two would help — but even if that happens, Oakland still doesn’t want to be called a Cinderella, as many double-digit seeds that win a game or two are.
Head coach Greg Kampe gave his thoughts on the matter as well.
“If we were pretenders, we would have folded, and that’s what Jack meant by that Cinderella thing,” Kampe said. “We don’t look at ourselves that way. We’re not pretenders. We believe that we belong here. Trey Townsend physically in the second half went to work. Right?”
“And I mean, we shot five free throws in the first half and they had 14. Yet when the game was over we made more free throws than they do because that’s how we play, physical. And we belong. I agree with Jack. We don’t want that Cinderella slipper. 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.”
Any team that doesn’t respect Oakland at this point would be foolish. NC State is next up, and the Wolfpack will have Gohlke at the forefront of their scouting report.
It will be the seventh time in NCAA Tournament history that a No. 11 seed will face a No. 14 seed in the second round of the Big Dance, with the 11-seed winning all six of the previous matchups.
An 11-seed has reached the Sweet 16 26 times in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
Meanwhile, just two No. 14 seeds have ever made it as far as the regional semifinal.
Either way, there won’t be a Cinderella coming out of the matchup between the NC State Wolfpack and the Oakland Golden Grizzlies. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.