PITTSBURGH — Kentucky coach John Calipari talked all week about how excited he was to be back in his Pennsylvania hometown. But for him and his Wildcats, Thursday must have felt more like Punxsutawney than Pittsburgh.
It was Groundhog Day all over again for No. 3 seed Kentucky, upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by No. 14 seed Oakland and soon-to-be-household-name Jack Gohlke, 80-76, Thursday night.
“This is the greatest win that I’ve ever been a part of,” said Oakland coach Greg Kampe. “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.”
Gohlke, a 24-year-old transfer, scored 32 points on 10-of-20 shooting — all from 3-point range. The nation’s second-best 3-point shooter, averaging 9.6 per game, Gohlke fell one short of the NCAA Tournament record but electrified a frenzied sell-out crowd that could feel an upset brewing solely from his demeanor and confidence.
“We’re the underdog by all measures, but you just gotta — as a player, you can’t think that way,” Gohlke said. “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.”
Kampe, the longest tenured coach in the nation who has spent all 40 of his seasons at the suburban Detroit school, realized immediately his program will be forever altered by the upset.
“This changed everything tonight. There’s nobody in the country that doesn’t know what Oakland basketball is [now]. And I’m really proud of that,” Kampe said. “Everything is in place for this program to take off, and maybe this is the ignition for it. So yeah, it means the world.”
“This changed everything tonight. There’s nobody in the country that doesn’t know what Oakland basketball is. And I’m really proud of that. I’m really proud of our school. I’ve spent a lifetime there. When I got there we were 9,000 students with 1500 on campus. We’re 20,000 now. With 5,000 on campus. We’re thriving. We have a great president. I have a great athletic director. Everything is in place for this program to take off, and maybe this is the ignition for it. So yeah, it means the world.
The loss is the second time in three tournaments UK has been upset by a double-digit seed after 15-seed Saint Peter’s did it in 2022. Kentucky (23-10),has only one NCAA win in the last three seasons.
“I thought they were anxious, and when you’re anxious, you get really tired really fast,” Calipari said. “So we had a couple guys that started the game and were exhausted within a minute and a half, two minutes. So I think they were a little anxious.”
Kentucky, the No. 2 scoring team in the nation at 89.4 points per game, didn’t exhibit much offense early. Seven minutes produced only the same number of Wildcat points, as Oakland took a narrow 8-7 lead.
“I thought the preparation was what it needed to be, because you cannot in this tournament come in and start changing. You change everything, now they get tight. Now they think too much versus just play,” Calipari said. “So we made some gist adjustments to what we were doing offensively. We’re one of the best zone teams in the country, to be honest with you, and we missed a bunch of shots today.
That’s when Gohlke caught fire. Almost exclusively a three-point shooter — only attempting eight 2-pointers all season — Gohlke started pouring them in, scoring 15 of Oakland’s first 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, staking a 23-17 lead.
“It’s definitely a special thing watching him,” said teammate Trey Townsend, who finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds. “Just three after three after three. And he gets so hype out there and it just gives us all momentum and excitement to keep playing hard, so it was great to see.”
Nearly everybody else on the court followed his lead. Kentucky went on an 8-2 run, punctuated by a Reeves corner three to tie things at 25. Gohlke, predictably, answered with his sixth of the night. Reeves immediately went to the opposite corner and hit another, answered by Oakland’s Blake Lampman to keep the Grizzlies in the lead, 31-28.
Rob Dillingham scored UK’s next seven points, but Gohlke’s seventh and final three of the half, along with a Rocket Watts jumper, snatched the lead back for Oakland at halftime 38-35 — the 11th lead change of the first 20 minutes.
The back-and-forth continued to start the second half. After four more lead changes, Gohlke hit his eighth three from the far wing with a hand in his face for a 49-45 Oakland lead after 6 minutes, forcing a Kentucky timeout.
It didn’t help much. Gohlke drilled another one 41 seconds later. 52-47, Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies (24-11) would hold that lead the rest of the game, still trading buckets for the duration with Kentucky even as the Wildcats clamped down on Gohlke along the perimeter.
Obviously, if I make that many shots in the first two-thirds of the game or whatever it is, they’re going to start guarding me different, and I probably forced one or two that I shouldn’t have taken,” Gohlke said. “But I was trying to calm down a little bit and let my teammates carry me from that point.”
The nation’s best three-point shooting team at 41.1%, Kentucky struggled most of the game from their hallmark. A 6-of-22 start from beyond the arc left them 14 points below their average. The Wildcats would turn it around, with seven of their final eight field goals coming from three. But Gohlke and his teammates made their foul shots late, ensuring their names will be etched in March Madness lore for the rest of their lives.
“They’re going to be back for a 10-year anniversary, a 20-year anniversary, a 30-year anniversary. They’re now the team,” Kampe said. “The whole thing down the stretch has been, once we knew we had won a ring, the whole banter in the locker room has been, ’what’s it going to say on that ring?’ Right? What’s it going to say on that ring, just Horizon League Champ? NCAA? Sweet 16? Final Four? I’ve put that thought in their mind, and they’ve really battled for it, and they understand that their life got changed tonight, but it could get changed a hell of a lot more if we keep this thing going.”
Gohlke demurred when asked if he’s realized the cult-like status he’s about to obtain among Americans - joining the likes of Ali Farokhmanesh, Kevin Pittsnogle, and other March legends - saying he typically turns his phone off hours before a game and hadn’t yet seen his impact across social media.
“I don’t care too much about that,” Gohlke said. “I don’t know. I want to be a bigger celebrity after our team wins the next game. That’s really all I’m thinking about is tomorrow, our prep for either NC State or Texas Tech and we’re going to go out there and we’re going to win again.”
As for Calipari, who tried to keep his Wildcats loose by taking them bowling earlier in the week, he bears the weight of another early tournament exit from a fanbase that doesn’t like to settle for such an outcome.
“I’ll say it again. I feel bad for our fans who all traveled again,” Calipari said. “They’re here. These kids — they know they’re playing for these fans and our fans, who are the best in the country. They travel; they’re everywhere. And I imagine they’re hurting like we are hurting.”
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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