PITTSBURGH — Jack Gohlke has no illusions of going to the NBA. Guys who spend five years in Division II before transferring to a small D-I program with one NCAA Tournament win in its history typically don’t head to the pros.
Don’t mistake that practicality with a lack of belief in his abilities. Or those of his team. Gohlke and his Oakland teammates have felt all season they could hang with anybody on a given night.
Any given night turned into Thursday, when the 6-foot-3 graduate transfer and the commuter school located 30 miles from downtown Detroit showed Kentucky and the country what it takes to win in March.
Confident at the start and cool at the finish, Gohlke made 10 3-pointers and scored a career-high 32 points as the 14th-seeded Golden Grizzlies delievered the first true shock of this year’s March Madness, beating the third-seeded Wildcats 80-76.
“We’ve been a solid team all year,” said Gohlke, who arrived at Oakland last fall after graduating from Hillsdale College. “We’ve won close games all year.”
Just never on this stage. Yet it was the Horizon League champion Grizzlies (24-11) and not the Wildcats (23-10) of the mighty Southeastern Conference who looked like they were prepared for the pressure of the one-and-done, anything-can-happen NCAA Tournament. Oakland will face either Texas Tech or North Carolina State in the second round on Saturday.
Gohlke’s shotmaking gave Oakland some swagger early. His teammates picked it up late when Kentucky went to a box-and-one in hopes of slowing him down.
Horizon League Player of the Year Trey Townsend had 17 points for Oakland. DQ Cole added 12, including a 3 from the corner with 28 seconds left that gave the Grizzlies a four-point lead. Oakland never trailed over the final 14:32 to send the Wildcats and coach John Calipari to another early tournament exit.
