Oakland's Jack Gohlke has 750 unread texts after NCAA win: 'Hope nobody thinks I'm rude'

PITTSBURGH — Jack Gohlke walked through the underbelly of PPG Paints Arena on Friday afternoon in a gold shooting jersey, gray undershirt and black shorts.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound shooting guard had just done something that's in the process of going viral once again — he casually threw a one-handed, fullcourt heave into the opposite hoop 90 feet away — which has led to social media posts of how the Oakland basketball graduate student still can't miss.

But the main reason Gohlke is now an "overnight celebrity" in the words of his teammate DQ Cole: He became the fifth player in NCAA tournament history to make 10 3-pointers in a game. Gohlke scored a career-high 32 points and led 14-seed Oakland to a historic 80-76 upset win of 3-seed Kentucky and coach John Calipari.

Oakland on Saturday will play N.C. State (7:10 p.m., TBS and TruTV) for a shot to go to the Sweet 16 next weekend in Dallas, Texas.

Since the final buzzer sounded Thursday night, he has gone on multiple ESPN shows — Scott Van Pelt and Pat McAfee — and said at last check, his phone had climbed to 750 unread messages.

"I hope nobody thinks I'm being rude or anything," Gohlke told the Free Press on Friday. "It's just, I really want to win. I appreciate it a lot, but I just want to focus so hopefully they understand if I get back to most people on Sunday."

Pretty sure everybody understands, Jack.

'THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING': At long last, Oakland's Greg Kampe is on the other side

He admitted the past 20 hours had been a whirlwind, that it was hard to put into words what was happening. Gohlke's Instagram follower count went from around 1.3K before tipoff to more than 19.4K and climbing as of Friday afternoon.

He has not combed through his mentions or followers in any detail, however he knows he got a shoutout from former NFL defensive lineman J.J. Watt — Watt is from Gohlke's hometown of Pewaukee, Wisconsin and his best friend has been Gohlke's mentor for a handful of years — and Cole said he got a follow from former NFL receiver Antonio Brown.

But if Gohlke thinks his social media is flooded, that's nothing compared to what's going on with OU's website, according to coach Greg Kampe.

"Our university website crashed last night," Kampe said. "I mean, that's what this does. We also sold $8,000 worth of T-shirts to Louisville last night. Think about that. Honest to God. You know, they buy the T-shirts and they put the credit card in, and Louisville, Louisville, Louisville. It wasn't the same person. So I don't know, next year when Louisville and Kentucky play, I don't know if everybody is going to show up in an Oakland shirt or what.

"I have no idea. But it's crazy to think about what something like this does."

Louisville and Kentucky are in-state rivals.

Kampe said he has not gone to bed since the win over Kentucky.

He has spent a handful of hours going over N.C. State tape — he said he has watched every single possession the Wolfpack played vs. zone this year — and has gone from interview to interview, whether it be TV or radio, on the phone or on Zoom, as he tries to capitalize on Oakland's moment on the spotlight.

The only thing he can compare it to is 2005, when Oakland made the NCAA tournament for the first time after winning the Summit League tournament. When the team flew back into DTW, there was a huge contingent of media waiting at the airport.

Kampe feared the worst had happened.

"It was all for us," he recalled Friday. "We were dumbfounded by it. I've never been in anything like that ... this is parallel to that."

A REAL CHANCE: Oakland basketball shows 'we belong here.' Surging N.C. State is next for Sweet 16 berth.

That was 19 years ago, before the iPhone, before the 24-hour news cycle and before anybody could be reached just about any time anywhere. Kampe has a cell phone, and his unread text message count had climbed up to 1,300 on Thursday night, which has required the coach to come up with a strategy for how to respond.

"Between 2 and 4 in the morning, I spent those hours returning messages because they can't return them at that time," he smiled. "If you do it in the middle of the afternoon and they answer, you've got to put a thumbs up or a heart on it you know, now that's 2,600 text messages. So did it at 3 in the morning, because I didn't want to keep answering.

"Got it down to about 195, now it's back up to 495, so tonight I'll be back up at 2 in the morning doing the rest."

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland basketball's Jack Gohlke has 750 unread texts after NCAA upset