At long last, Oakland's Greg Kampe is on the other side: 'This changed everything'

PITTSBURGH — There's one big change for Greg Kampe: No longer will he need to follow his introduction of Oakland University with a clarification that it's not in California.

It's in Rochester, he'd always have to explain. No, not the one in New York, inevitably followed.

But now, after what happened Thursday evening at PPG Paints Arena — when Jack Gohlke, a transfer from Division II Hillsdale, drained 10 3-pointers as 14-seed Oakland knocked off 3-seed Kentucky to advance to the Round of 32 for the first time in program history — America knows exactly what Oakland University is: The Golden Grizzlies are the darlings of the 2024 NCAA tournament.

Gohlke's career-high 32 points made sure of that, as did the 17 points and 12 rebounds from Trey Townsend, the Horizon League's Player of the Year — and the son of one of Kampe's first recruits, Skip Townsend.

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On Thursday night, the trio — Kampe, then Golhke (whose next stop was an interview with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt), then Townsend — sat on the dais following the win in celebration. For the first time in four Round of 64 appearances, there were no eyes filled with tears next to Kampe.

It's why, even though he was happy for his players on Thursday, he couldn't help but think back over his four decades at Oakland.

"There's nobody in the country that doesn't know what Oakland basketball is," Kampe said. "And I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of our school. I've spent a lifetime there."

To call this Kampe's dream when he took over in the 1980s wouldn't be truthful — he never entertained this thought, that he could be the founding father, the bedrock of a basketball program that almost singlehandedly put a university on the map. He wanted to win the D-II title in his first season, then take over at UCLA, following the path of so many NCAA tourney coaching stars who used stunning upsets to climb a rung (or three) on the coaching ladder.

Kampe's actual experience couldn't be further from that, as he has been on campus nearly twice as long as some of his players have been on Earth.

"When I got there we were 9,000 students with 1,500 on campus," Kampe said. "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."

So close so many times

There have been plenty of moments over the past four decades when Kampe thought his team was primed, ready to take a leap into the spotlight of March Madness.

After operating in Division II for his first 15 seasons — and making four D-II NCAA tournaments — the Golden Grizzlies began the move up to Division I in 1997, joining the Mid-Continent Conference (it wouldn't become the Summit League for another 10 seasons). A year later, OU opened the O'rena with a visit from a fourth-year coach named Tom Izzo, and his Michigan State Spartans.

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Izzo's Spartans, coming off a Sweet 16 appearance in 1998, would zoom to the Final Four the following spring.

OU's growth took a little longer.

Nearly a decade later, in 2005, the sub-.500 Grizzlies got hot in the Mid-Continent tournament. That earned them a NCAA berth as a 16 seed, facing Alabama A&M in the play-in game in the days of a 65-team field. OU won that game, but was soon after stomped by eventual national champion North Carolina.

Eventually, in the rechristened Summit League, Oakland found its footing with regular-season and tournament titles in 2010 and 2011 for back-to-back NCAA tournament berths. But OU was back in one-and-done mode, losing first as a 14-seed to Pittsburgh by 26, then, the next year, as a 13-seed to Texas by just four points.

But of all the games, all the agonizing losses, there remains one that has kept Kampe up at night for the better part of a decade: Dec. 23, 2015, vs. No. 1 Michigan State at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Kay Felder, who would finish the 2015-16 as the nation's fourth-leading scorer (24.4 points per game) and an Associated Press third-team All-American, had a look with the game tied and time running out.

"The ball rolled around the rim, it didn't go in and we lost in overtime," Kampe recalled. "If that ball had gone in, it would have changed everything for Oakland basketball because we would have beaten the No. 1 team in the country on national TV. Would have changed the amount of money that came in, maybe I'd have a practice facility, you know, all that kind of stuff.

"This changed everything tonight."

'For me, a lifer there, it's just really special'

Oakland plays 11-seed North Carolina State, itself an upset darling with an unlikely run through the ACC tournament and then a stunner of 6-seed Texas Tech, at 7:10 p.m. Saturday (TBS/TruTV) with a spot in next week's Sweet 16 in Dallas at stake.

Although the Grizzlies are 5½-point underdogs, they've gained more than a few believers. The question for Kampe: What does it feel like to not just be on the other side of the moment, but to believe that a special night could turn into something more?

"You stay around long enough you're going to get lucky, right?" he said. "I got lucky to have this group of kids. My staff recruited them. They're the greatest group of kids. I mean, they're just unbelievable. You heard these two guys (Townsend and Gohlke). I mean, unbelievable kids, and that's why we win."

The "kids" are as in the limelight like never before: Just more than a dozen hours after Gohlke starred on SportsCenter with Van Pelt, he was on Pat McAfee's ESPN show, discussing tweets from 2016.

That's what can happen in March, where legends are made as quickly as dreams are dashed.

One such dashed dream: Kentucky coach John Calipari.

He and Kampe have been friends for decades; his fourth first-weekend loss in five tournaments, though, have the coaching legend on the hot seat.

Beating his longtime pal brought Kampe absolutely no joy, something he made clear after his media availability ended Thursday. He asked if he could stick around to share a thought about how Calipari "was unbelievably gracious" after the game, then opined, "that's a very good man."

Kampe's Golden Grizzlies have defeated 14 high-major teams, but far more often, he has been the one on the losing end.

But this week in Pittsburgh, 40 years after he signed on for his imagined one-year stint in Oakland County, Kampe is getting his national moment.

A cynic might argue it could have come sooner elsewhere.

But it didn't.

Instead, it's happening now, with Oakland — the program that Kampe built.

"For me, a lifer there," Kampe said. "It's just really special."

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland's NCAA tourney upset 'means the world' for 'lifer' Greg Kampe