Oakland basketball arrives at NCAA tournament with 'chance to change their lives'
PITTSBURGH — A smile stretched across Trey Townsend's face as he walked down the PPG Arena tunnel and onto the hardwood for Wednesday afternoon's shoot around.
The Horizon League Player of the Year held his phone out to record a video of the moment before he pointed it up at the scoreboard, normally covered by Pittsburgh Penguins logos, only for it to be flooded with golden grizzlies on all four sides of the jumbo screen.
He and teammate Blake Lampman spoke about the phenomenal moments the Oakland basketball team has experienced leading up to Thursday's NCAA tournament matchup against No. 3 seed Kentucky (7:10 p.m., CBS).
"We get to the hotel and see all the March Madness logos and you see your logo on most of the walls of the hotel, it makes everything start to feel a lot more real," Townsend said. "This whole group is excited, ready to compete, can't wait to get on the court."
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The Golden Grizzlies did take the court moments later for 40 minutes of shooting and light drills — their full practice was in the morning at the University of Pittsburgh.
Greg Kampe, the nation's longest tenured Division I men's basketball coach with 40 years under his belt at Oakland, joked that he started shaking just walking in the building as memories of an overtime loss to Jamie Dixon's group in late December 2014 came flooding back.
Kampe had a good team that year, he said. but it's one of many that fell short and didn't make the NCAA tournament. He's had five NBA players in the past 15 years, three of whom never made the big dance. Those are the types of things he's thinking about, back at this stage for the first time in 13 years.
"I remember (In 2017), we were number one seed (in the Horizon League tournament) and lost and then we went to Clemson and won in an NIT game that team was good enough to win NCAA tournament games, but we didn't get the chance," Kampe recalled. "That's what I'm stressing to my guys this week. You've earned it and you've got the chance to change your lives, to do something special."
From the outside, Oakland appears to be in a bit of a strange limbo this week as to its approach for the game. In some regards, Kampe is the one setting the tone that there is any sense of "happy to be here" which OU certainly is.
The man with 698 career wins, who brought Oakland from Division II, to Division I and now its fourth big dance appearance, called the NCAA tournament "the holy grail" for mid-major teams and admitted his team has already accomplished its preseason goals.
"We cut the nets down in our league tournament," he said Wednesday afternoon. "We got to stand under the confetti. We got our moment, and now this is all house money."
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It's why the Grizzlies are enjoying the once-in-a-lifetime moment as best they can. Lampman, an unheralded recruit with no major offers coming out of Haslett, smiled as he talked about "seeing the behind the scenes of what you've watched as a kid."
Meanwhile, Townsend was asked about the first time he met Kampe; only he couldn't recall it because he was too young. What he first remembers is going to games of his father's former program, getting a chance to high-five his dad's coach, and falling in love with everything Oakland.
Townsend's mother, Nicole, also played basketball at Oakland. To this day, she remains Kampe's dentist. And Townsend's brother, Zach, plays soccer at OU.
Kampe said if he called up Disney to pitch the Townsend story line as a movie, nobody would believe it, but he still remembers that young kid at camp more than a decade ago and remains thankful it wasn't the usual song-and-dance when his friends try to pitch their son as a future athlete.
"It's just an unbelievable story," Kampe said. "Usually when kids of people you know come to your camp, they're not very good, right, and then you gotta tell them, 'well, I don't know if he's going to be able to play'.
"(With Trey) I was like, 'oh my God, this is unbelievable'."
However, that's what leads to the other side of the limbo OU is feeling; not just that it should be happy to be in the moment, but heck, maybe there's a chance to shock some people.
After all, not only is Townsend a weapon averaging nearly 17 points per game and Lampman more than capable at better than 13 per contest, but Hillsdale College transfer Jack Gohlke and fellow senior Chris Conway both score in double figures as well to round out the attack.
Lampman, a fifth-year senior, called this the closest team he's ever been a part of at any level as he pointed out how he, Townsend and Conway all opted to remain in Rochester even during a transfer portal era where moving out or up seems to be a desired outcome for every player, every season.
That chemistry, Lampman said, is as big a reason as any that OU is 8-1 in games decided by five points or fewer this season.
"Guys that are older that have been through the system with Kampe and we've built a relationship off the court," Lampman said. "I have a relationship with everybody on the team, and when we say we love each other, it's true. It's real.
"In college basketball today it's hard to get something like that, especially with the portal and NIL and stuff like that. Egos get so big, and this group has been pretty consistent in just staying -- getting rid of egos and putting the team first and being we-minded."
OU will need to remain that same tight unit if it is to have any chance to beat the Wildcats, who are littered with NBA prospects and former McDonalds All-Americans.
But coach John Calipari also discussed OU's "funky zone defense" and how a few of Kampe's players have the green light to shoot just about as many 3-pointers as they'd like, granted they're open looks.
Back in 2011 when the Grizzlies kept it tight against Texas in the NCAA tournament, the Kansas fans that day in Tulsa, Oklahoma, all became Oakland supporters as they pushed for an upset. The Grizzlies lost that first-round matchup, 85-81.
If Oakland can keep it close on Thursday night ...
"I don't like talking about something that might happen," Kampe said when asked if this would be the program's biggest win ever. "I'd rather talk about the things that have happened."
For him, personally, it will always be a home win over Michigan (97-90 on Nov. 17, 2000), but that's because his father and brother both played football for U-M. Heck, his first word as a baby was "Michigan."
However he said Thursday is about others. So, much to his chagrin, he did answer the hypothetical.
"For the university and for these players," Kampe. "Yeah, if we could do it, yes."
Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.
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Next up: Wildcats
Matchup: 14-seed Oakland (23-11) vs. 3-seed Kentucky (23-9); South region first round.
Fast facts: 7:10 p.m. Thursday; PPG Paints Arena; Pittsburgh.
TV: CBS.
At stake: Winner faces Thursday’s winner of 6-seed Texas Tech and 11-seed N.C. State on Saturday for spot in Sweet 16 in Dallas on March 29.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland basketball at NCAA tournament: 'Chance to change their lives'
