Kentucky stunned in opener
Oakland, 14 seed, paced by Gohlke
Jack Gohlke made 10 3pointers and 14th-seeded Oakland delivered the first true shock of this year’s March Madness, beating third-seeded Kentucky, 80-76, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Pittsburgh on Thursday night.
The Grizzlies (24-11) sent the Wildcats (23-10) to another early March exit behind Gohlke, a graduate transfer who finished with 32 points, and some late shot-making by his teammates. Trey Townsend had 17 points for the Horizon League champions. DQ Cole added 12, including a three from the corner with 28 seconds left that gave the Grizzlies a 4-point lead.
Antonio Reeves led Kentucky with 27 points. Tre Mitchell added 14 and Rob Dillingham scored 10, but the Wildcats and their roster stacked with NBA prospects spent most of the night trying — and failing — to chase down Gohlke.
The 6-foot-3-inch guard who came to the Grizzlies this season after playing for Division 2 Hillsdale College made 10 of 20 3point attempts, seven in the first half. His only other points came after he was fouled — while attempting a three.
Gohlke cooled off a bit over the final 20 minutes while often getting picked up at halfcourt, but his teammates helped pick up the slack. Oakland never trailed over the final 14:32 to give the program its first victory in the Round of 64.
The Wildcats came in as 13½ point favorites, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, but with a poor recent track record in March under John Calipari. Kentucky hasn’t advanced past the tournament’s opening weekend since 2019, an uncomfortably long stretch for Calipari and the second-winningest program in NCAA history.
Calipari said his job is to take the pressure off his young roster’s shoulders and place them on his. It must have felt awfully heavy at times while Gohlke and the Bulldogs kept pace with the second-highest-scoring team in the country.
Gohlke won the Horizon League's Sixth Man of the Year award thanks to his outside shooting. All but eight of his 335 field goal attempts during the regular season were threes, and he has made an NCAA-leading 131 this season. He kept firing away against Kentucky, particularly during an electric first half that had the majority of fans at PPG Paints Arena on their feet and the Wildcats on their heels.
Gohlke stuck out his tongue after his fifth three. When his sixth fell through the net, he turned around and mimicked Michael Jordan’s famous shoulder shrug during the 1992 NBA Finals. Gohlke — who of course wears No. 3 — then banked in his seventh as the Grizzlies built a 38-35 halftime lead that had everyone in the crowd not wearing Kentucky blue roaring, just as longtime Oakland coach Greg Kampe hoped.
That momentum carried all the way to the final buzzer as the Grizzlies gave the NCAA’s longest-tenured coach a moment he'd been building toward over 40 years with the program.
Gohlke ended the game with the ball in his hands after one final Kentucky miss as the Grizzlies became the 23rd 14 seed to win a first-round game since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Duquesne tops BYU
As his players celebrated around him after springing the first big upset of the NCAA Tournament, Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot joked that they had refused to let their retiring coach reach “the promised land” with their down-to-the-wire win over BYU.
The promised land is a better description for the second round of the NCAA tourney anyway.
Dae Dae Grant scored 19 points, including four clinching free throws in the final 10 seconds, and the No. 11 seed Dukes held on after blowing a 14-point lead in a 71-67 victory over the sixth-seeded Cougars at Omaha.
Jakub Necas added 12 points and Jimmy Clark III had 11 for the Atlantic 10 tourney champs, who won four games in four days there just to qualify for their first dance in 47 years, and now have their first win on the NCAA stage since 1969. The Dukes (25-11) will play thirdseeded Illinois for a spot in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.
“I’m trying to retire,” the 65year-old Dambrot said, “but if we keep winning games, they’re going to make me an old man.”
The sweat-it-out ending would age any coach in a hurry.
The Cougars (23-11) trailed, 46-32, in the second half before drawing even when Fousseyni Traore, who had struggled all game, slammed down the second of back-to-back baskets to knot the affair at 60-all with 1:45 to go.
Clark was fouled at the other end and made two free throws for Duquesne, and when Traore missed a floater, he got to the line again. Clark only made the first of two foul shots this time but helped tie up a loose ball after the second, and on the next play, the slick guard broke down the defense for a layup and a 6560 lead with 26.9 seconds left.
Dallin Hall tried to give the Cougars a chance with four free throws and a deep 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds, but Grant — one of the nation’s best foul shooters — was stoic from the line to help send the Dukes into the weekend.
Izzo: Another first
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo won his 20th first-round game in the NCAA Tournament.
This one, he said, might have been the most impressive, even to former Spartans greats like Draymond Green.
Tyson Walker scored 19 points and the ninth-seeded Spartans improved to 20-6 in March Madness openers under Izzo with a 69-51 win over eighth-seeded Mississippi State at Charlotte, N.C. It was Izzo's 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance — an NCAA Division 1 record for a coach at one school.
“I thought this was one of the better first game performances of a team that was, and deservedly so, seeded a little lower,” Izzo said. “We brought everything from the get-go. We moved the ball well. We shot the ball well. We rebounded the ball.”
Izzo’s win was his 56th overall in the tournament, trailing only three coaches for victories at one school.