Kentucky basketball: Five things to know about the Oakland Golden Grizzlies

Five things to know about the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, Kentucky’s Thursday night opponent in the NCAA Tournament:

1. This Oakland is in Michigan

No, Kentucky isn’t playing the old Oakland Raiders. The Cats are playing the men’s basketball team from Oakland University, a public research school in Rochester, Michigan. Established in 1957, the school has approximately 14,000 undergraduate students.

The school has roots back to Dodge automobiles. John Francis Dodge, co-founder of the Dodge Brothers Company purchased the original property on which the school is located in Oakland County. His widow Matilda and her second husband donated the property and homestead to Michigan State. The school was named Michigan State-Oakland until 1959. It became independent of Michigan State in 1970.

Oakland president Ora Pescovitz recently donated $1.33 million to the Pescovitz Presidential Scholarship fund. She has given $3.67 million to the school since becoming president in 2017. According to the Detroit News, her base salary is $517,673 per year.

Among Oakland’s famous former students are actor David Hasselhoff, former senator Carl Levin, former Georgia Tech basketball coach Brian Gregory, Tony Award winner Jayne Houdyshell and actor Robert Barton Englund, who played serial killer Freddy Krueger in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series.

2. Greg Kampe has been the coach for four decades

In this day of the the quick hook, Greg Kampe is an aberration and then some. The 68-year-old Ohio native is in his 40th season as the Oakland basketball coach. That’s right. The big 4-0. Kampe took the job when Joe Biden was a mere lad of 42. When Jim Boeheim finally stepped down at Syracuse after last season, Kampe became the longest tenured active coach at the same school.

In fact, Oakland was a Division II program in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference when Kampe first hopped on board. The Golden Grizzlies remained so for the first 15 seasons of the Kampe era before transitioning up to Division I in the old Mid-Continent Conference and then the Summit League. It took just five years for Kampe to put Oakland in the NCAA Tournament. He has been to two more since, the last being in 2011. Until this year.

Overall, Kampe is 698-536 as a college coach. He’s a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. He’s won 11 conference championships, counting regular season and league tournament titles. He was Summit League Coach of the Year four times and he has survived seasons in which his team went 14-19 (2019-20) and 12-18 (2020-21). Hard to do these days.

He’s also a good friend of Kentucky coach John Calipari. In fact, the two were quick to text each other after this year’s NCAA Tournament pairings were announced. That doesn’t mean they won’t want to beat the other on Thursday. Said Kampe on Sunday, “I’ve never liked the color blue.”

Oakland’s biggest rival is blue-clad Detroit Mercy.

3. Trey Townsend is Oakland’s best player

The Horizon League Player of the Year, Trey Townsend is a 6-foot-6, 228-pound senior from Oxford, Michigan, who plays much bigger than his size and much tougher than most everyone else on the floor.

In fact, Trey Townsend was the difference in Oakland’s 83-76 victory over Milwaukee in the finals of the Horizon League Tournament, scoring a career-high 38 points. He was 12-of-22 shooting from the floor, and 14-of-18 from the foul line. In one pivotal stretch, Townsend scored 14 consecutive points as the Golden Grizzlies turned a 64-60 deficit with 6:15 remaining into a 74-70 lead with 2:20 left.

On the season, Townsend is averaging 16.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists. He has scored 20-or-more points 10 times. He’s produced eight double-doubles — including the Horizon finals when he grabbed 11 rebounds.

Both of Townsend’s parents, father Skip and mother Nicole, played basketball at Oakland — same as Reed Sheppard’s parents, father Jeff and mother Stacey, both played basketball at Kentucky. Maybe the families will have something to talk about Thursday.

4. Oakland has a 3-point specialist

Jack Gohlke loves the 3-point shot. No, strike that. Jack Gohlke is obsessed with the 3-point shot to the point it might well be an addiction.

Consider that the 6-3 senior from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, has taken 335 shots this season. Of those 335 attempts, 327 have come from behind the 3-point arc. That’s right, Gohlke has taken a grand total of eight 2-point shots.

A transfer from Hillsdale College, Gohlke has made 121 of those 3-point attempts for 37 percent. Highlights: He was 7-of-14 from 3 in Oakland’s 74-71 win over Cleveland State in the Horizon semifinals; he was 10-of-15 in the Golden Grizzlies’ 107-59 rout of IUPUI; he was 7-of-20 in Oakland’s 99-89 loss to Darrin Horn and Northern Kentucky; he was 8-of-18 in a 91-87 two-overtime win at Milwaukee.

Heading into the NCAA Tournament, Gohlke ranks third in 3-pointers made per game with 3.56 and second in 3-pointers made, behind only Hofstra’s Tyler Thomas, who made 125. Thomas took 337 threes to Gohlke’s 321.

5. Oakland played a tough schedule

One thing you can be sure of Thursday, the Golden Grizzlies won’t be intimidated. They’ve played power conference teams before. Plenty of them.

This year’s list: On Nov. 6, Oakland led Ohio State 35-34 at the half before losing 79-73 in the season opener. On Nov. 10, it trailed Big Ten Tournament champ Illinois 28-27 at the half before losing 64-53. On Nov. 19, it trailed Drake 37-36 at the half before losing 85-77 to the Missouri Valley Conference champ on a neutral floor.

On Nov. 27, Oakland won 78-76 at Xavier. On Dec. 18, it lost 79-62 at Michigan State. On Dec. 20, it lost 91-67 at Dayton. The latter two are in the Big Dance field of 68.

In fact, Kampe has made a habit of playing the big boys. And he’s beaten a few, too. In 2021-22, Oakland upset Oklahoma State 56-55 in Stillwater. In 2017, it beat Georgia 86-79 in the regular season and Clemson 74-69 at Clemson in the NIT.

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