Getty Image
Oakland became the first team to really put the madness in March Madness with its stunning win over Kentucky on Thursday night, and that development led to Louisville fans dropping thousands of dollars after getting an unexpected and massive hit of schadenfreude.
The Kentucky Wildcats have not fared very well in the NCAA Tournament over the past few years, but John Calipari’s third-seeded squad was still a heavy favorite over an Oakland Golden Grizzlies team that headed into their opening-round contest as 13-point underdogs.
Oakland needed to win the Horizon League tournament to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011, and it seemed safe to assume Greg Kampe was going to see his NCAA-leading 40th season as the team’s head coach come to a fairly unceremonious end inside Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.
However, that was not the case, as Kampe secured his first real March Madness victory (Oakland had previously won a play-in game in 2005) in a contest where Jack Gohlke scored 32 points while drilling ten shots from behind the arc to propel his squad to the shocking 80-76 upset.
On Friday, Kampe got the chance to chat with the media during a press conference held prior to Saturday’s showdown with NC State and said the win led to Oakland (a sizeable but nonetheless largely overlooked public university located outside of Detroit) receiving a minor windfall courtesy of people in the Louisville area who dropped $8,000 on t-shirts after seeing their ins-state rivals vanquished.
Oakland coach Greg Kampe said the school sold $8,000 worth of T-shirts to people whose credit cards matched Louisville zip codes.
“I don’t know if when Louisville and UK play next year the Louisville ppl are gonna show up in Oakland shirts or what.”
— Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) March 22, 2024
It’s safe to assume plenty of those shirts will be on display the next time Kentucky and Louisville face off, and while Wildcats supporters can certainly pull the “Well At Least We Got The Chance To Play In The NCAA Tournament” card, I can’t knock Cardinals fans for pouncing on another team’s misery after spending years drowning in a pool of their own.