2024 NCAA Tournament: 14-seed Oakland upsets Kentucky as Wildcats again fail to advance past opening weekend (2024)

No. 14 seedOaklandpulled off the biggest upset of the 2024 NCAA Tournament to date, dethroning the No. 3 seedKentucky80-76 in a first-round stunner to advance to the second round for the first time in program history. The Golden Grizzlies bombarded the Wildcats with a barrage of three-pointers led byJack Gohlke, who became just the fifth player to make 10 or more three-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game.

Gohlke finished with a game-high 32 points and Oakland hit 15 shots from deep as a team in the area. Gohlke went 10 for 20 from three-point range and missed a two-point shot to help kill the Wildcats, scoring the most points in NCAA tournament history without making a two-pointer.

“It's something I've worked so hard for my entire career,” Gohlke told CBS. "The coach just gives me confidence and gives me the freedom to influence the game in a positive way. It's a dream. That's why the players are working so hard to reach this stage."

Kentucky briefly took the lead early in the second half and weathered Gohlke's shooting rush, but still trailed the Golden Grizzlies for most of the game. Leading 38-35 at the half, Oakland closed the door by ending the way it started: with shots from deep.DQ Colescored a clutch 3-pointer in the final 30 seconds and Trey Townsend sank two free throws to help ice the game in front of a shocked Pittsburgh crowd.

The loss dropped Kentucky to 1-4 in its last five NCAA Tournament games under coach John Calipari and guaranteed a third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance that it would not reach the second weekend of the month.March Madness.

Postseason struggles have plagued Kentucky under Calipari in recent years. As of 2021, UK has a postseason record of 2-6 with just one win in the NCAA Tournament and one win in the SEC Tournament.

Oakland won the Horizon League regular season championship and won three games in three days in the Horizon League Tournament to earn the league's automatic NCAA Tournament berth. It was the first NCAA Tournament appearance for the Golden Grizzlies since 2011 and the fourth in program history at the Division I level.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

1. Gohlke gets his shine

Who exactly is Jack Gohlke?? That may have been a question you had when the game started, but it was answered emphatically in 40 minutes of hoops. Gohlke became the fifth player to hit 10 three-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game and finished with a career-high 32 points. He's a 3-point specialist who entered the nation's second day of three-point attempts and left No. 1 after making 20 three-point shots in the win. He didn't finish with a shot from two-point range and has just eight two-point attemptson the season.

“Gohlke put us on his back,” Oakland coach Greg Kampe said. “And then our defense carried us.”

2. Britain's tournament problems are getting worse

Under the bright lights of Lexington, Kentucky, anything less than a national championship could be considered a failure. But even an objective observer can admit that the recent struggles in Britain are not great. The loss was its second double-digit loss in the NCAA Tournament in the past three seasons, after falling 85-79 to No. 15 Saint Peter's in 2022.

3. Calipari takes some of the responsibility, but not all

After the loss, Calipari gave Oakland credit for the way it played and took some – but certainly not all – responsibility for the result. Calipari specifically cited freshman mistakes as a major reason for the loss, which many will quickly say is his fault.

“We made some crucial mistakes again today at critical moments,” he said. “If you have a very young team and you look at where the mistakes come from, they were first-year players.

"I tried pressing buttons to get the right combos. But they're beginners. We don't know how they'll react to this."