Oakland embraces Cinderella story in ultimate underdog role against heavily favored Kentucky

While advocating for the NCAA Tournament to avoid expansion, Oakland coach Greg Kampe dropped a dime by noting Wednesday marked the 70th anniversary of the real-life inspiration for “Hoosiers,” the ultimate underdog and quintessential basketball movie.

For the love of Fang Mitchell and Coppin State, everyone loves a Cinderella story during March Madness.

And if the glass slipper fits, Kampe and his 14th-seeded Oakland Golden Grizzlies (23-11) are willing to wear it against No. 3 Kentucky (23-9) at 7:10 p.m. Thursday in the NCAA second round at PPG Paints Arena.

“We’re what make this tournament: the little guy. Why does everybody love ‘Hoosiers,’ right? The greatest movie. Why? Because of the little guy,” Kampe said, referring to the plot that portrayed Bobby Plump leading tiny Milan High School to the 1954 Indiana state championship. “That’s what college basketball is. That’s why it’s one of the three greatest sporting events in the world. … Trey Townsend, Jack Gohlke, Blake Lampman, they could be Jimmy Chitwood (on Thursday) night. Don’t take that away from us.”

Where Kampe can match Kentucky coach John Calipari’s charisma and storytelling, his team is a 13.5-point underdog against the star-studded Wildcats. Kampe noted Oakland has produced five NBA players in the last 15 years, and three didn’t even qualify to play in the NCAA tourney. Calipari said that 70% of Kentucky’s players get picked in the NBA Draft and have earned contracts totaling $4 billion.

That makes this David and Goliath, save the slingshot.

Where Calipari crowed about how “you come to Kentucky to prepare for the rest of your life,” Kampe countered that an Oakland win would change his players’ lives. Kampe has coached for 40 years at the 16,000-student university in Rochester, Mich. — which is half the size of Kentucky — and seen it through the transition from Division II power to a D-I mid-major, qualifying for the NCAA tourney five times since 2005.

“Getting Kentucky in this tournament is the greatest thing for Oakland, because we cut the nets down in our league tournament. We got to stand under the confetti. We got our moment, and now this is all house money,” Kampe said of winning the Horizon League, which includes Robert Morris. “So we come into this tournament, wouldn’t you want the spotlight to play the best?”

Kampe counts Calipari with Michigan State’s Tom Izzo — both close friends — as two of the best coaches in college basketball, and Big Blue Nation as its best fan base. So Oakland is embracing the opportunity to step into the spotlight for a prime-time game on CBS, a chance to play Cinderella and bust everyone’s brackets.

Oakland has the perfect fairy tale storyline in Trey Townsend.

The 6-foot-6 senior forward is from nearby Oxford, where four students were killed and seven people injured in a school shooting in November 2021. Both of his parents played basketball at Oakland, and Skip Townsend was a member of the school’s first 20-win season in 1987. Townsend’s mother, Nicole Leigh, is Kampe’s dentist. His younger brother, Zach, plays soccer at Oakland.

And Trey Townsend is Oakland’s star. He scored 38 points with 11 rebounds in an 83-76 win over Milwaukee to win MVP honors in the Horizon championship game. When he posed for a photo with the net draped around the neck of his dog, Maverick, it went viral because the pup knocked over the MVP trophy and broke it.

“It’s unbelievable,” Kampe said. “I mean, if this was a Disney movie, the people wouldn’t believe it. They wouldn’t believe that this happened. … The greatest recruit I’ve ever had is his dad because we got his son 40 years later.”

Where Mitchell and No. 15 Coppin State captured the city’s fancy by beating No. 2 South Carolina and nearly knocking off Texas at Civic Arena in 1997, Oakland is up against a Kentucky team with hometown heroes in Calipari (Moon) and forwards Tre Mitchell (Elizabeth Forward) and Adou Thiero (Quaker Valley) as well as a former Pitt star in assistant coach Orlando Antigua.

“Nobody wants to be part of a Cinderella story,” Mitchell said. “And I think that our guys understand that. And that this team is in the tournament for a reason. They’re not to be looked over, and they’re capable of coming out and playing a really good game. So we have to be ready for the moment, and I think we will be.”

Kampe recalled the Tulsa crowd cheering for Oakland in an 85-81 loss to Texas in the 2011 NCAA tourney, so he wouldn’t be surprised if N.C. State and Texas Tech fans root against Kentucky and other unaffiliated fans follow suit. Kampe believes Oakland can compete with the Wildcats and are capable of pulling the upset, and he has the Golden Grizzlies believing they can be the Cinderella of this Big Dance.

“Obviously, being a 14 seed against a 3 seed like Kentucky, you’re always going to be considered the underdog, but I think everyone loves a good underdog story,” Townsend said. “I think we’re very capable of beating a team like this, and I think that just draws to the underdog story. People believe we can do it. We all believe we can do it. Our whole staff believes we can do it. That’s really all that matters when it comes down to it, is what the people in our locker room and our circle believe in, and I know we all believe we can do it so we’re just excited for the challenge.”