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

No. 14 seed Oakland pulled off the biggest upset of the 2024 NCAA Tournament so far, downing No. 3 seed Kentucky 80-76 in a first-round stunner Thursday to advance to the second round for the first time in program history. The Golden Grizzlies blitzed the Wildcats with a barrage of 3-pointers led by Jack Gohlke, who became just the fifth player to make 10 or more 3-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game.

Gohlke finished with a game-high 32 points in the upset and Oakland as a team hit 15 shots from deep. Gohlke went 10-of-20  from 3-point range and did not hit a 2-point shot in helping slay the Wildcats, tied for the most points in NCAA Tournament history without making a 2-pointer.

“It’s something I’ve worked so hard for my whole career,” Gohlke said on CBS. “Coach just instills confidence in me, gives me the freedom to influence the game in a positive way. It’s a dream. This is why players work so hard, to get to this stage.”

Kentucky briefly took the lead early in the second half and weathered the storm of Gohlke’s hot shot-making but still chased the Golden Grizzlies from behind for the majority of the game. Oakland led 38-35 at half and finished much like it started with clutch shots from deep, with DQ Cole drilling a clutch 3-pointer in the final minute to help ice the game in front of a shocked crowd in Pittsburgh.

With the loss, Kentucky dropped to 1-4 in its last five NCAA Tournament games under coach John Calipari and guaranteed for a third consecutive NCAA Tournament it would not make it to the second weekend of March Madness.