Oakland HC Greg Kampe says school sold '$8,000 worth of T-shirts to Louisville last night.'
Oakland head coach Greg Kampe wasn’t short on confidence in the leadup to the Golden Grizzlies’ upset win over Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. Less than a day later, he’s essentially rubbing the win right into the face of the Big Blue Nation.
On Friday afternoon during Oakland’s pre-NC State press conference — a Round of 32 matchup in the NCAA Tournament set for Saturday — Kampe talked about the significance of his program beating one with such a rich history and deep following as Kentucky; how it can financially benefit a smaller school such as Oakland.
While the main story in Lexington and across most of the country is how John Calipari’s time in charge could be coming to a close, the second-leading story is Oakland’s Cinderella story. The Golden Grizzlies — behind the sharpshooting, easy-to-root-for Jack Gohlke — might just be America’s team for the rest of the postseason.
The folks in Louisville already seem to be on that bandwagon. They seem to be taking plenty of joy in another early postseason exit for rival Kentucky.
“Our university website crashed last night. It crashed. I mean, that’s what this does,” Kampe said on Friday. “We also sold $8,000 worth of t-shirts to Louisville last night. Think about that. Honest to God. You know, they buy the t-shirts and they put the credit card in and Louisville, Louisville, Louisville. It wasn’t the same person. So I don’t know. Next year when Louisville and Kentucky play, I don’t know if everybody is going to show up in an Oakland shirt or what. I have no idea. But it’s crazy to think about what something like this does.”
For those wondering, according to Oakland’s team shop, a Golden Grizzlies T-shirt will run you anywhere between $22-32. If we average that out at $27, we can guess that roughly 300 shirts (the average number of fans who attended a UL game this season) were sold to people in the Louisville area.
The official date for next season’s Kentucky-Louisville showdown at Rupp Arena isn’t known yet, but don’t be shocked if Cardinal fans are rocking some Oakland attire when they make the short trip to Lexington.
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