Every so often, March Madness gives you a night you'll never forget. On March 21, 2024, Oakland — the No. 14 seed, the Golden Grizzlies, from Rochester, Michigan — walked onto the floor against No. 3 Kentucky and ripped the bracket apart. Jack Gohlke, a grad transfer from Division II Hillsdale College, buried 10 three-pointers and poured in 32 points as Oakland won 80-76, one of the great upsets of the modern NCAA tournament. America learned the name that night: the Golden Grizzlies.
Behind the upset stands one of college basketball's great lifers. Greg Kampe enters his 43rd season on Oakland's bench in 2026-27 — the longest-tenured head coach at one school in all of Division I, with more than 715 wins, ranking in the top 10 among active Division I head coaches. Kampe took over a Division II program in 1984 and dragged it, year by year, into Division I relevance. The Gohlke night was his masterpiece, but it was four decades in the making.
The program's March history runs deeper than one night. Oakland danced in 2005, then again in 2010 and 2011 behind Keith Benson, the 6-foot-11 center who became a second-round NBA draft pick in 2011. The 2010-11 team won 26 games — still the school record — and went 20-1 in the Summit League, a conference record at the time. The Golden Grizzlies have produced real pros: Benson with the Pacers, Travis Bader — who set the NCAA's career three-point record in 2014 — and Kay Felder, the 2016 Horizon League Player of the Year who went 54th overall to the Cavaliers in the 2016 draft. Small program, real pipeline.
The 2025-26 season was a .500 grind: 16-16 overall, 12-8 in the Horizon League. Kampe ball — guard-driven, three-happy, fearless — kept the Grizzlies in the league's upper half, but the ceiling never lifted. With the Gohlke era now a memory, the program is hunting its fifth NCAA trip and its first since that Kentucky night.
The home is the OU Credit Union O'rena in Rochester, an intimate bandbox where the student section makes up for what the building lacks in size. On a good night, it's one of the Horizon League's toughest outs — and Kampe teams almost always make it a good night at home. The program's identity is the giant-killer with a smile: the team that takes on all comers in November, fearless, and lives for March.
The 2026-27 roster is pure Kampe: a JUCO-heavy retool built around guards who can shoot it. The newcomers start with guard Brody Robinson, who played all 31 games last season, averaging 9.5 points while hitting 40 percent from three with 52 made triples; forward William Kassi, an NJCAA All-American who averaged 9.8 points and 5.7 rebounds at Indian Hills Community College; forward Isaac Garrett, who put up 14 points and 7 rebounds a game with 93 assists at Snow College; and guard Khoi Thurmon, a Panola College NJCAA All-American who already knows Horizon League basketball from a freshman year at Purdue Fort Wayne.
The freshman class is all Michigan, and it's loaded with local legend: Hamoudy Mashhour — brother of guard Nassim Mashhour — an All-State honoree who left Dearborn High as its winningest player in program history at nearly 19 points a game; twins Donny and MJ Yeager, who starred at Nouvel Catholic Central before prep ball at Golden State Prep, with Donny earning three First Team All-State honors and MJ leaving as Nouvel's all-time scoring leader; and Warren Marshall IV of Auburn Hills. The size comes from Down Under and Detroit: senior forwards Nate Deer (Adelaide) and Tuburu Naivalurua (Sydney), senior Michael Houge (Detroit), and guards Ziare Wells (Queens) and Brett White II (Battle Creek) round out a deep, veteran group.
It's the classic Kampe formula — a dozen guys who can all get hot, and a system that lets them. Oakland's 43rd season under one coach is a celebration of continuity in a sport that has none left. The next Gohlke night is always one three-pointer away, and in Rochester, they believe that with their whole chest.
The road through the Horizon League runs through familiar enemies: Wright State, Northern Kentucky and Detroit Mercy, with Cleveland State and Milwaukee always lurking. Oakland has been the league's box office since joining in 2013 — the program everyone circles, the one with the coach, the crowds and the March memories. The Grizzlies don't sneak up on anyone anymore. They haven't since Gohlke's tenth three hit the bottom of the net.
And the blueprint is pure Kampe: recruit shooters, trust them, and schedule like you have nothing to lose. Every November, Oakland plays a gauntlet of high-majors on the road — the kind of schedule that would break most mid-majors, the kind Kampe has always seen as marketing. Win one, and the whole country notices. Lose them all, and the team is battle-tested for January. It's worked for 42 years. There's no reason to change it now.