Oakland is dancing for the first time since 2011 and it will face an NCAA Tournament regular to get things started.
Greg Kampe’s Golden Grizzlies received the No. 14 seed in the South region where they will take on John Calipari and the No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Oakland won the Horizon League regular season and conference tournament to make its first March Madness since back-to-back appearances between 2009 and 2011. Oakland (23-11) is led by Horizon Player of the Year Trey Townsend, who scored 38 points in the Horizon title game vs. Milwaukee.
The Golden Grizzlies won a play-in game as a 16-seed against Alabama A&M, 79-69, at the 2005 tournament. They were last a 14-seed during its run in 2010 as it fell in the first round against three-seed Pittsburgh.
Kentucky features perhaps the most talented roster in the nation led by star freshmen Reed Sheppard, Rob Dillingham, DJ Wagner and Justin Edwards and veterans Antonio Reeves and Tre Mitchell.
The Wildcats went 23-9 and finished second in the SEC. They had won five-straight games before losing to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
ESPN’s Seth Greenberg called Kentucky one of the tournament’s “biggest variables” in that it could go to the Final Four or lose early in the bracket.
The winner of the game will advance to face either No. 6 Texas Tech or No. 11 North Carolina State.
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