Oakland coach Greg Kampe, 3-point specialist Jack Gohlke handle celebrity, thousands of text messages

When Oakland coach Greg Kampe climbed the steps to the stage Friday afternoon for the final news conference before his team’s game Saturday night against N.C. State, few knew the truth.

The 68-year-old man had not been to sleep since the night before Oakland’s victory Thursday against Kentucky at PPG Paints Arena. Yes, the man who has been Oakland’s coach for 40 seasons was up all night.

Nonetheless, he answered questions from reporters for 20 minutes, a smile on his face and a baseball cap on his head with the words “Live Lucky.”

“God, I need to live lucky right now, right?” he said. “So I wear these hats hoping it rubs off. Your brain is right there. So maybe it sneaks in a little bit.”

He spoke eloquently about the Rochester, Mich., university that he loves and how he hopes 6-foot-9, 275-pound N.C. State center D.J. Burns won’t break any of his players’ bones in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

His explanation on why he hadn’t slept made perfect sense to him and any coach who remains alive in the tournament.

“I got a job,” Kampe said. “This is the most important time of the year in this job. I’m lucky. There are 32 coaches in the country left doing it. There are 319 coaches who aren’t doing it, so I better do it well. I owe our players that.”

If he didn’t sleep, what did he do after the game and for the next 19 hours before the news conference? Return text messages, of course.

He said he had 1,300 of them since the last second ticked off the clock Thursday, and he had a method to how and when he would return them.

“Between 2 and 4 in the morning, I spent those two hours returning text messages because they can’t return them at that time,” he said. “If you did it in the middle of the afternoon and they answer, you have to put a thumbs-up or a heart on it. That’s 2,600 text messages. I got it down to 195. Now, it’s back up to 495.”

Kampe, quite literally, has better things to do.

While his assistants watched all 37 N.C. State games, he looked at every possession the Wolfpack played against a zone, Oakland’s preferred defense.

Kampe talked after the game about how the victory would change his players’ lives.

“I mean, they’re going to be back for a 10-year anniversary, a 20-year anniversary, a 30-year anniversary. The whole thing down the stretch, once we knew we had won a (Horizon League championship) ring, the whole banter in the locker room has been, what’s it going to say on that ring? Just Horizon League champ? NCAA? Sweet 16? Final Four?

“I’ve put that thought in their mind and they’ve battled for it, and they understand their life got changed, but it could be changed a lot more if we keep this thing going.”

Jack Gohlke, who hit 10 3-pointers and scored 32 points Thursday, also has a phone full of text messages that he plans to ignore until after the game Saturday.

“I really want to win this next game, and I know my guys do as well,” he said. “Forget about my phone for the next 48 hours.”

But now that he’s probably the third-most famous resident of Pewaukee, Wis. — after J.J. and T.J. Watt — Gohlke can’t escape celebrity.

One of Jack Gohlke's biggest fans is fellow Pewaukee native @JJWatt @OaklandMBB | @CBSSportsCBB pic.twitter.com/Jo1qypigrR

— NFL on CBS ???? (@NFLonCBS) March 22, 2024

Which is kind of what happens to a former Division II guard who tried only eight 2-pointers compared to 347 3s this season.

“I tell my teammates I used to shoot 2s, but they don’t believe me,” he said. “(Thursday) was the first time ever in my career, especially in the first half near the end, if I caught the ball I could just hear the crowd collect their breath. That was kind of cool and a surreal experience. Everyone is on the edge of their seat when I touch the ball.”

Among his highlights of fame Saturday were appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show” and ESPN “SportsCenter” with Scott Van Pelt and getting an Instagram follow from former Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown.

Following Gohlke onto the stage, Kampe was asked his secret to staying in one job for 40 years.

“Stupidity,” he said. “A great athletic director, a president, people who put up with you. Nobody else wants you. Five became 10, and 10 became 20 and now it’s 40. Everybody brings it up. I’m trying to low-key it. I’m trying to tell people. I got the job when I was 18.”

He loves Oakland so profoundly, he spoke with pride about how the university’s website crashed Friday.

“That’s what this does,” he said. “We also sold $8,000 worth of T-shirts to Louisville. I don’t know, next year when Louisville and Kentucky play is everybody going to show up in an Oakland T-shirt or what?”