Louisville Fans Still Rewarding Oakland For Sending Kentucky Home From NCAA Tourney, This Time With A Donation

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It was just one week ago that Oakland University stunned Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament behind the crazy three-point shooting from Jack Gohlke. For opposing fans, they are still having a good time trolling the Wildcats. This time it was a Louisville fan writing a big check. 

If you remember, Louisville fans bought more than $8,000 worth of Oakland merchandise after the Golden Grizzlies upset the Cats' last week in Pittsburgh. Traffic was so crazy on the team website that it actually crashed its server after thousands of fans were looking to grab some Oakland gear. 

The upset win over Kentucky sent fans in the Bluegrass State into a frenzy, filled with apathy and frustration towards head coach John Calipari. Unfortunately for those upset Kentucky fans, athletic director Mitch Barnhart decided to bring Calipari back for another season, with some of it having to do with his $33 million buyout, according to Matt Norlander. 

But now that the season has come to an end for Oakland head coach Greg Kampe, he's had some time to reflect on the huge win, even if his team was eliminated just two days later. The economic impact of the win over Kentucky hasn't stopped, with donations and NIL funds being raised by the school. 

Though it didn't come from an Oakland fan, the basketball program received another gift from a Louisville resident recently, which certainly had to do with the Golden Grizzlies knocking Kentucky out of the tournament in the first round. 

"A Louisville resident and obvious fan sent Oakland a check with a nice note," Oakland coach Greg Kampe noted. "He says he normally sends a certain amount each year to the school that knocks Kentucky out of the tournament. This year because of our story he doubled the amount. Truly the definition of March Madness," 

We have seen some wild stories coming out of the Oakland upset of Kentucky, but seeing so many Louisville fans trolling its hated rival is why we love college sports. 

I don't think we had Louisville residents helping fund the Oakland basketball program on our 2024 NCAA Tournament bingo card entering March Madness. 

Gotta love this rivalry, and I mean Kentucky versus Louisville. The Golden Grizzlies are just benefiting from the hatred. 

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Trey Wallace is the host of The Trey Wallace Podcast that focuses on a mixture of sports, culture, entertainment along with his perspective on everything from College Football to the College World Series. Wallace has been covering college sports for 15 years, starting off while attending the University of South Alabama. He’s broken some of the biggest college stories including the Florida football "Credit Card Scandal" along with the firing of Jim McElwin and Kevin Sumlin. Wallace also broke one of the biggest stories in college football in 2020 around the NCAA investigation into recruiting violations against Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt. Wallace also appears on radio across seven different states breaking down that latest news in college sports.