For the first time in more than a decade, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies are going dancing.
Led by a monster game from Trey Townsend, Oakland beat Milwaukee 83-76 Tuesday night to clinch the school’s first-ever Horizon League Tournament crown.
The Horizon League Player of the Year finished with a career-high 38 points and 11 rebounds to put the Golden Grizzlies in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011, when the school still played in the Summit League.
Townsend and the Golden Grizzlies — aided by Jack Gohlke’s sharpshooting off the bench (15 points on 5-of-12 shooting from 3-point range) — were able to get longtime head coach Greg Kampe over the hump in the Horizon League.
Prior to Tuesday’s triumph, OU had reached the conference tournament final in 2021 and had seen multiple excellent regular seasons squandered in the tournament.
But now Kampe — the longest tenured coach in Division I college basketball — is headed to the Big Dance in his 40th season at the helm.
Kampe oversaw Oakland’s transition from Division II, which was completed in 1999, and guided the program to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2005, winning the play-in game as a 16-seed before losing to North Carolina.
OU had back-to-back appearances in 2010 and 2011, losing to Pittsburgh as a 14-seed and dropping a thriller to Texas as a 13-seed, respectively.
The Golden Grizzlies will now wait to find out who they’ll play. The Selection Show is set for 6 p.m. on Sunday.