A shocking development transpired at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Thursday night. One of the projected favorites of the South region, the 3-seed Kentucky was shown the exit door by a spirited performance by the 14-seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies, losing 76-80 on the night. For a second time in three years, the 8-time NCAA champions have failed to get past the opening round in the March Madness. And the picture gets worse after considering the amount of money they spent compared to their opponents.

Front Office Sports compared the investments of both teams in their MBB programs. Captioning the tweet, they said, “Kentucky spent over 10x more on its men’s basketball program than Oakland last year. 14-seed Oakland just upset 3-seed Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.”

Clearly, the more upsetting fact for the Wildcats is that they spent around $23.6 million on their men’s basketball program this year. While everyone thought they would clear the field at least till the Sweet Sixteen, Oakland turned the ceiling upside down. While they only spent $2.3 million on their program in 2023, the Golden Grizzlies not only came out on top of this robust team, but they also won both the regular season and the Horizon League championship titles this year.

When looking at their stats for the night, Oakland, even with the less funds, stood apart from the Wildcats. Jack Gohlke was the leading scorer for the Golden Grizzlies with 32 points. Contrastingly, the scoring leader for Kentucky, Antonio Reeves, only contributed 27 points. Let us dive deeper into today’s performance.

Kentucky bids an early adieu to March Madness

The No. 14 Oakland was at Kentucky’s throats from the start. In spite of Antonio Reeves’ best efforts, the Golden Grizzlies had the upper hand. They ended the first half leading 38-35. Following this, the battle was neck-to-neck in the second half. However, Oakland had an answer to whatever the Wildcats offered.

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They matched Kentucky’s standards offensively as their field goal percentage was 41.3% (26 of 63) to Kentucky’s 42.6% (26 of 61). It all came down to both team’s ability to score from beyond the arc where Kentucky was massively outperformed. They could only land 9 out of their 28 attempts whereas Oakland buried 48.4% (15 of 31) of their chances.

The very first day of the March Madness has given us a Cinderella story. There are a lot more surprises to come with the 2024 NCAA tournament which will make the entire year worthwhile.

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