No. 14 seed Oakland upset No. 3 seed Kentucky on the first day of the NCAA Tournament in a 80-76 thriller. Kentucky suffered its second-worst tournament upset based on spread since 2005, losing as a 13.5-point favorite.
Kentucky was a massive favorite to easily down Oakland: Nearly 72% of all tickets and 81% of the money was bet on Wildcats to cover the double-digit spread. The Golden Grizzlies were +700 on the moneyline but garnered only 10% of the tickets with 90% of tickets backing Kentucky at-800.
Kentucky has seen tremendous success in the NCAA Tournament over the years winning seven of eight games in which they were favored by at least 13-points. The only loss for Kentucky worse than tonight's based on the spread was an 85-79 loss to St. Peter’s two year’s ago as a 17.5-point favorite.
Jimmer Fredette. Bryce Drew. Stephen Curry.
Those are just a few names with iconic NCAA Tournament performances that we’ll always remember regardless of what their basketball future had in store.
Well, we can add Jake Gohlke to that list after an historic performance. The senior guard was the catalyst for Oakland, he knocked down 10 3-pointers and scored 32 points to lead Golden Grizzlies over the Wildcats.
Gohlke was the star of the show with a historic performance. He only the fifth player to ever make 10 or more three-pointers in an NCAA Tournament game. He’s now in a four-way tie for the second most, who made 11 back in 1990.
Gohlke’s known as a sharpshooter, but he blew away his prop market entering the game. Sportsbooks set the line at 3.5 3-pointers in the game. Not only that, but they offered it at plus odd with DraftKings going as high as +124. Gohlke was also +950 at PointsBet to make seven treys … and he did that in the first half alone.
Meanwhile, John Calipari and the Wildcats suffered another early flameout. They’ve now won only one game in the last four NCAA Tournaments and will watch the rest of March Madness at home despite having the 13th best odds of any team to make the Final Four (+750). It was the fourth best odds in the South region, trailing 1-seed Houston (+125), 2-seed Marquette (+600) and 4-seed Duke (+700).
