Earlier than Thursday evening, if you weren’t acquainted with Oakland College, you weren’t alone. Not removed from the campus, even locals at a Detroit bar, who have been watching the staff shock No. 3 seed Kentucky within the first spherical of the N.C.A.A. event, have been asking if “that Oakland was in California” or the Michigan suburb of Rochester. (It’s the latter.)
On Friday, after Oakland’s 80-76 upset victory as a No. 14 seed, college students and graduates reveled within the college’s second within the March Insanity solar. They embrace John Hendley, class of 2005, who watched the sport from Florida along with his spouse, Melissa, additionally a graduate.
“If individuals didn’t know who the Oakland College Golden Grizzlies have been earlier than final evening, they absolutely know now,” Mr. Hendley mentioned.
For all however maybe shut followers of the college, a quick introduction could also be so as: It was created in 1957 by a donation to determine a satellite tv for pc location for Michigan State College. At first, the campus was referred to as Michigan State College-Oakland, however in 1970, Oakland grew to become an impartial college.
In 1997, Oakland College moved its athletic program from N.C.A.A. Division II to Division I. A 12 months later, it modified its mascot from the Pioneers to Golden Grizzlies, in line with the college’s web site.
The campus of Oakland College feels extra like a sprawling company park, which is sensible. There are lots of them close by, just like the world headquarters for Stellantis (previously referred to as Chrysler) and different automotive suppliers.
The college is surrounded by strip malls with quick meals chains and a golf course. Of the about 16,000 at the moment enrolled college students, solely 2,500 reside on campus. And that’s by design. There are few if any public transit choices within the space, reflecting the mind-set of a Motor Metropolis constructed for vehicles first and pedestrians second.
Even the Golden Grizzlies’ coach, Greg Kampe, commutes from his residence in Detroit correct.
The college is a smaller choice in contrast with the 2 main public establishments within the state — the College of Michigan and Michigan State College, that are each about an hour from Oakland. However for Oakland supporters on Friday, the campus felt a bit of greater.
The college’s president, Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, who boasted on Friday that she had crammed in her N.C.A.A. bracket appropriately on the Oakland-Kentucky matchup, mentioned she was “over the moon.”
“It’s actually thrilling for us,” she mentioned, including that the nationwide consideration was nice “for the athletics and for our college and for universities like ours.”
James Wissbrun, a 21-year-old laptop science main at Oakland who grew up close by and has been going to Golden Grizzlies video games since he was a toddler, traveled to the sport in Pittsburgh on a constitution bus that the college rented for college students. He returned at 4 a.m. on Friday and bought solely a few hours’ sleep earlier than working at his 7 a.m. job with the grounds crew for town of Rochester Hills.
“It was price it,” he mentioned. “I’ve been coming right here eternally, and now to truly be a scholar right here and see how far we’re getting, it’s simply unimaginable.”
Mr. Wissbrun mentioned he deliberate to take the bus the college was offering to see the staff tackle No. 11 North Carolina State on Saturday, once more in Pittsburgh.
Giovanni Moceri, a 22-year-old mechanical engineering main, might be on the bus, too. He has hosted watch events for Golden Grizzlies video games, attempting to create a way of neighborhood on campus. Typically it may be a problem.
“Plenty of college students right here don’t even know we’ve sports activities right here,” Mr. Moceri mentioned.
That was not the case the earlier evening at RJ’s Pub in Rochester Hills, one of many native bars, the place the environment was “rocking” in the course of the recreation, mentioned Russell Luxton Jr., who operates the bar and is an Oakland graduate.
Lights and sirens went off each time that Jack Gohlke, one of many staff’s stars, hit a 3-pointer, Mr. Luxton mentioned, including that for every 3-pointer Gohlke made, “the group bought louder.”
Who is aware of what’s going to occur in Saturday’s recreation? However till then, Golden Grizzlies fandom is reaching a fever pitch.
“We’re thriving,” Mr. Kampe, the coach, mentioned after the win, including that “every thing is in place for this program to take off, and perhaps that is the ignition for it.”
