Earlier than Thursday night time, if you weren’t acquainted with Oakland College, you weren’t alone. Not removed from the campus, even locals at a Detroit bar, who had been watching the crew shock No. 3 seed Kentucky within the first spherical of the N.C.A.A. match, had 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 folks didn’t know who the Oakland College Golden Grizzlies had been earlier than final night time, they certainly know now,” Mr. Hendley mentioned.
For all however maybe shut followers of the college, a short introduction could also be so as: It was created in 1957 via a donation to determine a satellite tv for pc location for Michigan State College. At first, the campus was often known 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 yr 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 smart. There are quite a lot of them close by, just like the world headquarters for Stellantis (previously often known 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 present enrolled college students, solely 2,500 dwell 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 automobiles first and pedestrians second.
Even the Golden Grizzlies’ coach, Greg Kampe, commutes from his residence in Detroit correct.
The college is a smaller possibility 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 little bit larger.
The college’s president, Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, who boasted on Friday that she had crammed in her N.C.A.A. bracket accurately 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 baby, traveled to the sport in Pittsburgh on a constitution bus that the college rented for college kids. He returned at 4 a.m. on Friday and obtained solely a few hours’ sleep earlier than working at his 7 a.m. job with the grounds crew for the town of Rochester Hills.
“It was price it,” he mentioned. “I’ve been coming right here without end, and now to really 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 crew tackle No. 11 North Carolina State on Saturday, once more in Pittsburgh.
Giovanni Moceri, a 22-year-old mechanical engineering main, shall be on the bus, too. He has hosted watch events for Golden Grizzlies video games, attempting to create a way of group on campus. Typically it may be a problem.
“Loads of college students right here don’t even know we’ve got sports activities right here,” Mr. Moceri mentioned.
That was not the case the earlier night time at RJ’s Pub in Rochester Hills, one of many native bars, the place the ambiance 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 crew’s stars, hit a 3-pointer, Mr. Luxton mentioned, including that for every 3-pointer Gohlke made, “the group obtained louder.”
Who is aware of what is 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 “all the things is in place for this program to take off, and perhaps that is the ignition for it.”
