Greg Kampe, Oakland Men’s Basketball Coach

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That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Our number three of our radio program, that's right. It is the Zach Gelb show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. The story of the NCAA tournament so far has been the Oakland Golden Grizzlies last night as a 14 seed.

They take down a blue blood in Kentucky 80 to 76. Greg Campi is their head coach. He has been the head coach at Oakland since 1984. And he's kind enough to join us right now on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Coach, I would say, how are you doing?

But I think I know the answer to that one. So let me just say congratulations on a marvelous victory. Yeah, I can't get much better than this, right? It's been an unbelievable evening, just a great game. Our kids played an outstanding basketball game. They did what they had to do to win. And the only thing I don't understand is I see your Kansas City and San Francisco hats, but shouldn't there be an Oakland hat there today?

Hundred percent, hundred percent. You know, we're at the Super Bowl, so we bring back the big hats. I will gladly display an Oakland hat. And everyone now gets to be familiar with your story and your team's story. You get all this publicity right now, just wondering, with it being less than 24 hours since the victory, just how do you kind of process it through all this euphoria that your guys are experiencing right now? Well, they've got to understand that, you know, put it aside and get ready. They're 40 minutes away from a Sweet 16, which nobody had that on their dance card, you know, a week ago, let alone six months ago when we started. And they're the only ones that thought they could do it.

And now they got 40 minutes to do it. So we've got to put this aside and understand that unless we get to a Final Four, this is probably the greatest win in school history. So you know, we'll hold on to that, come back to it. But right now we've got to prepare for NC State. And I think our kids have done that very well, very well. And our staff is working really hard to. I'll tell you, last night when you guys were doing the interview after the game on the court right away, when Jack Oakey heard you guys be referred to as a Cinderella, I just saw that fire in his eyes.

And he looked disgusted that people were calling you a Cinderella. I've talked to a lot of coaches, a lot of players when they're a part of these historical upsets. Just where does that belief in the team really derive from and that passion and that fire? Because there was a certain look that you guys had not only before the game, but then after the game as well. Well, I think it goes to the non-league schedule we played. You know, we really, really challenged ourselves with the top 10-15 schedule in the country. Ohio State, Illinois, Michigan State, Dayton, Xavier all on the road.

And we should have wanted Ohio State, we could have wanted Illinois, and we did win Xavier. And that, you know, that iron sharpens iron idea, you know, they just believe they're good. They believe they can play with anybody and they believe they can beat anybody.

There was never any doubt last night in their minds we were going to win the game, you know, and every time out, you know, that, you know, they, it was there, that confidence and belief that they could win and that, that's why they probably did win because they kept that mindset and they made big play after big play. Now they showed a shot of your locker room after the game and usually you see the coach get just drenched in water and there's a water fight. You guys are all sitting down and I thought you were getting ready to prepare for a game in like 15 minutes, but what was that actual scene like in the locker room? Was it as real as the way that it was portrayed on social media?

Yeah, it really was. And that's why I was so happy because when I went in there, I, you know, you see in the NCAA tournament, the coaches dancing and you know, and the only time it got a little bit over the top was when they punched their ticket. You know, they, they put their name in the bracket.

I actually left. I didn't get to see it happen, but I heard it got kind of loud in there when they did that. Uh, but other than that, they, they went about their business. They believed they could win and they didn't act like they won the national championship. They acted like they get to play again on Saturday and that made me feel fairly confident that that I can get them ready in two days because you get a win like that. There's usually repercussions in the next game and we understand that this great team, if we lose the next game, we'll never get to play again. So hopefully they'll be ready and we'll, we'll have our best effort. Win or lose. We just want to have our best effort.

Coach Greg can't be here with us. I respect, you know, understanding, right? There's a next game and you got to be wired to get ready for the next game, but has it hit you yet with how long you've been at this school and what you guys accomplished last night? Like does last night feel real yet or does it still feel as if you're living in a dream? No, it's, it's crazy how good it feels and, and just the excitement, but it also, I don't want to say, Hey, this is it, you know, I, I want to keep coaching this team and I'd love to get them to a sweet 16. I'd love to be part of that. And you know, we just got to win one more game to do it. So we're, we're, we're grinding, man. We're grinding. We're trying to get ready for, for NC State and all the challenges that they bring. The story last night of Jack Golke, it gets told a little bit in the broadcast and he had a historical evening.

Your program had an historical evening. How'd you even find this kid with him playing a D2 and then he gets to your program? We all saw the stats before the game and he was just unconscious last night. So tell me about how you got him to your program and, and a little bit of the background story there. We've seen it before from him. It wasn't the first time that he's gone off like that. But his, his division two coach happened to be a really good friend of mine and called me on the phone and said, I got this kid that's got a sixth year because of COVID and he wants to be a division one player.

He was a great player for me, an unbelievable shooter. And I know that you value that. And I also know that you don't coach defense, so he can't guard anybody so you can figure out a way to use it. So you know, I go, yeah, you're probably right. And so I said, okay, if you think he's that good, I'll take him. And boy, that was the smartest move I've made in a long time. That scene last night where you guys are getting interviewed afterwards and then you're walking off the court, just what does that moment mean to see a player like that?

Like you, the individuality for you, I know that you're not really going to lay into that, but to see your players go through that, just how do you kind of process what that means? I kind of whispered to him, isn't this what you came here for? You know, and he kind of hugged me and say, hell yeah, you know, this is, this is what it's all about. And I just told him I was happy for him, but let's go get one more. And you know, he made that statement, we're not Cinderella.

And that's why, I mean, he wants the world to know that Cinderella turns into a pumpkin at midnight and we're not going to do that. We're going to play. And if we lose, we lose, but it's not because we were Cinderella. I don't know if previous history at all matters, but with how many great runs that we've seen, whether it was in the early 2000s with George Mason, we've seen VCU last year, right?

Florida Atlantic. And as you said, people go look at your schedule. Your schedule was so tough earlier on in the season and right out of the gate.

So maybe this shouldn't shock people because games like that get you ready for this time of the year. How many upsets we've seen, even though you guys don't view yourself as Cinderella, does that give you guys a little bit more confidence or do we make too much of that, you know, in the media? No, I mean, we we say, why not us? You know, George Mason did it, Loyola did it, VCU did it.

Why not us? You know, but we got to take it one at a time, too. You got to grind through it just like you grind grinded through the season.

I think a lot of schools, a lot of teams lose in the postseason because they go about it differently and, you know, you just spent five months grinding. So let's keep grinding. By the way, they said on the broadcast last night, last week, when you do your local radio show, they gave you some some free French fries. I think they should comp the entire meal this time around, coach, after what you guys just did. Well, they damn well better, I'll tell you that. And I'm, you know, at least put a sub with it or something. I got to drink and fries.

We'll see. So now for everyone starting to understand what your program is, and you've been at this at this university since 1984. What do you want people to know about Oakland? And what do you want people to know about this squad from this year's team in 2023 2024? Well, I think they showed everybody what they are a group of great kids that were humble. They were they won the right way. They didn't act like idiots. You know, when they won, they they acted like they'd been there before.

Right. Yeah, they did. They just play hard and they played smart. And we have a saying here, the smart take from the strong.

And and maybe that happened last night. You know, I just think we played really smart. And then the other thing is our school is a fantastic school and we just want the name out there.

And a lot of great things, you know, about our school that we'd want the world to know. So maybe a couple more wins will keep us in the spotlight for a while. Are you definitely coming back next year, coach? I know that you never know when you're going to walk away and, you know, you're 68 years old, turned 69 in December. You've been there since 84. Is this still, you know, really exciting and energetic for you?

Or do you kind of start to say, maybe this would be a good way to wrap things up? No, if you can give me a team like these guys every year, I'll go another another 10 years or so. I mean, this has been maybe one of the most fun years I've ever had. I love this group of kids. They love each other.

And I know that's a funny word to use, but it's true. I mean, they just, there's such a respect among each one of them. And it's made it so easy for me to coach it. This has added years to my coaching career. I'm sure I've got three years left on my contract. Maybe I can talk them into two more now that we'd want a little bit. I think it's an easy extension to negotiate.

I'm not your agent, but I think this would be easy to get a little bit more money and get some more years on that deal. Greg Campi, wrap it up with the Oakland coach. Last night, they take down Kentucky. What type of team did you think that you had before the start of the season? Like I'm not going to say if I came to you for the start of the season and you know, I said to you that you guys would be in the round of 32, but what type of squad did you think you guys have?

Well we went to Italy this summer and it was a really good trip, but we showed some works. You know, we showed some signs of there's some things we got to get better at. And I just think defensively, we grew as a team in that zone.

You know, when you bring in new players every year like it is nowadays, you know, I brought seven new guys in this year, but fortunately I had four or five that have been here forever that could help teach that zone. And as the season went on, we grew defensively to become, I think we're maybe the best defensive team I've ever had. And I think it proved that last night, the way we guarded Kentucky, we out rebounded Kentucky when they were giants, you know, three seven-footers.

We have three five-footers maybe, you know. It was a hell of a defensive clinic for us last night. So I just think that as we got better defensively and we played those good teams, beat Xavier, we believe that, you know, this team could really do something special and now they are. Last thing I'll ask you, a little early preview, we know tomorrow evening you guys will take stage once again against NC State. They've been hot, you know, five wins in five days in the ACC tournament last night. They dominated wire to wire up against Texas Tech. What's the early scouting report when you take a look at your opponent coming up tomorrow evening? Well, we're going to play a different game than we played against Kentucky.

You know, Kentucky was a perimeter oriented, shoot the three best in the country, three point percentage. Keep the pace slow. Don't let them get it into a pickup game.

Don't let them beat you up and down the floor. With NC State, it's probably the other way. They've got tremendous post players. They score the ball in there. They're huge, huge. But we got to speed the pace up tomorrow. It's just going to be different tomorrow because this is their seventh game in 11 days or 10 days and somewhere along the line, they got to be human and that's got to kick in and maybe they can't make jump shots or something. Was there a message that you got after the game, a text or a phone call that meant a little bit more to you, blown away that this person was reaching out or talking about your program?

Just wondering. No, I, there were so many and so many, you know, I've been around so long. I know so many people and, you know, a lot of the old guys reached out, Roy Williams called me, Steve Fisher called me, you know, there's a lot of the older guys that were just happy that, you know, Greg Campi got a moment in the tournament like that, I think, and they had some great, great messages. So I'm blessed, blessed to have been around this long and know all these people and that they would take a moment to talk to me. Well, coach, we appreciate you taking a moment with us today to talk about your program and the incredible victory last night. Good luck coming up tomorrow evening. Thanks so much. Thank you for having Oakland on. I really appreciate it.

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