NCAA tournament sensation Jack Gohlke has had a whirlwind of a month since leading the Oakland Golden Grizzlies to a victory over the Kentucky Wildcats in March.
The sixth-year guard made headlines when he scored 32 points to go along with 10 treys – one away from the NCAA tournament record – in leading the No. 14-seeded Golden Grizzlies to an 80-76 win over the Wildcats.
“We prepared the same way we always had all season and didn’t want to treat it like we’re going up against Goliath — even though a lot of people had us as the underdog,” explained Gohlke in a one-on-one interview. “We wanted to go in there with confidence and be aggressive and that’s what we did.”
The victory was also notable because it marked Oakland’s first-ever tournament win in Round of 64 play and longtime head coach Greg Kampe’s first tournament win – outside of a play-in win in 2005 – in his 40 years as a head coach with the Golden Grizzlies.
“It was awesome,” says Gohlke. “It was interesting because we didn’t explode as a locker room (right after the win) like you’d expect. Once the tournament was over, that was when you could see coach Kampe get emotional.”
“We all have so much faith in him as our coach and appreciate everything that he did for us, all the hours he poured in,” Gohlke continued. “Having spent 40 years at Oakland University, he’s as dedicated as they come. We were super excited to have won that game for him and give him a little bit of spotlight as well because he deserves it.”
Kentucky’s loss to Oakland resulted in longtime head coach John Calipari leaving for a deal with the Arkansas Razorbacks. Calipari led the Wildcats to a national championship in 2012 and four total Final Four appearances. However, Kentucky hadn’t been to a Final Four appearance since 2015 and the Wildcats hadn’t advanced past the Round of 32 in each of the past three seasons.
“I was definitely surprised by that,” says Gohlke of Calipari’s departure.
“I didn’t really realize how he was kind of in the hot seat going into the tournament. I don’t think it was necessarily us — Oakland beating Kentucky — that made it happen. It was just kind of an accumulation of things. It’s cool to play a part in such a big shift in college basketball — but I’m not going to take credit for it,” says Gohlke while laughing.
The win not only made Gohlke a household name among basketball fans, it boosted his Instagram following from 500 to over 77,000 followers. The biggest upset win of this year’s tournament also led to a number of NIL offers in the immediate aftermath of the victory.
“Like right away after that Kentucky game, I was getting a bunch of inquiries about doing deals,” reveals Gohlke.
Although Gohlke – who up until this year, had actually played at Division II school Hillsdale Chargers – received a number of offers, he reveals that he was very selective in accepting NIL deals.
“I just didn’t want to handle too much because I was so busy with having another game,” says Gohlke (Oakland played and lost in the second round in overtime against NC State).
One of those NIL partnership offers that he accepted was with none other than TurboTax. Gohlke – who is an accounting major – explains why he accepted the partnership with TurboTax and why it made sense for him.
“It’s kind of perfect,” said Gohlke. “I got my accounting degree from Hillsdale College, so it all just kind of fit together. They do great stuff with helping athletes with NIL deals. But also trying to educate with how to handle the deals you get offered, and also the taxes that go along with these opportunities.”
Gohlke’s partnership with TurboTax includes the 24-year-old filming advertisements that are featured on social media channels, such as this one.
Although Gohlke is brand new to NIL partnerships, he has advice for his fellow collegiate athletes when it comes to navigating the world of NIL. NIL rules – which give college athletes the ability to earn money off of their name, image and likeness – went into effect recently in 2021.
“You’re going to get a lot of thrown at you,” says Gohlke. “You don’t want to take every opportunity. I probably turned down 50-plus opportunities just because they either didn’t make sense or it wasn’t something that I want to represent. Just be selective and have people helping you as well. Make sure you’re accepting the partnerships that are best for you.”
The biggest topic facing college sports at the current moment is NIL. Because it’s such a new rule, there are really no restrictions as far as players earning money. It can even involve players transferring to another university simply because there’s more money to be earned by playing at the new school compared to the old one.
The topic was a focal point at a recent roundtable meeting focused on NIL at Capitol Hill. Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban explained how the changing landscape of college sports – mainly relating to NIL and the transfer portal – played a role in him retiring.
While Gohlke admits how he enjoys how NIL gives him the freedom to explore opportunities and earn money, he believes there will be rules put into place to put more of a structure when it comes to the NIL landscape. Gohlke even suggests that they may put a salary cap in place and start treating student athletes as employees with the transfer portal basically becoming free agency.
“I think they probably need to do something to change it,” suggests Gohlke. “I’m all for players getting paid and things like that. But there’s two parts to NIL right now. What happened with me — where it was all partnerships, brands and actually going off my name, image and likeness. And then you have the collectives we see, where a recruit or a guy in the transfer portal just gets offered a dollar amount to go to that school and it’s not really associated with a brand.”
While Gohlke’s collegiate eligibility is now in the books, it doesn’t mean his basketball career is over. The 6-foot-3, three-point shooting specialist has hired an agent and will work out in Dallas, Texas over the next couple of months as he explores a professional basketball career.
“I definitely want to keep playing pro and hopefully have a long career,” says Gohlke of his plan. “Maybe five or 10 years overseas, or just keep climbing the ranks like I did in college.”
Golhke singles out Italy as a specific region where he’d like to play professionally.
“Obviously, the basketball is really good,” says Gohlke. “But there’s so many sights to see there and cool things to experience. Just the whole European culture of basketball over there is great.”