Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament collapse leaves plenty of questions — especially for Philly-area NBA hopefuls

PITTSBURGH — One after another, Jack Gohlke rose up, from seemingly every angle possible, and fired a shot from beyond the three-point arc. Twenty times to be exact. A Division II graduate transfer was becoming the star of the opening day of March Madness.

Yes, Oakland is a county in Michigan, not a city in Northern California. Ten of Gohlke’s 20 three-point attempts went in — more makes from deep than the total amount of two-point shots the 6-foot-3 guard attempted all season — and as each one of them fell, you got the sense that Big Bad Kentucky might be facing another plucky underdog that wasn’t going to back down.

This is John Calipari’s hometown. He sat at a dais Wednesday afternoon and threw around local colloquial terms like yinz and dahntahn like he would be here all weekend, a man stopping by for a quick hello on his way to something bigger, a second weekend — at least — of the NCAA Tournament, where Calipari’s Kentucky, this time seeded third, hadn’t been since 2019.

But Gohlke, who scored 32 points, and his Grizzlies teammates, seeded 14th in the South Regional, had other plans, beating the Wildcats, 80-76. Each missed Kentucky three, each one of its 11 turnovers, each time it was confused by Oakland’s zone defense were cause to start questioning everything.

Questioning Calipari, a three-time Naismith coach of the year who has six trips to the Final Four, but none since 2015. Questioning the one-and-done nature of the program he runs. Questioning whether the people who want expanded fields and the elimination of automatic bids really have any idea what the Jack Gohlkes of the world really mean for this tournament and its popularity.

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“I thought they were anxious,” Calipari said of his team, one of the youngest in the tournament, “and when you’re anxious, you get really tired really fast.

“We miss a dunk. We miss a layup. We miss another play, and all of a sudden it becomes anybody’s ballgame, and they were playing with house money and they made shots and we didn’t.”

The missed dunk came early in the second half from Philly’s Justin Edwards, an Imhotep Charter graduate. This version of Calipari’s youth movement in Lexington had plenty of Philly-area flavor. Edwards was the top recruit in an eight-player 2023 class that also featured Camden’s D.J. Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw, the trio making up three of the top six recruits in ESPN’s Top 100.

Edwards scored 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting, but Wagner went scoreless in 17 minutes and Bradshaw played just four minutes. The 2023-24 season has been far from perfect for three players who looked on their way to the NBA lottery before they headed to Lexington.

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Wagner missed all five of his shots Thursday night, four of which from three-point range. It marked the 10th time in the last 13 games that Wagner was held under 10 points.

Edwards, meanwhile, has been trending in the other direction. The 6-foot-8 forward hit a slump in the middle of the season but broke out for 28 points in a shootout win over Alabama on Feb. 24, then helped the Wildcats knock off Tennessee with 16 points on the road in their final regular season game on March 9.

And Bradshaw, a 7-foot-1 center, has not seen enough of the court to make those first-round dreams seem likely.

Another Kentucky stunner had called many things into question, and for the trio of Philadelphia-area freshmen, there were plenty of questions about what comes next. None of them are projected to be first-round picks in what is being considered a weak draft class. Edwards is appearing in some mock drafts in the second round.

“I don’t know,” Edwards said when asked about his future in a gloomy Kentucky locker room after the loss. He said he planned to take the next few weeks to keep working out and talk to those close to him about what the future holds.

“I can’t tell you,” said Wagner, whose season also featured missed time with an ankle injury, when asked whether he would return to college. “I’m not looking into the future right now. It’s really day-by-day.”

Asked what he’d take from this season, Edwards said: “A little bit of everything. Going through what I went through, becoming the player that I am and my teammates sticking with me.”

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A day earlier, Edwards spoke about being excited to play in the NCAA Tournament. He acknowledged struggling at times with managing the pressure of being a top recruit and projected NBA player.

“Every game I felt like I had to play up to that potential, and I feel like that’s what hurt me,” he said. “Now I’m playing free and just being myself.”

You could see that at times Thursday night. Edwards hit a critical corner three-pointer to cut Oakland’s lead to three, 71-68, with three minutes to play. He was plus-five on the night. But Oakland, like Saint Peter’s in 2022, had a response to every Kentucky run, with DQ Cole’s corner three being the final answer.

“It’s been amazing just to play with this great group of guys,” Wagner said. “We were like a family. I’m going to really cherish all the moments we had.”

The words made it sound like Wagner’s college career was over. But for Kentucky — and for Wagner, Edwards, and Bradshaw — the questions are only just beginning.