Breaking down No. 14 Oakland vs. No. 11 N.C. State

No. 14 Oakland vs. No. 11 N.C. State

7:10 p.m. Saturday, PPG Paints Arena

TV: TBS

Winner plays: Winner of Colorado (26-10)/Marquette (26-9) on March 28-29 in Sweet 16

Series history: First all-time meeting.

Oakland (24-11, 18-5 Horizon League)

Coach: Greg Kampe (40th season)

How they got here: Oakland upset No. 3 Kentucky, 80-76, in the first round Thursday.

Probable starting lineup

No., Player, Ht., Pos., Cl., PPG

2, Chris Conway, 6-9, F, sr., 10.0

4, Trey Townsend, 6-6, F, sr., 16.9

7, Isaiah Jones, 6-7, G, so., 5.1

10, DQ Cole, 6-3, G, jr., 8.8

11, Blake Lampman, 6-3, G, gr., 12.8

Notable: Oakland is playing in the Round of 32 for the first time. This is just the fourth all-time trip to the NCAA Tournament for the Golden Grizzlies. … This is the seventh time in NCAA Tournament history where an 11 seed will play a 14 seed. … The Golden Grizzlies are 9-1 in their past 10 games and are averaging 77.7 points in that span. … Guard Jack Gohlke scored a career-high 32 points, including hitting 10 of 20 3-pointers, in Thursday’s upset of Kentucky. Townsend added 17 points and 12 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. Cole had 12 points and eight rebounds. Lampman is the fourth Oakland player to be named Horizon League Player of the Year. Gohlke was the league’s Sixth Man of the Year.

Quotable: “I haven’t been to bed. I haven’t slept. I got a job. This is — I mean this is the most important time of the year in this job, and I’m lucky that — what are there 32 teams left in the country doing it? And there’s 360 coaches. So 300 coaches aren’t doing it. So I better do it, and I better do it well. I owe my players that. Between 2 and 4 in the morning I spent those two hours returning text messages because they can’t return them at that time. You have 1,300 text messages and you do it in the middle of the afternoon, then they answer, then you’ve gotta put a thumbs up or a heart on it. And now it becomes 2,600 text messages.”

—Oakland coach Greg Kampe reaction to Thursday’s upset over Kentucky

N.C. State (23-14, 14-11 ACC)

Coach: Kevin Keatts (7th season)

How they got here: N.C. State defeated Texas Tech, 80-67, in the first round Thursday.

Probable starting lineup

No., Player, Ht., Pos., Cl., PPG

0, DJ Horne, 6-2, G, gr., 16.9

12, Michael O’Connell, 6-2, G, gr., 5.7

14, Casey Morsell, 6-3, G, gr., 11.5

23, Mohawmed Diarra, 6-10, F, jr., 6.0

30, DJ Burns Jr., 6-9, F, gr., 12.4

Notable: N.C. State is in the NCAA Tournament for the 29th time and in the Round of 32 for the 13th time. The Wolfpack last reached the Sweet 16 in 2015. That year, N.C. State defeated No. 1 Villanova at PPG Paints Arena. … The Wolfpack are one of the hottest teams in the country, having won six straight games, including five in a row to win the ACC Tournament. … Middlebrooks (21 points) and Diarra (17) each scored career highs in Thursday’s win. Burns Jr. and Horne each scored 16 points. Horne is shooting 44% from the field and averaging 16.9 ppg. Diarra averages 7.5 rebounds. … O’Connell, who shined in the ACC Tournament, was held scoreless but had six assists and zero turnovers.

Quotable: “Yeah, at the end of the day, too, obviously we have a common goal in mind to keep playing the game to end the season, finish the season with a win so at this point even if your body is hurt or you’re tired, you’re not really focusing on it too much because you want to do everything you can to win that next game.”

—N.C. State guard Michael O’Connell on playing a seventh game in 12 days