This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.

Jack Gohlke hit 10 threes for 14-seed Oakland in an 80-76 upset over three-seed Kentucky in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. He’s currently playing for the Texas Legends in the NBA G League. 

When people ask me about the Kentucky game, one thought always pops into my head: I had absolutely no idea that it was even possible that I could get that famous.

I knew it was a big opportunity and a big game for all my teammates at Oakland, but I just had no idea that so many people were watching. I remember sitting in the locker room the day before the game as a group of reporters from Kentucky came streaming in.

That blew my mind. I was like, Why do they care what we have to say?

A couple of reporters came up and asked me about Kentucky’s three-point shooting. They were No. 1 in the country in three-point percentage and loaded with future NBA players — Reed Sheppard, Antonio Reeves, Rob Dillingham. I said all the typical stuff about how we needed to defend and run them off the three-point line. But I added something that probably surprised them: At the end of the day, I told them, we shoot it better than them.

I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. It was just the competitor in me.

I think confidence is a skill. It’s something you can develop.

Before coming to Oakland, I had spent five years at Hillsdale College, a Division II school in Michigan. I’d never been the best player anywhere I was. But my coach at Hillsdale, John Tharp, instilled confidence in me: If I worked as hard as I could and put in the time, then he would trust me to choose the type of shots I was taking. He laid a blueprint to think bigger.

If you practice these shots, you can take them. 

When I got to Oakland, coach Greg Kampe took it to another level. He had coached great shooters who had taken crazy shots at a high volume.

“There’s no bad shot you can take,” Kampe told me. “I want you to be super aggressive and scare the defense with how crazy the shots you’re going to take are.”

At the beginning of the season, I think I thought too much. Do my teammates want me to take this shot? But by the end, I could feel their confidence in me. Everybody wanted me to play this role.

Leading up to the game, I was as focused and as locked in as I’ve ever been for a game. I knew that over the years, I had done everything right to get to that point. I deserved to be there. It was the same message I used at every level:

Trust the preparation. I deserve to be confident because of all the time that I put in.

A couple years before, I had read a book called “Flow.” It’s about that flow state that every athlete wants to be in. It helped me develop a few principles and routines. The whole week before the game, I tried to stay off my phone. I listened to music. I did some visualization.

For me, it was always about figuring out the things I could completely control. I never visualized making shots. It might feel like you have a perfect release on a jump shot, but sometimes it doesn’t go in. Instead, I always visualized exactly where I needed to be on the court in every situation.

When they guard me a certain way, how do I react to that and get a teammate open? 

I feel like you’re always chasing that flow state. It’s only happened to me a few times in my career. Even if you prepare perfectly, it’s maybe a 10 percent hit rate.

But I just had a calm that day, a readiness where I wasn’t worried.

All week, coach Kampe kept preaching the same message: There isn’t a better possible situation. You’re playing at 7 p.m. in the prime time slot on the first day of the tournament against arguably one of the biggest brands in college basketball in Kentucky.

All our preparation allowed us to really be present in the moment.

The funny thing is, I don’t remember the exact feeling of too many of the shots I took that day. I think I missed my first two. But what I really remember is that I was celebrating way more than I ever have in my life. And I can’t explain why I did that. I don’t know if it was just the pure emotion or how big a stage it was. I’ve had games before where I’ve hit 10 threes, or I’ve had games where I’ve hit crazy shots. But I’d just never been a celebration guy.

I still don’t really have an answer as to why. I just know I was in a flow state. That’s the best way to describe how I felt that day.

To be honest, what sticks out to me the most is that with a couple minutes left, Kentucky really started turning it on, especially Antonio Reeves. I remember he hit a couple tough threes in a row and put a bunch of points on the board with not much time left. And then my teammate DQ Cole hit a corner three after a great pass from Rocket Watts. We went up four points and essentially sealed the game. And I just have that seared in my mind. He was right in front of our bench, and our whole bench went crazy, and you could hear the whole arena.

When the game was finally over, I knew I had around 30 points. But I didn’t know how many, and I didn’t know I hit 10 threes. It was that moment with DQ that really sticks with me.

I learned so many lessons from that season. I learned about public speaking and how to communicate. I learned how much unity and togetherness really matters in anything you do.

But the last thing was about how surprising it all felt. My whole career, I never felt like I was an overachiever or underachiever. I got to play basketball every day, and that was fulfilling a dream. But after that season was over, I felt like I had worked as hard as I possibly could have. I put in extra time, extra shots. I had coaches who helped me so much. And it paid off at a higher level than I ever expected.

It’s such a cliche, but it taught me the value of believing in yourself and treating others well so they want to reinvest in you. I hope I never lose that.

I want to maintain that work ethic. And I want to be that support for someone else.

— As told to Rustin Dodd