March Madness: How instant tourney sensations like Jack Gohlke capitalize on their brief moment in the spotlight

Jack Gohlke left his Pittsburgh hotel room the morning of March 21, 2024, about as anonymous as a college basketball player can be.

By the time he returned that night, Gohlke had gone from Horizon League obscurity to overnight celebrity.

There was only one reason Oakland coach Greg Kampe called upon Gohlke early in the Golden Grizzlies’ first-round NCAA tournament matchup against Kentucky. Gohlke’s job was to launch threes, to bomb away without a conscience. He took 335 shots during the regular season. All but eight were from behind the arc.

Multiple future NBA guards chased Gohlke around screens during Oakland’s stunning 80-76 takedown of Kentucky, but they had no answer for the 24-year-old grad transfer from Division II Hillsdale College. He drained 10 threes, each more audacious than the last. He curled around screens, stepped back, even pulled up from just inside the logo.

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Gohlke only began to grasp the enormity of his achievement after Oakland’s giddy locker room celebration subsided. His phone buzzed nonstop. His Instagram following climbed from 500 into the tens of thousands. Scott Van Pelt interviewed him on SportsCenter. The Pat McAfee Show booked him for the next morning.

When Gohlke naively ventured into the stands in uniform to thank friends and family who had traveled to see him play, the response astonished him. Strangers who were watching the NC State-Texas Tech game in Pittsburgh swarmed Gohlke like he was a rockstar.

“I couldn’t even walk around the arena because there were so many people stopping me for pictures, autographs, all that type of stuff,” Gohlke told Yahoo Sports. “I was like, ‘What is going on?’ Honestly, it didn’t register at all that people would care who I was.”

While Gohlke was shrewd enough to realize that the flood of interest represented opportunity in the new NIL era of college athletics, he initially had no idea how to try to take advantage. He had no NIL agent or marketing representative. There previously hadn’t been much of a market for a catch-and-shoot specialist from Pewaukee, Wisconsin.

“It was difficult to figure out what I should even do, much less how to find time to do it,” Gohlke said. “I wanted to stay focused on our next game. I didn’t want to divert my attention from that.”

That might have been that, except Gohlke had a lifelong friend in the crowd that day who had interned for a sports agency a couple summers earlier.

“Jack’s such a down-to-earth guy that, in his eyes, blowing up was almost a nuisance at that time,” Ben Miller told Yahoo Sports. “But I knew this could be a big opportunity for him. I started thinking in my head how I could help him.”

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - MARCH 21: A fan holds a cut out of the head of Jack Gohlke #3 of the Oakland Golden Grizzlies in the second half of the game against the Kentucky Wildcats during the first round of the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament held at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 21, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) — A fan holds a cut out of the head of Jack Gohlke, who became an instant sensation during last year's NCAA tournament when he hit 10 3-pointers to lead Oakland in an upset victory over Kentucky. (Justin Berl/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Strike while the iron is hot

Gohlke’s situation exemplifies why a hero moment early in the NCAA tournament seldom is the instant NIL lottery ticket it would seem to be. A breakout performance or buzzer beater typically has the shelf life of a carton of milk on a summer day. The March Madness news cycle moves too quickly for either a brand or an athlete to take full advantage.

Brands only have a brief window to strike after a buzzy NCAA tournament moment until it loses relevance. Players have little to no free time to negotiate a deal or appear on camera during that window, between practices, walk-throughs, film sessions, media obligations and other preparations for some of the biggest games of their lives. In Gohlke’s case, he had another game to play in less than 48 hours.

“It’s definitely challenging,” said sports marketing executive Michael Ehrlich, founder and CEO of the brand consultancy and talent representation firm Playbook Marketing. “If you’re an athlete, you want to keep the main thing the main thing, but also in this NIL universe you have to strike while the iron is hot. You might have a Cinderella moment and then the next day you might be out of it.”

Speed and creativity are key for companies determined to partner with an NCAA tournament flash in the pan. They must identify the next Ali Farokhmanesh, Tyus Edney or Bryce Drew as they’re gaining traction on social media, hunt for contact information and negotiate a contract immediately and then find a way to create a campaign on the fly.

Among those who excel at this are T-shirt companies who turn trends on social media into fan apparel, said AthleteZ PR founder Megan Curry, a former Adidas executive who transitioned into the NIL space four years ago. Owners of a T-shirt company might identify a buzzy NCAA tournament moment and create a couple designs based on it within hours. Then they’ll reach out to the college athlete in question offering to pay a cut of the revenue in return for using his or her name, image and likeness.

“The terrible part is I don’t know what percentage of the revenue these kids are actually getting,” Curry told Yahoo Sports. “Is it 2%, 4%, 12%, 20%? Nobody will disclose what they’re giving these kids, but these kids say yes because they want to capitalize on the moment.”

Chain restaurants have also been successful partnering with unexpected NCAA tournament heroes. In 2022, Buffalo Wild Wings pioneered the idea by delivering boxfuls of wings to Saint Peter’s star Doug Edert at the team hotel after the 15th-seeded Peacocks toppled Kentucky and Murray State to advance to the Sweet 16. Buffalo Wild Wings then inserted itself into the moment, paying Edert an undisclosed amount in return for taking pictures and video of himself celebrating by plowing through wings.

Saint Peter's guard Doug Edert has signed an NIL deal with Buffalo Wild Wings 🍗 pic.twitter.com/l207Tm2P4T
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 23, 2022

These deals come together in less than 24 hours, but sometimes it’s very apparent that these athletes are not content creators by trade.

“To produce high-level content while they’re focused on the biggest moments of their lives, it’s always challenging,” Ehrlich said. “You see a lot of athletes posting content from the lobby or a hotel ballroom. That doesn’t necessarily have the premium feel of a large campaign.”

DJ Burns, the gregarious star of 11th-seeded NC State’s surprise 2024 Final Four run, was the athlete who had the most NIL success during last year’s NCAA tournament. America fell in love with the teddy bear of a center who was built like a nightclub bouncer, moved like a ballet dancer and spoke with the charisma of a WWE superstar.

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A post shared by DJ Burns BIG 30♨️ (@dj.b30)

Adidas, Raising Cane’s, Intuit TurboTax and CVS Pharmacy were among the corporate brands that signed Burns to endorsement deals during the NCAA tournament. Ken Caldwell and Mike Naiditch, Burns’ marketing managers, told Yahoo Sports on the eve of last year’s Final Four that Burns made “six figures” in endorsement revenue over the previous few weeks.

“If we did every single deal he’s been offered, DJ wouldn’t have time to play in the game on Saturday,” Naiditch said with a laugh before last year’s Final Four. “The game has to come first."

Friends to the rescue

When Gohlke’s moment in the spotlight arrived, he didn’t have time to search for a marketing representative like Naiditch. Gohlke instead left it in the hands of two trusted friends who grew up with him in the Milwaukee suburbs.

Neither Miller nor Grant Basile were qualified to serve as Gohlke’s makeshift agents, but they at least were familiar with the NIL space. Miller had interned at Athletes First during summer 2022 before deciding to become a financial analyst instead. Basile plays professional basketball in Italy and starred for Virginia Tech during the onset of the NIL era.

The first thing Miller and Basile did was create an email address for inquiries and have Gohlke post it to his Instagram bio. Then they sifted through dozens of messages there and in his DMs in search of opportunities that might interest him.

“The easy part for Jack was we weren't some random, slimy NIL agent coming in trying to make a quick buck,” Miller said. “This was friend to friend. He could trust us. That’s what made the whole situation so fun and awesome.”

While the majority of the messages Gohlke received were from NIL agents or basketball trainers peddling their services or from bitter Kentucky fans, Miller and Basile also discovered quite a few serious offers. One from TurboTax was the first to catch their eye. They thought it was fitting in light of all the social media jokes during the Kentucky game that Gohlke looked like a future accountant.

When TurboTax proposed paying Gohlke to shoot a social media ad for them, Miller’s response revealed his inexperience in contract negotiations. He immediately accepted the initial offer and triumphantly presented it to Gohlke.

“Did you ask for anything else?” Gohlke asked, causing Miller to go quiet.

“I forgot you’re supposed to negotiate,” Miller responded, sheepishly. “We took the first number.”

On the off day between Oakland’s first-round upset of Kentucky and its second-round matchup with NC State, Miller shot footage of Gohlke for the TurboTax spot on his iPhone in the ballroom of the Golden Grizzlies’ team hotel. By the end of the weekend, Gohlke also recorded a video for OOfos slides with teammate Trey Townsend and an ad with Buffalo Wild Wings.

Sent the game to overtime so that meant more great times @bwwings AND six free boneless wings. This March Madness, order using Blazin' Rewards before the last game of the day goes into overtime to receive the offer #OvertimeDeal #NIL #sponsored pic.twitter.com/MsPajxs1aE
— Jack Gohlke (@jgohlke34) March 25, 2024

The experience of talking into the camera was “really uncomfortable,” according to Gohlke, as was promoting himself on social media.

Gohlke said he made “a little below six figures” via endorsements by the end of last summer. That’s pennies on the dollar compared to the high six-figure and low seven-figure NIL deals prized transfers or McDonald’s All-Americans receive when they sign with a school, but it’s very comparable to the money previous March Madness heroes have made.

Before Oakland’s game against NC State, Miller joked with Gohlke that he was one more win away from appearing on Good Morning America and other even more visible shows. Alas, that didn’t materialize. Oakland’s March joyride skidded to a halt with an overtime loss to the Wolfpack despite Gohlke’s 22 points and 8 rebounds.

Gohlke parlayed his success on the NCAA tournament stage into a summer-league stint with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The undrafted rookie free agent is currently playing limited minutes for the G-League’s Motor City Cruise.

When asked if he would do anything differently to further take advantage of his sudden fame last March, Gohlke said he’s content with how he handled it.

“I didn't spend too much time worrying about it,” Gohlke said. “I wasn't on my phone. I wasn't worried about those emails or DMs or anything like that. I was focused on the next game. I was fortunate to have my friends who could help me handle that stuff.”

It was a memory that Miller says he’ll treasure forever. While he has no plans to pursue a career as a sports agent, he’s grateful he got a taste of that life while also helping a lifelong friend.

“What made it so fun was doing it for Jack,” Miller said. “He could have easily just hired some random NIL agent, but instead he made awesome memories for all of us.”