It came as a surprise.

With fans, coaches and players gathered together at the O’rena on Sunday night, the announcement that the Golden Grizzlies would face Texas in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament was an unexpected twist for nearly everyone in attendance.

Oakland University (25-9), which drew a 13-seed, will square off against the fourth-seeded Longhorns on Friday at 12:15 p.m. in Tulsa, Okla. as part of the West region

“I don’t know much about Texas,” head coach Greg Kampe said. “I haven’t seen them play much. I never looked at Texas as a team that we might be playing.”

Of the dozens of bracket projections in the weeks leading up to Selection Sunday, there were few, if any, that paired the Grizzlies with the Longhorns, with most predictions ranking Texas higher than a No. 4 seed.

“This is like a curve ball, and we’ve got to start our (preparation) over tonight because they were not on the radar in any way, shape or form,” Kampe said. “We knew we were going to get a big name. I thought it was going to be Kentucky or Florida, but we knew it was going to be a Top 20 basketball team.”

The Longhorns (27-7), out of the Big 12 conference, were ranked as high as third in the Associated Press Top 25 poll in the latter half of the season.

Texas and Oakland shared two common opponents during the regular season. The Longhorns defeated both Michigan State and Illinois, while OU lost relatively close games to each of those schools back in December.

One advantage the Grizzlies have is the location of the game in Tulsa, home to Oral Roberts University of the Summit League.

“Tulsa is good. We know it;, we know how to get there,” Kampe said. “We know Oral Roberts will let us practice at their facility, so we’ll be very comfortable there.”

Having gained the experience of last year’s tournament appearance, Oakland’s players enter the tournament this year with a greater expectation of pulling out a victory.

“There are people that will pick us to get the upset, but I think the majority of fans will think Texas is going to win,” senior Keith Benson said. “I want to tell my teammates that we aren’t satisfied just to get here and we have bigger goals. We aren’t going to get (to the level) we want to be at until we start winning some games in the tournament.”

Junior Reggie Hamilton, who will be making his first March Madness appearance, said he thinks the team is in a good position despite drawing a formidable Texas team in the opening round.

“We’re ready — throughout the season this team has gotten battle-tested and we’ve played big schools. It’s just a matter of going out an executing,” Hamilton said. “I know a lot of people might expect us to change up our style of play, but I doubt (we will). I think we’ll go out there and stick to Oakland University’s principles.”

The Longhorns are a young team, regularly starting two freshmean and a sophomore. Jordon Hamilton leads the team with in scoring at 18.6 points per game.

The Grizzlies’ offense, which ranks second nationally with an average of 85.6 points per contest, will face some of its stiffest resistance as Texas boasts a stifling defense, particularly on the perimeter.

One area in which Oakland may have an advantage is in the front court, as the Longhorns don’t have the height to match OU’s duo of Benson and Will Hudson. The Longhorns’ rebounding game, however, ranks fifth in the Division I.

With only a few days to familiarize itself with a team the program has never faced, Oakland’s coaches and players will have to implement a game plan to stop one of the nation’s most well-rounded teams.

“It’s exciting, but we still have goals to accomplish in the tournament,” Hudson said. “The coaches will do a great job of preparing us this upcoming week against Texas.”