Wichita abuzz for Sunday’s showdown between Shockers, Jayhawks

There was no escaping the buzz rippling around Wichita on Saturday.

Lines of people waited for doors to open at sports apparel stores and snapped up merchandise within minutes.

Phones rang almost incessantly at sports bars as people sought to reserve tables.

Fans plastered vehicles with decals and flew flags from car windows.

“It’s like the Final Four” for Wichita State two years ago, Sports Time Fan Shop inventory manager Shana Garrity said Saturday. “That’s about as close as I can recall to what’s happening now.”

But Sunday’s game isn’t a national semifinal. For some, the University of Kansas and Wichita State meeting in the third round of the NCAA Tournament for a spot in the Sweet 16 is even bigger than that.

“People are saying this is the championship game,” Michael Lunnan of Augusta said as he took a break Saturday from applying Shocker decals to his vehicle’s windows in east Wichita.

For the state of Kansas, at least.

“It’s definitely something big,” Lunnan said.

Kansas Sampler opened two hours early on Rock Road and sold out of all of its apparel linked to the Sunflower State showdown in a matter of minutes. Shirts sporting both WuShock and the Jayhawk mascot also vanished quickly at the Wichita State University bookstore and Tad’s Locker Room in east Wichita.

“We sold out of the gray (shirt) in about 10 minutes,” said Caitlin Dickey, assistant retail manger for the Wichita State bookstore.

A fresh batch of T-shirts touting the game should arrive at Kansas Sampler by Sunday morning, employees said.

“People are just excited,” said Jessica Butler, store manager for Kansas Sampler. “They’ve been wanting to see this game. It’s been a long time coming.”

The teams haven’t met on the basketball court in more than 22 years. Wichita State has beaten Kansas only twice. One of those wins was in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 in 1981 in New Orleans, dubbed by Shocker fans as the “Battle of New Orleans.”

“Battle of Omaha” T-shirts were snapped up within minutes of stores opening on Saturday. “Shock the Rock” and “Rock the Shock” T-shirts sold out quickly as well.

“This is cool,” Don Colville of Albuquerque said as he browsed in Kansas Sampler with his daughter Nicole. “You’ve got to love the fever pitch of it.”

Sports bars were preparing for a huge day Sunday, too.

“It’s going to be standing room only in all the rooms,” said Jason Evans, bar manager for Fox and Hound. “There’s a lot of energy behind this game.”

Sunday “will be a wild ride for everyone involved,” he said.

Heroes manager Cyrus Fleming said he’s expecting a large crowd Sunday, and he’s preparing drink specials for the big day. He plans to let Shocker and Jayhawk fans mingle freely unless tempers start to flare.

“It depends on their behavior” as to what he’ll do, Fleming said. “I’m sure every table will be full of both WSU and KU fans.”

Joe Bryan, a bartender at Larry Bud’s on Woodlawn, said the phone had been ringing steadily as people looked for a place to watch the game. The Shockers meeting the Jayhawks on the basketball court is fueling the same sense of anticipation, he said, as May’s long-awaited clash in the boxing ring between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

“It should be a zoo in here, to be honest,” Bryan said.

Not everyone was excited to see the two teams play each other, however.

“I cried” when both teams won, Marilyn Slaymaker said Saturday. “KU’s my school, but I love my Shockers.”

She went to KU and will root for the Jayhawks, she said, but she has a granddaughter attending Wichita State. She and her husband go to both Shocker and Jayhawk games.

“It’s going to be awful,” she said. “I may not even watch.”

She’d feel better about this showdown if it were the Elite Eight or the Final Four. At least then she could feel good about the winner achieving something special, she said.

But Sunday’s Round of 32 is “too soon,” Slaymaker said. “They’re both too good to be beat out” so soon.

Lunnan said he won’t jockey for space at one of Wichita’s sports bars to watch the game. He wants to watch it at home in Augusta, “just in case,” he said. “Nothing’s guaranteed in the tournament.”

Colville will be rooting for the underdog Shockers to pull off the upset while at the home of his daughter, who will be rooting for the Jayhawks. He can’t wait.

“It’s put up or shut up time,” he said.

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Wichita abuzz for Sunday’s showdown between Shockers, Jayhawks."