ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ barrels toward Koch Arena

There’s a moment each Saturday for Seth Greenberg when it all comes together.

“What makes the show, what creates that buzz is the live crowd and when they come on,” said Greenberg, one of the analysts on ESPN’s “College GameDay.” “That’s a high. It’s a different energy.

“And that’s what’s coming to Wichita.”

ESPN’s signature college basketball show is bringing a boatload of hype ahead of Saturday’s showdown between No. 10 Northern Iowa and No. 11 Wichita State at 1 p.m. at Koch Arena.

With it, “GameDay” brings faces familiar to college basketball fans: Greenberg, a former coach at Long Beach State, South Florida and Virginia Tech; former Duke star Jay Williams; outspoken analyst Jay Bilas; and host Rece Davis.

Another ESPN analyst, Stephen A. Smith, will join the show in Wichita, which will air live from 10 to 11 a.m. before moving to Lawrence at 3 p.m. for an hour before Texas plays No. 8 Kansas.

Greenberg will stay in Wichita to do his “Behind the Bench” segment during the WSU game.

“I’ve been friends with (WSU coach) Gregg Marshall for a long time, and (WSU assistant coach) Steve Forbes is one of my dear friends,” Greenberg said. “Gregg is one of the best evaluators of talent in the nation, and he’s so passionate about coaching, so passionate about promoting the game. He is one of the most genuine people I know.”

“GameDay” will have a pre-recorded hour – filmed at WSU – that will air from 9 to 10 a.m. on ESPNU, leading into the live segment at Koch Arena, which WSU hopes will be done in front of a capacity crowd.

Koch Arena holds 10,506 people. It’s only the second time “GameDay” has been broadcast from a Missouri Valley Conference school after going to Carbondale, Ill., for a 2008 game between Creighton and Southern Illinois.

“You get 8,000 or 10,000 in there … that’s going to be a different feeling,” said Greenberg, who led Long Beach State to an upset of No. 1 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in 1993. “It’s a different feeling for the people in the crowd, and it’s a different feeling for the millions of people watching on television.”

Students can enter at the east entrance of Koch Arena at 8:15 a.m. to get into the prime seating behind the “GameDay” set before the public enters at 8:30. WSU plans to have a series of giveaways, games and promotions to help fill the 90 minutes before “GameDay” goes live.

The logistics

It’s not the logistics of getting people in and out of the arena that concerns WSU the most – it’s the weather.

The crowd will be ushered out immediately following the live taping, and ticket-holders for the game can enter at 11:30 a.m. But Saturday’s forecast is for a high of 30 degrees and a 70 percent chance of snow.

“The weather forecast is our No. 1 concern, because we hope to have a large group of people coming in the building, which means they’ll be stuck outside until we let them in,” said John Brewer, WSU associate athletic director of marketing and strategic communications. “If there’s a nasty storm, I feel bad for our fans.

“We’re going to spend the majority of our time this week on logistics, so we’ll be as ready as we can, but we also understand that there will be some things that happen that are out of our control. But once we get the arena cleared (after ‘GameDay’), it’s a 10- to 15-minute process to open the doors again. That’s something we do 17 times per year, so we’re very organized when it comes to that.”

Brewer got a head start on preparation by contacting schools that have already hosted the show this season, including Iowa State, Southern Methodist University and Arizona.

“There have been people petitioning, formally or informally, for two years to put us in this position,” Brewer said. “It’s a great opportunity to show off our building and show off our basketball program but also to give back to our fans, because they deserve it. They deserved it last year.”

#GameDayinWichita

Leading the charge to get “GameDay” to Wichita – outside of the Shockers – has been Mike Ross’ sport management class at WSU.

After “GameDay’s” announcement last Saturday, Ross allowed his students a few seconds to pat themselves on the back, but not much else.

“Good job,” Ross said. “Now let’s get back to work.”

Last season, his class made bringing “GameDay” to Wichita a project to teach students how to develop a marketing campaign using social media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and others – and created #BringGameDaytoWichita. It’s a project that, while it didn’t work last year, carried over into this school year. And it worked this time.

On Monday, Ross preached about how critical time was to the students, with the focus getting as many fans as possible into Koch Arena. Almost immediately, the class decided to change the hashtag to #GameDayinWichita.

Ross went over a rundown of social media accounts, and they went on the attack.

“The motivating factor has been that appeal to people’s passion for their team, with going against the people who said, ‘It’s not going to happen there,’” Ross said. “Now, those same people will get even more vocal to try and, in their minds, expose Wichita State.

“And if we don’t have a big turnout, that will provide fuel to those folks. It will show the world’s right, that we didn’t deserve it.”

This story was originally published February 25, 2015 at 8:20 AM with the headline "ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ barrels toward Koch Arena."