How Wichita State has become a ‘case study’ for the potential power of TBT basketball
What the AfterShocks, the city of Wichita, and the Wichita State University athletic department have been able to accomplish in their brief, two-year run in The Basketball Tournament has been unprecedented.
In 2019, the first year TBT came to Koch Arena, WSU fans more than doubled the attendance record with 7,184 fans for the AfterShocks’ debut game.
This year, the AfterShocks successfully added the alumni weekend to the schedule and the attendance for Tuesday night’s regional championship game against Team Challenge ALS is expected to challenge WSU’s record from 2019.
“Wichita really is a case study for what we think the potential for TBT is,” said Jennette Puzzo, TBT’s vice president of events. “This is a venue where we feel like we finally have the level of excitement that the competition on the court warrants. This is definitely a unique atmosphere here in Wichita and we definitely appreciate it and we want to keep coming back here year after year.”
TBT founder Jon Mugar remembers talking with former Shocker Karon Bradley, who coached the AfterShocks in 2019, before the event made its debut in Wichita. Bradley promised him WSU fans wouldn’t disappoint. Mugar was skeptical.
Then he saw the atmosphere of the first game and saw his dreams for what TBT could be were being realized in Wichita. Now he makes sure to experience at least one AfterShocks game in person with plans of returning to Wichita to catch a WSU game at Koch Arena some day.
“I was just blown away by the arena and the fans and the support back in 2019,” Mugar said. “What Wichita has here is totally unique. The character of this building and the fan base is unlike anything we’ve had before. And we’ve had some amazing fan bases like Ohio State, Syracuse, West Virginia. But the fans here are just incredible. We would love to keep coming back here every time they want to field a team.”
There are passionate fan bases all over the country and there are college towns that love to support their teams. So what makes TBT such a hit for Wichita State fans?
TBT officials would tell you Wichita is special because every single party — from the alumni to the WSU men’s basketball team to the WSU athletic department to the city of Wichita — is pulling together in the same direction for a level of unity that is beyond rare in their experiences.
Visit Wichita provides support to TBT. The AfterShocks’ current brain trust of Zach Bush, Ron Baker, J.R. Simon and Garrett Stutz help develop the vision. WSU men’s basketball head coach Isaac Brown supports that vision and various members of the WSU athletic department help the AfterShocks bring it to fruition. WSU fans have embraced the new venture entirely.
“It really is cohesive,” Bush said. “Our fans want to show the whole country how great of a fan base this is. Our players want to play in front of these fans. TBT wants to keep coming here. We have so much help from people like (WSU academic services) Gretchen Torline behind the scenes. It really is a beautiful thing to see it all come together like this.”
While all parties can be perfectly aligned, that still doesn’t guarantee fans coming out in droves for summer basketball games. Bush and Mugar both agree, in the end, what separates WSU from the rest of the country is its fans — evident by all four AfterShocks’ games charting on TBT’s highest attendance record board.
Clevin Hannah even credited the crowd afterward as the reason the AfterShocks were able to pull off their miraculous comeback win over the Omaha Blue Crew on Sunday.
“Whenever I think about a TBT game, I always wonder if it was a good product on the court,” Mugar said. “But whenever we have a Wichita game, I don’t have to worry about that because the fans are a part of what makes it a good product. I know every game in Wichita is going to present well on TV because the fans are so into it and they’re sophisticated and they understand what’s going on. They just get basketball so well.”
“I don’t know if you can pinpoint exactly what it is about Wichita, but if you ask me, it all comes down to our fans,” Bush said. “You can’t say enough about what they mean to us. We know they love basketball and they love good basketball and that’s what we try to give them. I hope they know how important they are to all of this because this doesn’t happen without them and their interest and support and them showing up and packing Koch Arena.”
.jpg)