Could Wichita State, AfterShocks host future TBT championship week? What TBT CEO says
The AfterShocks’ experience in Dayton wasn’t all heartbreak.
In fact, it could have laid the groundwork for something much bigger potentially coming to Wichita.
Or at least that’s the hope of AfterShocks’ head coach Zach Bush after his interactions with staff members of The Basketball Tournament, as they witnessed the impact of a host school (Dayton alumni Red Scare) playing in the semifinals of the $1 million winner-take-all tournament over the weekend.
“As great as Dayton was, I had multiple people tell me, ‘This is great playing a Final Four in front of their home fans, but it’s still nothing like Wichita was last week.’
“I think Wichita could take it to a whole new level. TBT is a business and they want to make money, so you would think they would have interest coming when our ticket sales are the way they are. As great as (other alumni hosts) are, they’re not doing the numbers we are. It just seems like a match made in heaven.”
The numbers support Bush’s argument: Wichita State fans have helped give the AfterShocks the five largest crowds in TBT history and all nine of their games played at Koch Arena have charted in the top-16 all-time attendance list.
According to a TBT spokesperson, the championship host site is decided on a year-to-year basis. Dayton has hosted the last two years, while other host sites have been Columbus, Chicago, Baltimore, the Bronx and Boston.
So would TBT consider making Wichita the championship host site in the near future?
“Yes, we would definitely consider it,” Jon Mugar, the CEO of TBT, texted The Eagle when asked that question.
It just makes sense to Bush, who points out that Koch Arena has three years of experience hosting TBT regionals and Wichita State has one of the best tournament directors around in Brad Pittman, a senior associate athletic director for facilities in the athletic department.
The biggest drawback would be flying other teams to Wichita, given there are only a handful of direct flights, but Wichita’s growing track record of successfully hosting, attending and supporting both the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Wichita State fans deserve a ton of the credit because none of this happens without them,” Bush said. “We’ve had some incredible crowds here and the fans just love Wichita State basketball and seeing the former players from a really hot 10-year run of great basketball play at Koch Arena again. I think Wichita is the perfect city for it because sports-wise, outside of the Wind Surge, there’s not a lot going on in the summer here. I think our fans would come out in droves to support this if it did happen.”
Wichita’s case is also bolstered by the recent success of the AfterShocks, who are undefeated (7-0) at Koch Arena the last two summers and are one of just three TBT programs to advance to at least the quarterfinals the last two years.
“We’re right there knocking on the door and we’re getting closer and closer,” Bush said. “Experience really does pay off in this and almost all of our guys are roughly that same age where they’re hitting the early stages of the primes of their career and it’s exciting for us and enticing for TBT. I feel like we’ve proven we can get better year after year. We’re right there, now we’ve just got to find a way.”
Even with the wild success TBT has been in Wichita, Bush said he hopes Wichita State fans don’t take it for granted. He wants fans to know that while the players love the experience of playing together in Koch Arena again, it is still a significant commitment for professional basketball players to take two weeks out of their summers.
“As much as this is the coolest thing in the world, it’s still a huge sacrifice for these guys to come back every summer to do this,” Bush said. “You think about living in another country and with the time difference, you barely are able to talk to your family and you’re living in culture shock all the time and doing it for nine months of the year. It’s a grind and it’s mentally tough and draining on these guys. We want to keep doing this, but it’s a huge commitment and one of the reasons these guys come back is because we host. So we need fans to continue to come out and support these guys and make it special for them to keep coming back.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2022 at 11:42 AM.
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