KU football announces dates for 2023 homecoming, family day and more
22 February 2023
LAWRENCE, Kan. (KSNT) – ESPN’s College Gameday bus made a pit stop in Lawrence this weekend for then-No. 5 KU’s matchup against No. 9 Baylor.
The Gameday crew frequent Lawrence for Kansas basketball, but they never have enough praise for historical Allen Fieldhouse.
“There’s nothing, there’s nothing like Allen Fieldhouse,” ESPN College Basketball analyst Jay Bilas said. “It’s a building that has a soul. I mean it’s the best feel of any arena in the country.
On Saturday mornings, ESPN’s College Gameday airs a live pre-game show from one of the weekend’s biggest games. Saturday’s top-10 matchup in Allen Fieldhouse wasn’t something the crew could pass up.
“It’s almost like a pure environment,” ESPN College Basketball analyst Seth Greenberg said of the Fieldhouse. “A pure passion and love where everyone is so much on the same page.”
The Gameday broadcast started at 9 a.m. Saturday morning, but students were lined up outside the Fieldhouse long before then. KU students not only understand how special the evironment at the Fieldhouse can be during a game, but they’re part of what makes it that way.
“How it packed it gets, the people in it, the games played here, everything,” one KU student said when asked what makes Allen Fieldhouse special.
The ESPN crew might enjoy College Gameday in Lawrence just as much as the students do.
“It’s a bucket list experience to be in Allen Fieldhouse for a big game,” Bilas said. “With the Hall of Fame, Naismith’s rules up there and you walk through the hall ways and see 21 Hall of Famers… it’s absurd.”
Perhaps that’s the best way to describe the atmosphere in Allen Fieldhouse: Absurd.
Kansas is currently in first place in the Big 12 and will take the court again in the fieldhouse on Saturday, against West Virginia.