‘We’re having a ball.’ Kentucky fans eat up ‘College GameDay’ experience.
ESPN “College GameDay” analyst Jay Williams looked a little unsteady on the horse he chose to ride out on for the big reveal of his pick to win Saturday’s game between No. 8 Kentucky and No. 9 Kansas.
But he confidently ripped open his shirt Superman style to show a Kansas jersey to the jeers of an estimated 4,500 fans at Rupp Arena for the live show.
“Knock him off the horse,” one fan could be heard yelling from the stands as Williams strode across in front of the end zone seats on Doc Master from Sally S. Schu Racing Stable in Versailles.
“That horse wants to buck you right now,” host Rece Davis said as the boos rang down.
Williams and his colleagues know what they’re in for on set whenever they go against the home team in any commentary they make, especially at Kentucky. The fans revealed as much in a pre-show Q & A with the crowd, booing any answer that didn’t involve the Big Blue.
“If the answer to every question that you ask is going to be Kentucky, we can do that if you want,” Bilas teased the crowd as he sat alongside Seth Greenberg and Williams. “OK, it’s Kentucky. No. 1? Kentucky. Deepest team? Kentucky. Team that looks best in another color than blue? Kentucky. Whatever you like.”
But it was all in good fun. During their two days here, the ESPN panel, including Williams, professed a great appreciation for the Wildcats and their fans.
“For me, Cal (UK Coach John Calipari) is my boy,” Williams said Friday after the crew’s production meeting. “Karl-Anthony Towns came here. We went to the same high school. … Whenever I get a chance to come to Big Blue Nation and Rupp, I just love it, because they are basketball diehards and they love their squad. And they always show up. You can’t say that about every fan base.”
While UK’s showing Saturday morning did not match the “GameDay” record of 22,000 in Rupp during Calipari’s first season, fans were in line all the way to the doors at Rupp when gates opened at 9 a.m. They filled the lower sideline seats making a full crowd shot for the cameras behind the set and generously filled the opposite sideline as well for the show’s eighth appearance in Lexington.
The show featured an interview with Calipari, after which UK’s cheerleaders brought Rupp Arena ice cream cones to Cal and the ESPN hosts.
“We’re having a ball,” said Krystle Grall of Nicholasville who came with her husband, Cannan and their daughter Aubrey. It was Aubrey’s first visit to Rupp Arena. “She woke up this morning to her dad chanting ‘Rupp Arena! Rupp Arena!’”
“It’s free. It’s ESPN. And we don’t have tickets tonight, so we figured we’d come while we could.” Cannan Grall said.
This week marked the 15th anniversary of the basketball “College GameDay,” a milestone noted by Bilas on Twitter this week. Bilas and host Rece Davis have been with the show since the beginning.
The show has evolved quite a bit since those early days. The very first was at UConn.
“We were up in the corner of Gampel Pavilion … in the concourse and the students were down in the student section facing an empty floor,” Davis said. “We had a couple of cameras down there, and we’d tell them ‘Yell,’ and they’d go ‘Yay’ and it was kind of weird. … We weren’t too deep into the show before they started making accommodations for us to be out on the floor and it sort of changed the dynamic of the show, I think.”
Kentucky fans needed no such prodding on Saturday, but Bilas fired them up by shooting T-shirts into the crowd as they first arrived during one of the “SportsCenter” teases. After the cameras were off, Davis thanked the crowd and hinted the show would probably be back for the Feb. 16 game against No. 1 Tennessee.
“Lexington, the people are great. They love the game,” Greenberg said ahead of the production Friday. Unlike Williams, Greenberg did pick UK to win Saturday. “The people and their passion and how much they care is fun. I’ve been in Lexington a bunch because of Cal’s camps. … People love ball in this state.”
‘College GameDay’ facts
Shows at Rupp Arena: 8
Shows featuring Kentucky: 17
Kentucky’s “GameDay” record: 6-10
Kansas’ “GameDay” record: 11-5
UK winners of the State Farm half-court shot during the show: 0 (UK student Trey Cline of Grayson missed his attempts, but took home $1,900. This week’s prize for a make was $19,000.)
About the light sticks: UK distributed light sticks for the show left over from Big Blue Madness for a special shot on return from a commercial break. The UK cheerleaders performed their pyramid for the shot, which was rehearsed ahead of the show.