Wednesday’s Gonzaga-North Carolina game drawing a flood of reporters, scouts
A matchup between No. 2-ranked Gonzaga and North Carolina has the media and NBA in a frenzy. More than 20 scouts and 60 members of the media have requested to attend the game.
The issue for the athletic department is fitting more than 80 people into the approximately 22 available seats.
For GU, it is one of – if not probably the most – requested games in the history of the Zags’ home games.
And because of the overcrowding, the pressure is on men’s basketball sports information director Barrett Henderson.
“We’re doing a few different creative options this game to where we’re going to fit 21 scouts, 64 media requests,” he said.
And while he would like to accommodate everyone, he has had to decline the requests of three people access to the game.
“It has been challenging to say the least,” he said.
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With quality opponents coming to Spokane and top NBA prospects coming out of GU, the amount of media and scouts has been above the 22-seat limit a few times.
Most of those happened last season when the Japanese media was – rightfully so – enamored with Rui Hachimura. All season, Henderson had to juggle the Japanese media along with the normal amount of media wanting access to the Kennel.
So while the athletic department has had to balance a large amount of requests before, this is unprecedented, including on where Henderson is planning on seating people.
“We’re putting some people up by the cameras, we’re getting pretty creative this game,” he said.
The cameras are above the students’ side of the arena, higher than any other seat in the house. Three media members also will be situated in the media room, which is usually set aside for the media to eat and grab the team stat guides.