TUCSON – When ESPN held its first college basketball GameDay at McKale on Jan. 28, 2012, it was the show.
The sports broadcasting behemoth, which had agreed to start a 12-year media rights deal with the Pac-12 in 2012-13, showed off its new conference partner, McKale Center and the 1,400 Arizona fans who showed up on an early Saturday morning.
Fans waved signs and fatheads for the two-hour appearance, while Kyle Fogg and Nick Johnson came on to play a little “Know Your Roommate” game, and the GameDay hosts sampled Sonoran hot dogs. Then, later that day, Arizona lost to Washington when Tony Wroten swatted away Josiah Turner’s last-second attempt to tie the game… and the Wildcats went on to end their season in a first-round NIT loss.