College Game Day comes to Butler

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Saturday morning brings another first to Indianapolis – for Butler University in particular. ESPN will broadcast its College Game Day show from Hinkle Fieldhouse.  

"I've been looking forward to this," said host Rece Davis. "It's one of the things that I've been pushing, for years.  I've wanted to go to some of the great venues, some of the great old places." 

It's hard to imagine a place with more history and tradition than Hinkle. 

Host Jay Bilas said, "you're in the same building and in the same atmosphere that people watched basketball 50 years and it's still great." 

As he sees it, college basketball is not all about amenities and skyboxes.

Both Bilas and Davis praised Butler for its performance not just its place.  

"Buildings are great. Good teams are better," said Davis.

That's why both men are eager for the ESPN Prime Time game, Saturday night. Butler will play Gonzaga. 

"Two great programs, period," Bilas said.

"Programs like Butler and Gonzaga have made a commitment to winning, and they've got cultures of winning, and they get great coaches and keep 'em," Bilas said. "They've had continuity of great coaches. Brad Stevens, as great a coach as he is, isn't the only great coach this place has ever had.  And I think that speaks really well of the Butler program."

Davis acknowledged both as "brand name" teams. 

He's confident the game from Hinkle, the premiere of ESPN's games in prime time, will be a ratings success.