8:47 a.m. -- The band has been doing its best to keep the crowd going, but the arrival of Bilas on the set brings the fans to their feet. A young woman is holding a sign near the front row and asks the Duke grad if he would marry her.

8:53 a.m. -- The gang's all here. Phelps grabs a microphone and starts to whip the crowd into frenzy. He leads a "Let's go, Warriors" chant.

* * *

8:59 a.m. -- Here we go, the big screen is showing a live shot of the crowd, which has erupted louder than if Dwyane Wade himself walked into the building. After Davis' live shot, Phelps - always working the room - tells the students to keep up the enthusiasm all morning.

"He's always coaching," Davis says of his on-air partner. "The way he picks the guy to lead the cheers, he works with the band, he gets them fired up."

* * *

Phelps is a unique individual. He spent 20 years on the Notre Dame sidelines, leading the Irish to a 393-197 record with the school's only trip to the Final Four. Ask him to talk about the meetings between Notre Dame and Marquette and you might be there awhile.

"Al McGuire was like a big brother to me when I started coaching at Fordham," Phelps says. "He's always been a dear friend and we've always had a great relationship between the two schools."

Phelps credits McGuire for much of his own coaching style, and said that the late coach's ability to get people not to like him is what made even his most bitter rivals admire him.

"Nobody was better at the game of psychology than Al McGuire. He taught me what it was like. When I was coaching against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, I was trying to be like Al McGuire."

"He taught me how to get the crowd and referees to focus all their attention on you so they forget about their team so with 2 minutes to go in the game, they're trying to figure out how you just beat them. It was a game of psychology and he was the master psychologist."

While the two were coaching, Marquette and Notre Dame faced off seven times, with the then-Warriors winning five. The atmosphere, Phelps says, was similar to what he was seeing this morning and brought back some fond memories.

"I grew up in New York State and it was like the old CYO games. It was Notre Dame, DePaul and Marquette," he said. "That triangle was very special and got us to the point where we as independents dominated college basketball in the late 1970s. Marquette won the title in '77, we got to the Final Four in '78, and DePaul went in '79. Then all of a sudden, there's the Big East and all three schools are in the conference now, which is what they needed."

* * *

9:35 a.m. -- To pass the time, there's a GameDay look-a-like contest going on. There's a lot of interesting costumes and signs in the crowd including one supporting center Ousmane Barro for Pope, numerous play-on-words referring to Pittsburgh and ESPN, and one that says Marquette has given up losing for lent. Two of the more creative: "Gray's Anatomy", describing Pitt center Aaron Grey in a not-so-flattering manner and one that says "Brittney Spears is Crazy for Marquette".

9:42 a.m. -- Under the stands, Kristin Pinkowski is with the Marquette band. Getting up at 7 a.m. to play when there's an 8 p.m. game the same day isn't the greatest part of college, but doing it for "GameDay" is worth it for the senior.

"It's awesome," Pinkowski says. "A lot of my friends at Big Ten schools haven't had GameDay there, so this is really a cool experience to play on ESPN."

9:47 a.m. -- Sitting in with the band this morning is a familiar face to longtime Marquette fans. Former standout Jim McIlvaine likes to pick up the drumsticks and join in whenever he can. The current color commentator on Golden Eagle radio broadcasts says it's a good deal: the band members get kringle in exchange for letting him in on the fun.

"I played in high school, but since I played basketball after my freshman year I couldn't play in the pep band," McIlvaine explains. "Now is my chance."

McIlvaine is blown away by the crowd at the Bradley Center this morning. While he was part of the team that started the program's turnaround, student support was much different in the early 1990s.

"It's leaps and bounds," he says. "People can't even begin to realize how much bigger this is than when I played 10 to 15 years ago. The Al, the students' support, and everything is bigger now."

* * *

9:49 a.m. -- Phelps just gave students a 10-minute warning they don't need; these guys are ready to roar.

9:59 a.m. -- The band starts playing "Ring Out, Ahoya," the fans are going nuts. On the floor, you cannot hear anything. How in the world can the hosts do a live broadcast?

"It's a lot of thanks to technology," Rece Davis says. "My headphones allow me to hear the show, but we still get the noise in there. You feed off the energy, but you need to have good focus."

* * *

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5 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by sandstorm on March 5, 2007 at 4:58 p.m. (report)

"Danielle DiVito" I know it was a long day, andrew, and your article is excellent, but please don't tell me you believed the kid when she told you her name was "Danielle DiVito". lol.

Posted by AJStanislaw on March 5, 2007 at 3:12 p.m. (report)

Give this guy a raise!

Posted by Hainer on March 5, 2007 at 7:55 a.m. (report)

Excellent piece!

Posted by D on March 5, 2007 at 4:18 a.m. (report)

Fantastic article... summed up the day's events perfectly. I was in line at 12:30 AM on Saturday and watched the line wrap around the corner by 4. The Gameday atmosphere was incredible, for a smaller school like MU to bring that many people was impressive, and you could tell this meant something to the students there. How we were able to keep that energy level all the way through the game, I don't know, but it was a day I won't soon forget.

Posted by Tim on March 4, 2007 at 2:10 p.m. (report)

Awesome, baby! With a capital A! This was great for Milwaukee and even better for the best University in the state: Marquette. Let's go Warriors. Really good behind-the-scenes look. College GameDay is huge and it's a feather in the cap of MU, Fr. Wild and Coach Crean to get it here. Bring on March Madness, baby! Good luck to MU and UW.