Pencil in the Oct. 17 Late Night in the Phog and Nov. 18 CBE Classic game against Florida Gulf Coast as “banner days” for Kansas University basketball this season.
ESPNU will televise KU’s unveiling of a temporary national championship banner as a highlight of this year’s Late Night, KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony confirmed Monday.
That banner will hang at a yet-to-be determined place in the south end zone.
“It will be there at least through this year. We’re still talking about that,” he added of future plans for the south end zone banner. “It may end up in the new practice facility.”
A smaller rectangular Final Four banner and Big 12 championship banner will also be unveiled at Late Night.
An official 2008 national championship banner, identical to the four in the north rafters, will be unfurled next to the other four in a pregame ceremony before the Gulf Coast game on Nov. 18. That banner unveiling will be shown on ESPN, the game itself on ESPNU.
It will be one of the highlights of ESPN’s all-day coverage celebrating the opening of college hoops season. KU’s women will play Iowa at 1 p.m. that day on ESPN, meaning there’s a rare men’s-women’s doubleheader at KU.
“We are the only women’s game of the whole day,” Marchiony said. “We’re very excited the women are part of this. We think it’s a chance to showcase the progress Bonnie (Henrickson) and her staff have made, so we’re excited about it.”
