Gu Standard Time Clocks Set, Schedules Adjusted For Today’S Basketball Game

Someone tries to buy a Gonzaga sweat shirt off a nun’s back in Seattle.

Campus meetings shift for today’s game.

News crews set up studios on campus.

Absolutely nothing at GU can escape the Bulldog fever that’s making a big-dog impact on day-to-day campus life.

The campus - under siege from the success of its basketball team - bowed under pressure to clear the calendar for today’s 12:40 p.m. game.

David Bergen, dean of students, was scheduled to give a short speech at 12:30 p.m. at a fund-raiser lunch.

“Because of the game, we moved it back to noon,” Bergen said. Then he’ll be off to find the nearest television. “I haven’t even written my speech yet. I don’t know when I’m going to write it.”

In the Crosby Student Center, the Friday deadline for summer employment applications was extended to Monday. Jen Powell fielded calls from panicked students.

The only caller who admitted being in Phoenix was her boss.

Sara Hamilton, a junior involved with GUSTO, a Gonzaga group that helps Spokane agencies, hoped to round up 150 students and teachers for volunteer work today.

“We’ve had to cut back a little because of the game,” Hamilton said. “They’re really apprehensive about signing up.”

She promises the volunteers they won’t miss any of the action. “You get your service out of the way,” Hamilton said, “and get home in time for the tip-off.”

Some events didn’t budge, like the annual luau scheduled for today, sponsored by the Hawaii Pacific Islanders Club.

Generally, tickets sell out early, but 100 tickets were still unsold Friday afternoon.

Charissa Luke, club president, said people wanted to move the event, but the food was already being cooked. She wasn’t about to call 200-plus ticketholders to postpone the feast.

The madness caused by the NCAA Tournament has been spreading for some time.

Sister Laura Michels missed two flights in Seattle Thursday night while watching the game.

The assistant director of campus ministry said it was worth it.

“You could hear it all over the airport,” she said. “There were little spots of cheering.”

Then someone offered the nun $20 for the sweat shirt off her back. She handed the guy a T-shirt she had in her bag instead.

Seems everyone wants something that says Bulldogs on it.

“We’re getting calls from all over the United States,” said bookstore customer service manager Connie O’Brien. “It’s not March Madness, it’s Bulldog mania.”

Not only was the store pillaged, phone orders poured in for overnight deliveries from Canada, Indiana, Texas - even Mozambique, Mexico. “If we expected this, we’d have 10 phone lines,” O’Brien said.

Do out-of-towners care? You bet they do. Visitors are maxing out the capabilities of the official campus Web page.

A million visitors clicked through the Gonzaga Internet site this week. The average is about 35,000 a week, said webmaster Chris Schindler.

A quarter-million hits came each day Thursday and Friday.

“I knew we were in for a ride,” Schindler said. “The Web site has given us a presence, which is really enhancing what the team has done.”

The school also has received thousands of basketball-related e-mail messages, including one from Dublin, Ireland. Another contained a picture of Godzilla in a Gonzaga uniform, dribbling the ball.

Even overseas, Zags fans do what it takes to be part of it hype.

Mark Alfino, a GU philosophy professor at the school’s campus in Florence, Italy, sat alone listening to Thursday’s game on an Internet audio feed at 4 in the morning. Saturday, he’s running a marathon in Rome and planning to watch the game at a sports bar around midnight.

“There’s some students looking around to find some TV access,” he said.

In Italy, a bar’s about to experience Gonzaga madness.