Saturday was a good day for this University Daily Kansan sportswriter.

Kansas destroyed Texas by 25 points, ESPN’s “College GameDay” came to town and I was lucky enough to drink a beer with Rece Davis, Digger Phelps and Jay Bilas.

It all started when I went to the 10 a.m. show as a reporter for the Kansan. The east lobby of Allen Fieldhouse was rocking, and the setting couldn’t have gotten any better. The hour flew by, and things were winding down. Just as I was thinking it was time to leave, someone asked me, “Do you want to talk to Rece, Digger or Jay?”

“Are you kidding me?” Of course I wanted to talk to those guys.

As each one came off the set, they were smiling and laughing after finishing off a great segment. These guys were looking at 12 more hours of work ahead of them, but none of them minded taking time out of their day to talk to me.

In fact, they went out of their way to answer every question I had. Not a single cliché from any of them. The interviews were the best I’ve ever had.

Bilas told me that he had been recruited hard by Ted Owens and almost came to Kansas. He admitted that he loved Lawrence, and said it blew Connecticut out of the water.

Up next was Digger Phelps. He was more than willing to chat with me. I asked him why he so avidly picked Villanova against Kansas, and he found a way to incorporate the fact that he had defeated seven top-ranked teams while he coached at Notre Dame in his answer.

A little off topic, but I guess if I were as good a coach as he was, I would brag as well. He redeemed himself by saying that hearing the Rock Chalk Chant was a special feeling.

The best was saved for last. It was my turn to interview Rece Davis. He was a total class act. He has what is arguably the best job in the world, but he is so down to earth that you would never know it by talking to him.

He told me college football and basketball were his passions, and that Allen Fieldhouse represented everything that was right in sports.

“It’s not like in the NBA, where it’s all about getting the newest arena and the most corporate suites,” Davis said. “It’s about providing an atmosphere for a game for a student body. That’s what makes this so special. You don’t have many arenas that carry a history that make people feel special. That’s what I think makes it so unique and is one of the main reasons we’re here.”

I went home and wrote about the show, but I couldn’t get my mind off talking with those guys. I told everyone I saw about it, some two or three times. I thought my day couldn’t get any better.

The game rolled around, and the Jayhawks crushed the Longhorns. By the time I finished my game story and left the stadium, the “GameDay” set was being loaded up onto several ESPN trucks.

It was past midnight, and I’d been working all day, so I went to Henry T’s Bar & Grill to relax and get the drinks my dad and his friends had promised they would buy me. Literally three minutes after I showed up, Rece, Digger and Jay walked through the door.

I watched from afar and started trying to figure out the odds of those three choosing the same bar as I did.

Drunken Kansas fan after drunken Kansas fan ran over to talk with them, and everyone in the bar treated them like royalty.

A couple minutes passed, and I decided I might as well go see if they remembered me. I walked up to their table and mustered up the confidence to say, “Hey, Jay, do you remember talking to me earlier?”

“Sure, sure,” he replied. “How are you doing? What did you think of the game?”

I then shook hands with Davis and waved to Phelps, who were both scarfing down chips and salsa as if it was the only food they had eaten all day.

I asked how in the world they had ended up there, and they told me they wanted to unwind after a long day, and remembered Henry T’s because it was near their hotel.

At this point, my dad’s friend came up and joked with Bilas, telling him that I really wanted to sit next to him because Bilas was the only person in the bar that had less hair than I did. Bilas started laughing and pointed at me. I figured if he could take a joke like that, I might as well pull up a chair.

For the next hour I got to hang out and drink with those guys, like I was one of their friends. We talked about everything from Kansas basketball to how long it would take Missouri coach Quin Snyder to lose his job. Bilas and Davis even asked me questions a few times.

Bilas, who sat on the right and sipped a Bud Light, was the most popular one there. He was practically a walking, talking advertisement for the Jayhawks.

Davis sat in the middle. He told me about his college days at Alabama and how he had started off in the journalism world. We talked about the game and some of the crazy stuff he’d seen hosting “College GameDay.”

Eventually I asked him who the nicest coach he’d ever met was. Some football names came up, and I asked what he thought about Urban Meier turning down the Notre Dame job for Florida. He said Florida was a better job. He pointed to Digger and said, “Even he’ll tell you that.”

Phelps, who was by far the least talkative of the three, leaned forward when he heard this and told us Notre Dame didn’t need to change its schedule or academics to be good. He continually referred to the Irish as “we” and obviously took great pride in his time there.

Last call came way too soon, and as we were kicked out of the bar, I didn’t want to say goodbye to the trio. Once I accepted the fact that I had to let them go, I offered my thanks to each of them and told Davis that I looked forward to seeing him again when he could come here for a football game.

He shook my hand, wished me luck on my journalism career and told me he’d be looking for me when that day came.

Saturday was a very good day.