
Students cheered alongside cutouts at basketball games this season. (Photo by David Kadlubowski)
Editor’s note: Reprinted from the February 2021 issue of GCU Magazine. To read the digital version, click here.
By Rick Vacek
GCU Magazine
There is no truth to the notion that the thousands of cutouts in Grand Canyon University Arena for games this season can magically talk. It’s absolutely false that the people pictured – fans, former players, pop culture characters, Betty White – can scream and yell through their cardboard facsimiles, as if they are right there.
It only seems that way.

Dr. Paul Koch
How else do you explain Nevada coach Steve Alford’s assessment after his team lost to the Lopes at the Arena?
“It’s a great place for energy, wow,” Alford said. “The 300 fans with all the cutouts, they know how to do it. That was a really cool environment. Of all the…