Gap Goat's popularity continues to grow with every Kansas State women's basketball win

MANHATTAN — Gap Goat, the Kansas State women's basketball team secretary of defense, has been a popular fixture at Bramlage Coliseum all year for Wildcat games.

But now that people are flocking to the arena in record numbers for K-State's two NCAA Tournament games — Sunday's 1 p.m. second-round matchup with Colorado is officially a sellout — the stuffed goat mascot is gaining a new legion of fans.

Gappy, as he is affectionately known, was the brainchild of super-senior guard Gabby Gregory after coach Jeff Mittie challenged team captains Gregory, Ayoka Lee and Serena Sundell to come up with a fun way to celebrate gaps, consisting of three consecutive defensive stops. Naturally, Gregory's favorite animal is the goat.

"He's like our motivator to get gaps," Lee said of the goat. "Last night he got eight, and then once we get seven he gets his chains."

The thinking, according to Mittie, is teams that get seven gaps in a game win better than 90% of the time. When it happens, Gappy gets to wear a pair of gold chains, one of them featuring a 7 pendant.

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Gap Goat's popularity has continued to grow throughout the season. K-State is 27-6 heading into Sunday's game, so there has been much for him to celebrate.

Gappy even has his own Instagram account (@gapgoat7) and has spawned a small army of baby Gap Goat replicas, which along with accessories are conveniently linked online to Gregory's Amazon.com storefront. And for the NCAA Tournament, he is sporting a team media credential as well.

Now the goat has even ventured outside Bramlage and the adjoining Ice Family Basketball Center.

"He loves Ice," Lee said. "That's really his home, and he doesn't take breaks, so he's always there working.

"He did take a field trip to football practice. He was kind of bored, so he went to the football practice the other day. He went with us to see the Classy Cats (dance team). He's just a big supporter of all K-State sports."

In fact, both the football and volleyball teams made videos on social media that included the mascot.

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"That's been really cool to see on social media," Gregory said of the support from other K-State teams. "It was cool to see some of the teams incorporate Gap Goat into their videos as well.

"The football team, they had Gap Goat over there. Volleyball, they had a little tiny gap goat in their net. That was really awesome to see."

Social media even showed a note written by Gap Goat to local teachers encouraging them to let their students out of school to attend Friday afternoon's first-round game with Portland.

So, what was Gappy's reaction to the news Saturday that the second-round game was sold out? Same as it was on Selection Sunday, when the Wildcats found they were a No. 4 seed and would play at home.

"Per usual, he's stone cold, no reaction," Gregory deadpanned. "He never gets too high, never gets too long, but he said he was really excited to get his chains tomorrow."

Gregory should know.

"Gabby's like his mom, and we're kind of like his aunts," Lee said.

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Gap Goat has become synonymous with Kansas State women's basketball