GCU has since poured $600 million into campus facilities over the past six years, with plans to spend another $400 million in the next four years. Mueller says there’s now “huge efficiencies” thanks to the growing campus student population, which has grown from about 4,000 upon Majerle’s hiring to nearly 18,000 today.

Things move so quickly at Grand Canyon that just four years after it built a new 4,000-seat arena in 2010, Mueller had the roof ripped off to add another 2,500 seats, since the Antelopes had accepted a bid to the Western Athletic Conference and were on a path to Division I memberships.

Of course, this was the vision Jerry Colangelo had all along.

Mueller asked the former Suns and USA Basketball architect to play an advisory role in the school’s new expansion.

“I like challenges, OK? I’ve been involved with them my whole life,” Colangelo said last week. “There are great people involved with the university.

“The timing was pretty good for me. When I was approached, there was a plan, a vision, that I related to because I’d been there and done that a couple of times. Basketball was gonna be the calling card in this whole program and that, to me, was a big part of it.”