Hurley on Huskies’ Final Four plane issues: ‘I spiraled’
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The NCAA Tournament’s welcoming committee greeted the UConn men’s basketball team after it landed at Sky Harbor International Airport on Thursday morning.
At 3 a.m. Welcome to Phoenix! The Huskies got to their hotel at around 4:15 a.m. and got to sleep in until a later-than-normal, 10:45 a.m. breakfast. No one got to breakfast early.
“Except Donovan (Clingan),” a UConn spokesman noted. “He never sleeps.”
UConn, which faces Alabama in a national semifinals bout on Saturday night, then bused to State Farm Stadium to do promo shoots, then had a closed practice out on the stadium floor. Typically, the Huskies’ locker room is open to the media after that, but the NCAA switched schedules and kept UConn’s locker room closed.
Dan Hurley did his scheduled press conference, and while he bit his lip a bit about the Huskies’ latest “travelgate” and he didn’t disappoint when asked, “How was your flight?”
“It was nice,” he said, smiling after a long pause. “I’ve had a lot of thoughts, because I’ve had a lot of time to think. What goes through your mind once your done complaining, cursing and muttering, you say to yourself, ‘You don’t really deserve to show entitlement.’ It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing to coach in the Final Four.”
He noted that he got about two hours of sleep on the plane, and another two at the team hotel.
“That’s why God made caffeine,” the coach said.
He thought the tip of the iceberg was watching the plane get de-iced. “That was therapeutic.” But ultimately, Hurley realized the Huskies are “lucky to be here, lucky to play in the Final Four.”
“And who doesn’t deal with problems with the airlines?,” Hurley said. “It’s something you’ve got to get through. But, it sucked.”
Hurley’s press conference drifted away from the travel woes, only for one reporter to bring it back. The coach was interested in moving forward, but took a question what he did for seven hours.
“I mean, I ruminated a lot. I spiraled. I had my head in my hands a lot. I know Andrea storied that pose yesterday,” he said, referring to his wife taking a photo of her husband and posting it on her Instagram story. “The toughest part, we got a chance to go home, which was nice. We sent the guys back to campus because then we were going to leave at 11:30. It was a real mindful exercise from 11:30 to like 1:45 on the tarmac.”
Hurley doesn’t want any excuses, however. The team’s schedule was pushed back a bit and the Huskies stuck to their same routine.
“We obviously took a little bit off the practice plan,” he said. “Just make sure that we do a little bit less tonight, let these guys get their rest...We’re in the Final Four here, man, with a chance to advance, to repeat as national champions, make history. We’re way past that s—.”
UConn unintentionally became the talk of the sports world Wednesday night into Thursday when news surfaced of the Huskies at the airport with nowhere to go — immediately, anyway — because there was no airplane to take them to their destination.
The Huskies departed campus late Wednesday afternoon, thrilled with the sendoff they had received from students and supporters. Even a rainy, dreary day couldn’t damper the situation. They were Final Fourbound and eyeing a second consecutive national championship.
“You guys are the best fans,” Hurley said to the crowd gathered inside Gampel Pavilion. “The best fans in the country. We are going to go out there and try to get you number six up there, right next to this one.”
UConn arrived at Bradley International Airport — their plane didn’t. Scheduled to take off around 6 p.m. on a chartered plane heading to Phoenix, Arizona, there was a series of snafus for the team.
A mechanical issue caused a delay and there were issues with the crew regarding the amount of hours they were able to work under Federal Aviation Administration rules. So the plane that was supposed to go from Kansas City to Connecticut and then Arizona never arrived. Then nobody could find them a new plane to take off in. The NCAA is responsible for any travel accommodations during the tournament.
“The delays were the result of an unfortunate set of circumstances,” NCAA spokesperson David Warlock said in a statement Thursday morning
A different, smaller plane was flown into Connecticut from Cincinnati, but it was not as big, meaning not the full travel party could board. Though the plane landed sometime after 11 p.m., the Huskies could not actually depart. The rainy weather had turned a bit messier and windy, leaving UConn to wait once again. There was one additional minor mechanical issue resolved by the onboard mechanic, the NCAA stated.
So, around 1:30 a.m., UConn took off, flying nearly five hours across country and arrived at their destination around 3 a.m. locally or 6 a.m. Eastern.
Don’t blame Alabama coach Nate Oats, a close friend of Hurley and his family.
“Not quite sure what happened with the plane. Wasn’t me,” Oats quipped. “I didn’t send anybody over there to mess with the mechanics. I’m sure (Hurley has) conjured that up in his head already.”
One thing is certain: Alabama players don’t believe UConn’s travel snafus will have any effect on the Huskies come Saturday at 8:49 p.m.
“We’re all basketball players at the end of the day,” senior guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. said. “They’ll be ready by Saturday. They have a lot of time.”
Of course, travels issues are nothing new to UConn over the past year. The Huskies’ flight home following a 64-57 win over Marquette on March 6 in Milwaukee was canceled due to a mechanical issue, and the Huskies had to spend the night in Milwaukee. Then, their rescheduled flight the following day for 12:30 p.m. also was canceled, as well. So, UConn booked a practice at the University of Milwaukee that afternoon and flew home afterwards — not from Milwaukee, however, but 90 minutes down the road from Chicago.
“It’s understandable,” Hurley said afterwards. “But what transpired the next day was not good and shouldn’t happen to a major sports organization. Late in the year, especially, I’m really disappointed with (the charter company’s) efforts for us.”
And, of course, upon the Huskies’ arrival in Las Vegas last March for the West Regionals, several of their hotel rooms were found to be in awful condition (dirt, vomit ... and worse). The NCAA switched the team to a new hotel.
Meanwhile, the Huskies’ team bus was vandalized and players had several items stolen.