LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A
lot of people ask about the challenges of traveling in the Sun Belt
Conference and how the team gets from Denver to places like Monroe, La.,
and Troy, Ala.
The truth is that most
of the places DU travels are not terribly difficult to get to. The
flights are a little longer than they will be next year in the WAC, but
many of the Sun Belt trips require just a direct flight and short bus
ride.
Sometimes, however, things don't go as planned. Like yesterday.
The team practiced at
the Ritchie Center yesterday morning, grabbed some lunch and then jumped
on a bus to DIA. We would be connecting through Dallas, but nobody
anticipated a problem.
Everything was going
smoothly, and everyone was settled into his seat in the plane. That's
when we heard the crackle of the pilot's voice over the intercom.
"Folks, everything was
working fine on our flight in, but the directional gyro is no longer
working," he said. "We need to get it fixed, and then we'll be out of
here as quickly as possible."
The first attempt at
repair failed, the pilot announced 20 minutes later. The second attempt
failed, too, another 30 minutes later. The third and final attempt
should work, the pilot said, but if it didn't the plane was not taking
off until morning.
We sat and waited a
little longer. Meanwhile, the flight attendants were calling names of
people who were not going to make their connections, asking them to take
their belongings and head to the counter to rebook their trips.
Knowing we were a rather
large group, the flight attendant made a point of coming back to inform
us that we were already booked on the late flight out of Dallas to
Little Rock. More than a few people in the travel party were on their
smart phones identifying alternatives, just in case.
Fortunately, the third
repair fixed the problem, and we were off. It was 90 minutes after the
scheduled departure, but at least we were on our way.
With a slightly extended
stay at DFW, everyone in the travel party went in search of some food.
The original plan was to have chicken sandwiches at the hotel, and that
would still happen but not until about 10 p.m.
Everything worked fine
after that, including some purchases at an old school candy shop by
members of the coaching and support staff, and the team arrived safely
in Little Rock.
About Arkansas-Little Rock - The
players and coaches know the situation. Denver has never won in 10
previous trips to Little Rock. The Trojans beat the Pioneers at Magness
Arena on New Year's Eve. Everybody on the team knows it, and they want
to reverse both of those trends this evening.
The Jack Stephens
Center is one of the nicest venues in the Sun Belt. It opened in 2005
and still looks brand new. Of course, according to some reports, the
best part of the facility is the elevator with the inexplicable use of
"S-M-L-E" on the buttons. There's still a debate whether they were
trying to make an allusion to "SMILE" or perhaps they were going with
"Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large" (although it seems strange that
small would be the highest floor).
UALR is roughly the same
size as DU with about 11,000 students, and its most notable alumnus is
probably Derek Fisher, who has won five NBA championships with the Los
Angeles Lakers.
Snapping a Streak, Sort of -
In the men's basketball team's past four trips to Little Rock, at least
one person's luggage was lost. It was a streak that nobody wanted to
see extended.
Fortunately, it did for the men's team.
Unfortunately, women's basketball trainer Becky Ball may have extended it by proxy, when the airline left Denver without her bag.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 20
Total Mileage by Air - 9,987
Total Mileage by Bus - 1, 299
Total Number of Hotels - 10
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 7
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost - 4
Total Number of Times Asked Whether the "Directional Gyro" is anything like a "Flux Capacitor" - ∞
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