Getty Image / Maddie Meyer
One of the things the NCAA is supposed to be good at is administering national championship tournaments. They run 90 of them each year across all divisions, and it’s usually a strong suit of the organization.
But, they’ve been making mistakes lately. Somehow, the three-point line at the Portland Regional of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball tournament was too long on one side of the court, causing huge embarrassment for the NCAA.
Things are only getting worse for the NCAA. Now, the UConn Men’s Basketball Team is stranded at the airport as they were getting ready to fly to the Phoenix area for the Final Four. The NCAA books all travel for teams.Norlander added that the other three teams, Purdue, Alabama, and North Carolina State, are already in the Phoenix area as of Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, UConn players might not get in until tomorrow!
The issue for UConn (among many) is crew flying plane from KC would be over their FAA hours and can’t fly UConn immediately to Arizona. UConn’s earliest option is to get a smaller plane via Cincinnati that won’t take off until 12:45 am ET and not land until nearly 5 am ET/2 am PT
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) April 3, 2024
UConn remains in limbo and waiting on its earliest flight, but barring a stunner, it’s not getting out until we’ll after midnight and will have to stop somewhere to refuel. If it waits on the plane from Kansas City, per Hurley, that crew can’t fly until 10 am ET on Thursday.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) April 3, 2024
This isn’t necessarily all on the NCAA, but the buck stops with them. You’d think that they could get teams charter planes that originate out of cities they’re near. This is especially true for UConn, which is just a few hours from Boston and New York City.
Alas, now Danny Hurley’s bunch is going to be behind the 8-ball all weekend as they look to win their second-straight national title. The Huskies take on Alabama on Saturday at around 9:00PM ET. They enter the final weekend of the season as pretty big favorites to bring home the title.
That is, if they can get to Phoenix.