WICHITA, Kan. - Add another tale to Bob Huggins' long list of adventures as a collegiate basketball coach.
On Wednesday night, as Huggins and the WVU men's basketball team were preparing to travel to Wichita, Kan. to take on his former assistant Frank Martin and the Kansas State Wildcats, they ran into a flight delay that completely threw off their schedule.
Both K-State and WVU booked rooms at the Hyatt in downtown Wichita. Both teams were supposed to eat a private dinner in the Riverview Ballroom. Only the Wildcats' meal went off as planned.
While waiting to speak with Coach Martin at Hyatt for The Bob Huggins Show, hotel staff informed us that the Mountaineers' 10 p.m. dinner had been canceled because the team was experiencing a flight delay.
Consider that in itself for a moment. The Wildcats were set to finish practice at the nearby Intrust Bank Arena, site of Thursday's game, at 6 p.m. and head over to eat their dinner. West Virginia had plans a full four hours later and had to tell the staff to pack up some doggy bags.
Martin arrived for the interview and said he had spoken with Huggins, who informed him their plane was stuck in Minneapolis and the team still was unsure when it would depart from Clarksburg.
In this conversation, Huggins and Martin each shared their thoughts on the day's practice and Martin expressed his concern that the offensive ineptitude that would exist Thursday could lead to a scoreless tie.
Various staff members took to Twitter throughout the night to inform anyone who cared to follow their travels of just how delayed they had gotten. When their plane finally arrived, they were told it had hit a bird (moment of silence, please) and a crew needed to check the engine prior to boarding.
At around 11 p.m. local time, the team boarded the plane. Then it waited another hour before taking off.
The charter flight landed safely in the 2 a.m. hour ? keep in mind, this is 3 a.m. to the Mountaineers, who came from the eastern to central time zone. The delay was over four and a half hours.
The timeline becomes hazy at this point as to when the team got to the hotel and settled itself into rooms and ultimately went to sleep. But what's clear is WVU will only be in Wichita for 19 hours before playing K-State and spend a total of less than 24 hours in central time before heading back home.
Huggins and his 2008-09 WVU team experienced a significant flight delay prior to a first round NCAA tournament game against Dayton and ultimately lost to the underdog Flyers 68-60 in a 6-11 matchup.
There's no word on how this delay will impact Thursday's plans, if at all, but it certainly was not the way Huggins envisioned his trip to face his old Kansas State team beginning. His concern, of course, is how his Mountaineers finish the trip.
-Geoff Coyle (wvillustrated dot com)
On Wednesday night, as Huggins and the WVU men's basketball team were preparing to travel to Wichita, Kan. to take on his former assistant Frank Martin and the Kansas State Wildcats, they ran into a flight delay that completely threw off their schedule.
Both K-State and WVU booked rooms at the Hyatt in downtown Wichita. Both teams were supposed to eat a private dinner in the Riverview Ballroom. Only the Wildcats' meal went off as planned.
While waiting to speak with Coach Martin at Hyatt for The Bob Huggins Show, hotel staff informed us that the Mountaineers' 10 p.m. dinner had been canceled because the team was experiencing a flight delay.
Consider that in itself for a moment. The Wildcats were set to finish practice at the nearby Intrust Bank Arena, site of Thursday's game, at 6 p.m. and head over to eat their dinner. West Virginia had plans a full four hours later and had to tell the staff to pack up some doggy bags.
Martin arrived for the interview and said he had spoken with Huggins, who informed him their plane was stuck in Minneapolis and the team still was unsure when it would depart from Clarksburg.
In this conversation, Huggins and Martin each shared their thoughts on the day's practice and Martin expressed his concern that the offensive ineptitude that would exist Thursday could lead to a scoreless tie.
Various staff members took to Twitter throughout the night to inform anyone who cared to follow their travels of just how delayed they had gotten. When their plane finally arrived, they were told it had hit a bird (moment of silence, please) and a crew needed to check the engine prior to boarding.
At around 11 p.m. local time, the team boarded the plane. Then it waited another hour before taking off.
The charter flight landed safely in the 2 a.m. hour ? keep in mind, this is 3 a.m. to the Mountaineers, who came from the eastern to central time zone. The delay was over four and a half hours.
The timeline becomes hazy at this point as to when the team got to the hotel and settled itself into rooms and ultimately went to sleep. But what's clear is WVU will only be in Wichita for 19 hours before playing K-State and spend a total of less than 24 hours in central time before heading back home.
Huggins and his 2008-09 WVU team experienced a significant flight delay prior to a first round NCAA tournament game against Dayton and ultimately lost to the underdog Flyers 68-60 in a 6-11 matchup.
There's no word on how this delay will impact Thursday's plans, if at all, but it certainly was not the way Huggins envisioned his trip to face his old Kansas State team beginning. His concern, of course, is how his Mountaineers finish the trip.
-Geoff Coyle (wvillustrated dot com)
