North Carolina State University Athletics
Pack's Long Road Trip Lasted Longer Than Expected
12/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - The NC State basketball team's longest road trip in years encountered an unexpected delay on Wednesday. Catching a connecting flight in Cincinnati, the Wolfpack was greeted by blizzard conditions that dumped a pile of snow on parts of the Midwest. Despite some long delays, Herb Sendek's team remained upbeat most of the day after posting a 72-61 victory at Brigham Young the night before, a game the 16th ranked Pack sorely wanted to win after suffering its first defeat of the year Sunday at Washington.
Following its game at BYU, a contest that ended after 9:00 p.m. Mountain Time, NC State (9-1) made the hour bus ride up to Salt Lake City for a quick night's stay before rising early for an 8:25 flight out of Utah. But because of crowded conditions at the airport on Wednesday morning, the team got a 6:00 a.m. wake up call.
But that was just the beginning of a very long day.
As NC State's flight departed Salt Lake City, there was word that up to 20 inches of snow was forecast for the Cincinnati area, where a connector flight for Raleigh was waiting. Sure enough, by the time the Wolfpack arrived in Cincy, snow was blowing sideways and the ground was completely covered with the white stuff.
And while the flight destined for Raleigh boarded only about 30 minutes late, the jet itself didn't get off the ground for another three hours because it had to wait in line that long in order to get de-iced.
Needless to say, a three-hour wait in the coach section of a packed airplane was uncomfortable for everyone, but especially for a group of tall, tired basketball players.
"This has been the most tiring off day of my career," said forward Ilian Evtimov. "I was planning on going to Winston-Salem tonight, but I'll have to put it off until tomorrow. I'm just glad we won the game."
A few team members got a break. Out of Salt Lake, Julius Hodge and Gavin Grant caught separate flight to head home to New York for the holidays. The same can be said for Maryland natives Levi Watkins and Jordan Collins. And of course, Cincinnati native Andrew Brackman simply claimed his bags and jumped in the car with his parents for the relatively short drive home.
Finally, after a journey of more than 6,000 miles that went through Atlanta, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Cincinnati, NC State touched down Wednesday night at 7:50 p.m., about four hours later than scheduled.
It was a long trip that lasted a lot longer than expected.
