Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies are the overwhelming favorite to come away with their second consecutive national championship.
They’ll take on Alabama in the Final 4 of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Saturday in Arizona. They are widely expected to eventually come out on top over the winner of the Purdue-North Carolina State game, also slated for Saturday in Arizona.
Unfortunately, UConn is now facing a major uphill climb heading into the Final 4. Matt Norlander of CBS Sports notes that the Huskies don’t currently have a plane scheduled for a flight to the desert. It was supposed to take off at 6 PM ET, but mechanical issues caused a cancelation.
The Huskies’ primary option now is to get a smaller plane via Cincinnati that wouldn’t take off until 12:45 AM ET and land in Arizona until 5 AM ET.
At issue here is the fact that these Huskies are scheduled to take part in media day on Thursday. The other issue is rather obvious.
“If it were to wait until the morning and fly on the plane from Kansas City, that crew can’t fly until 10 a.m. ET on Thursday, according to UConn,” Norlander notes. “All other teams are on the ground in Arizona. Alabama and Purdue got in Tuesday. NC State landed Wednesday afternoon.”
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As for the nuts and bolts, these Huskies find themselves as 11.5-point favorites over the Crimson Tide heading into Saturday’s game at 5:49 PM ET. Whether these travel issues changes things remains to be seen.