We Are Here At Last

Director of Athletics Pat Meiser has been in this business more than a quarter of a century. She says she has never experienced a trip like this. Head coach Jen Rizzotti has travelled extensively through her playing and coaching days and notes the scene at Reagan National Airport early this morning was as chaotic as she has ever been witness to.

To make a long story short, three different bus companies brought the Hawks' traveling party from Hartford to Columbia, S.C., in a journey that started yesterday morning and did not conclude until after 8 p.m. this evening. In all, 19 hours were spent on a bus, 11 of them through mostly crawling traffic during yesterday's snow, ice, and rain storm. During that span, the team was near or in three different airports with confirmed (or allegedly confirmed) flights (New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.). Two of the flights never went, while the third went without the team. The waiting time in the lines at Reagan National this morning were easily 4-8 hours. I think most of us were happy to be back on a bus later in the morning.

As you might imagine, the entire group is ready for a good night of rest, and I think each person here is ready to focus on basketball. So, look for the next posting tomorrow to set up the game, which will be played as scheduled Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. The expanded pre-game show begins at 4:30 p.m. on WWUH (91.3 FM, wwuh.org).