Travel Hassles Not Really Part of The Story For NCAA-Bound Hoosiers

Sure, Indiana got to Portland a few hours later than they would have liked, but to a man they all say the long night of travel will not not impact them in any way when they take on St. Mary's on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

PORTLAND, Ore. — I'm a big fan of the ''Yellowstone'' television series, and I love the prequel, ''1883'' with pioneers Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on a deadly journey just as much.

Now those people, they had a rough time getting to Oregon.

Indiana's travel hassles to Portland, Ore., early Wednesday morning after their First Four win over Wyoming in Dayton, Ohio were really nothing more than that — a hassle. They basically left about three hours later than they wanted, having to deal with an NCAA screw-up where the plane was too small for their travel party, and they had to wait for another one. Then there were mechanical and weight issues, at it was close to 4 a.m. ET by the time they finally took off.

They got to Portland about 7 a.m. Pacific time — that's 10 a.m. ET, a three-hour difference — and checked into the hotel. Most of the players got some sleep on the plane, and all of them rested at the hotel before a late workout Wednesday night at the Moda Center, their home for what will hopefully be a long weekend stay. Indiana plays Saint Mary's on Thursday night at 7:20 p.m. ET, and if they win, they'll play a second-round game on Saturday.

Sure, traveling three time zones is never easy, and the delays never help. But for Indiana's players, they're just happy to be here in Portland, and they are intent on continuing their recent hot streak. 

A few travel bumps? It's really no big deal. It's been worse, trust me. Much, much worse. (More on that in a minute)

"We got on that plane, and then there is like an hour delay. So we're like, it's all right, we were enjoying the win,'' Indiana junior Trayce Jackson-Davis said. "And then we had to switch planes, so it's two hours later we are taking off. I slept a little bit on the plane, but it was bumpy. 

"And getting here, then we had a bus ride that was 30 minutes to the hotel. So by that time I was like, 'can we please just get here?' We finally got to the hotel room, and I probably fell asleep in three minutes.''

The players passed the delay celebrating their 66-58 win over Wyoming in the First Four game, Indiana first NCAA Tournament win since 2016. They laughed and carried on, and Miller Kopp, who's never one to shy away from making videos, posted something on Tik-Tok of guys dancing in the aisles.

"We made a Tik-Tok video that went viral.'' Johnson said with a laugh.

"We were just hanging out, talking to each other, goofing off, really just enjoying each other's company, talking to the coaches and other players,'' Indiana senior Race Thompson said. "There's not really much to do but hang out with each other. Once the plane got off, I know a lot of us were asleep on and off, but in the meantime we were just hanging out.'' 

Getting their legs back quickly

Upon arrival, the most important thing is getting ready for Saint Mary's, and the Hoosiers had plenty of time to start game prep on Wednesday, They felt fine by Wednesday night and went through their shootaround at the arena with plenty of energy. They'll all sleep well Wednesday night and be ready to go.'' 

"As you're going in, maybe you don't get as much sleep as you want, but you're playing one game, and this one game could be the last game of your season,'' Jackson-Davis said. "You don't have time to hone in on how tired your legs are because all you want to do is win that game. So it's basically whatever it takes.  Maybe our legs are tired, but we're going to play through it and play as hard as we can.''

Indiana coach Mike Woodson has spent four decades in the NBA as a player and coach, and he knows all about overnight travel. They do it all the time. He hasn't been bothered by all this travel one bit.

"All I can do is relate to the NBA when we made the (2004) championship run in Detroit. It's a grind, man. I've always said only the strong will survive.'' Woodson said. That Detroit team, they were so battle tested throughout the playoffs, they just refused to be tired because they was chasing that title. In March Madness, everybody wants to win a title. 

"There is no room to be tired. Yeah, we had a long flight, I get it. It took us a while to get here, but we got here safely. And, you know, this is what we signed up for. We're here to try to win a game, see if we can advance. I don't want to go home, and I hope these guys feel the same way.''

NBA travel is far worse that this

Woodson is used to 82-game NBA schedules and back-to-back games and uncomfortable travel. It just comes with the job, and the NCAA Tournament, especially for lower-seeded teams who aren't granted any sort of home-court advantages, 

It is what it is, and complaining about it means nothing.

"Like I told the guys, we could never complain, and won't complain, about travel,'' he said. "Because in the NBA, back in the old days, man, it might have been the worst travel in the world. I mean, there were red eyes that we had to catch to get to the next game the next day, and we were sleeping in chairs in the airport to try to get to where we were going to go. But we were signed up as NBA players, and that was part of it. They have it pretty damn good right now, I think.

Wednesday's routine was a little compressed, but game day will be perfectly normal for the Hoosiers, Woodson said. Thursday will be like every other game day all season, except for the fact that the stakes are a little higher.

"We got them here, we slept in a little bit,'' Woodson said. "The coaches, we didn't really sleep. We started prepping, getting ready for these guys to get out of bed and come down and eat a little bit, and then we walked through some things, and we're going to go back and walk through some things. We'll watch film and Thursday morning, we will get up and do our normal routine and get ready to play.''

Indiana is the in the third of four games here on Saturday, and the first game of the night session. UCLA and Akron play after Indiana. 

The trip home from hell

In four-plus decades of basketball road trips, my worst-ever involves Portland, too, and it trumps IU's adventure ten-fold. 

Not even close.

I was a junior at Indiana with Woodson when I came out to Portland to cover Indiana in the Far West Classic. It was a great weekend with Magic Johnson and Michigan State beating Indiana in the final. They would beat Indiana three times that season, and Magic and his pals would beat Indiana State in the NCAA finals, turning this little tournament into something big.

The following morning, I got on a plane at the Portland airport, hopped up to Seattle quickly, and then headed east to O'Hare Airport in Chicago. It was New Year's Eve morning, and I had plans in the city that night with friends to bring in the New Year.

As we headed across the Rockies, the pilot announced that a snowstorm had hit Chicago and the airport was closed. So we had to set down in Lincoln, Neb., the easternmost airport that was still open.

Because about four dozen other planes did the same thing, the tiny Lincoln airport couldn't let anyone de-plane. So we sat for an hour, trusting the pilot that we would take off as soon as O'Hare re-opened.  

One hour turned into two, then three, all on the plane, but thankfully with free drinks once we hit the three-hour mark. (I wasn't 21, so no luck for me) We finally left — Lincoln in the rearview is always a good thing. But about 30 minutes later in the air, Chicago closed again and the pilot said we had to head to Detroit instead. (Something about final destinations for many passengers.)

This was before cell phones, so I couldn't tell my friends what was going on. They left for Chicago without me. I finally got to Detroit, and they handled me a hotel voucher and a taxi. I got to my hotel about 11:45, bought a soda and a bag of chips and rung in the new year all alone.

The following morning we taxied back to the Detroit Airport, but they couldn't get us to Chicago by plane. It had something to do with no crew, and the still troubled weather at O'Hare. So they put us on a Greyhound Bus. We literally drove within 10 minutes of my Schererville house in Northwest Indiana but wouldn't let anyone off. We had to go all the way to O'Hare by rules. We got there nearly 30 hours later than we were supposed to, and then an hour later I took a shuttle bus back to Indiana.

I got home about 8 p.m., and my mom fed me real fast. Then I jumped in my car and drove three hours back to Bloomington because I had classes the next morning. The Hoosiers, who had left the night before me, missed all the weather and beat me back to Bloomington by a full day.

That, my friends, is far worse.

Mike Woodson meets with the media on Wednesday in Portland

Indiana players get up some shots during their shootaround on Wednesday night. 

Trey Galloway gets loose during Wednesday night's shootaround. (Photos by Tom Brew)

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