Inside the stressful day of travel that preceded Kansas State’s loss at Texas
Before Bruce Weber got into the stressful details of Kansas State’s hectic weekend of travel that preceded a 64-50 loss against Texas on Saturday at the Erwin Center, he wanted to get something out of the way.
That had nothing to do with what transpired on the basketball court.
“You can’t do anything about it,” Weber said. “It was a long two days, but you have got to play. I thought our guys responded pretty well. In the first half, we battled.”
The game slipped away from K-State from there, and the Longhorns pulled away for a lopsided victory that left the Wildcats (7-8, 0-3 Big 12) still searching for their first conference victory of the season.
It would have been easy for Weber to blame that result on a series of flight delays that prevented the Wildcats from arriving in Austin until 3 p.m. on Saturday, four hours before opening tip. The team played like it had spent much of the past 24 hours stranded at an airport. But Weber refused to go there.
Still, it was quite an ordeal for the Wildcats.
“It wasn’t easy,” Weber said.
Here’s what happened: K-State was originally scheduled to depart Manhattan on a charter flight on Friday afternoon, but its plane was grounded when an ice storm descended on Manhattan around lunch time. Commercial flights were also canceled across the region, stranding the Wildcats at home when they wanted to be preparing for this game on the road.
“What’s the old saying? When it rains it pours? Well it was pouring ice,” Weber said. “It literally was, with thunder and lightning. I went outside and there was at least half an inch of ice on my window. I was soaking wet, because it was pouring and it was icing. It was the weirdest phenomenon I have ever been a part of.”
Weber brought K-State players to the team’s practice facility on Friday night for a meeting and a meal, hoping to recreate their routine before road games as best they could.
He also hoped to depart Manhattan at 8 a.m. on Saturday, but the Wildcats were unable to do so because their plane suffered a mechanical failure. That led to a mad scramble trying to find a replacement plane.
At one point, there were doubts they could locate one. Texas and K-State discussed options for moving their game to Sunday.
But it never came to that. Turns out, Baylor helped K-State get into the air by allowing the plane that flew its team to Lawrence for a Saturday road game against Kansas to transport the Wildcats south. That plane was waiting for Baylor in Kansas City, but it ended up flying to Manhattan and then Austin before returning to Kansas City to fly the Bears to Waco, Texas.
K-State finally left Manhattan at 1:15 p.m., giving the Wildcats enough time to make it to the arena in time for the game but not enough time to have a typical shoot-around or walk-through at a road venue.
Weber sent Baylor coach Scott Drew a text message on Saturday night wishing his team luck as it traveled home. In an attempt to get back to Manhattan quickly, no K-State players were made available for interviews after the game.
“This morning was not fun,” Weber said. “We got to the airport at 8 and we have a mechanical (issue) and we sit there for an hour and a half. We had to do something, so we went back to our practice facility and did a little walk-through, and then they told us to come back to the airport and we got on the plane but then we sit on the plane for two hours.”
“Not a fun day, but Texas didn’t care. They sure didn’t feel sorry for us.”
No it didn’t.
Here’s the most unsettling thing about this loss: The Longhorns have been playing very poorly. A home game against the Wildcats completely changed their fortunes.
After dropping recent games against Providence (70-48), Baylor (59-44) and Oklahoma (72-62), Shaka Smart’s team manhandled K-State and looked like a NCAA Tournament contender. That’s not a good omen for the remainder of the Wildcats’ season, which features upcoming games against Big 12 heavyweights Texas Tech, West Virginia and Kansas.
K-State entered this game looking like an equal to Texas. Fans circled this game as a potential victory, despite the Vegas line favoring the Longhorns by five. This looked like a toss up. It turned into a blowout.
Travel delays may have factored into that score. But the Wildcats aren’t using it as an excuse.
“Now it’s a test of our character and our grit and our senior leadership,” Weber said. “We have got a tough week ahead with three top-25 teams coming up. It is not going to get any easier.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 10:45 PM with the headline "Inside the stressful day of travel that preceded Kansas State’s loss at Texas."