One-star trip
Thanks to a quick pivot β and the Uber app β the Wildcats suffered only a four-hour delay when Friday's charter flight into Champaign was diverted to Indianapolis because of low visibility.
The Wildcats left Tucson at 2:22 p.m. Friday via a chartered iAero Airways 737. They were scheduled to arrive at the Champaign/Urbana airport at 5:30 p.m., but circled around in bad weather and were then sent to Indianapolis.
Rather than wait two hours for their buses to arrive from Champaign, special assistant TJ Benson said the players and coaches took five Ubers for the two-hour drive to Champaign. The team arrived at about 10 p.m. local time.
βNo other issues came up, thankfully,β said Benson, who worked in basketball administration at Gonzaga last season. βOne thing Iβve learned in the last two years is you need to be ready to adapt to any situation at any time.β
Widespread thunderstorms, drenching rain and even tornado watches led to delays in and out of Champaign/Urbana's Willard Airport on Friday.
Pizza party
Friday'si delay couldnβt have come at a worse time for UA senior associate AD Mike Ketcham, who was entertaining about 75 of UAβs highest-tier donors as part of an annual booster trip.
Instead of arriving at their Champaign hotel at about 6 p.m. and enjoying a scheduled dinner at 7:30 p.m., most of the donors instead stayed on the plane to wait for the buses while pizza was delivered to them.
The Wildcats' departure via Uber left enough room on the plane for everybody to comfortably move around around, and Ketcham said the boosters all managed to have a good time.
βItβs a good group,β Ketcham said. βAnd the one thing you canβt control is the weather.β
Unscheduled homecoming
For UA player relations director Jason Gardner, the stopover was intensely familiar: Heβs from Indianapolis, played and coached at Indianapolis North Central High School and coached at IUPUI.
Gardner said heβd never experienced a delay like that one, having coaching at IUPUI and Loyola-Chicago after playing for the Wildcats from 1999 to 2003, but still wasnβt fazed.
βItβs all part of it,β Gardner said. βItβs college basketball.β
Gardnerβs son, daughter and mother traveled to Champaign for Saturdayβs game, along with a couple of friends.
Perspective
Of course, having a flight diverted a couple of hours away is nothing compared to what happened elsewhere in the region Friday. Over 70 people were feared dead in Kentucky because of tornadoes and at least two deaths were recorded because of a tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois β about 160 miles southwest of Champaign.
The Illini held a moment of silence for the Edwardsville victims before Saturdayβs game.
Striped out
Illinois made it a βStripe State Farm Centerβ game Saturday, with the school instructing fans in odd-numbered sections to wear orange and those in even-numbered sections to wear blue.
It worked pretty well, though there were at least a half-dozen fans in each section who messed it up by wearing the opposite color. A few hundred Arizona fans brought in a smattering of red and navy.
Aiken still out
Reserve forward Kim Aiken did not make the trip to Illinois, missing his second straight game for what the UA said were personal reasons.
Aiken has been averaging 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds while playing the eighth-most minutes on the roster (13.7 on average).
Washington time set
The Washington-Arizona game that was rescheduled for Jan. 25 at McKale Center has been set for a 6 p.m. The game will air on Pac-12 Arizona.
Initially scheduled for Dec. 2, the game was postponed because of the Huskiesβ COVID-19 issues. The Huskies have also canceled games against UCLA and Gonzaga.
Global game
Players from seven different countries dotted Saturday's starting lineups. And Mali big man Oumar Ballo brought in an eighth nation when he came off the bench for Arizona.
To Illinois coach Brad Underwood, thatβs not a surprise.
βBasketball is a world sport,β Underwood said. βLook at the NBA β some of the NBAβs best players are international. I love international kids and Tommy (Lloyd, UA coach) had them at Gonzaga and Sean Miller started to work them in.β
Group vocals
Illinois offered a different touch for "The Star Spangled Banner," with a violinist playing the national anthem while students and other fans loudly sang the words.
The big number
1
The Uber βcustomer ratingβ (out of five stars) for the Wildcats, according to a sign held by an Illinois student fan.
He said it
βI just sit in my office and listen to Christmas music. I love this time of year.β
β Illinois coach Brad Underwood
