Wichita State’s basketball team had one of the all-time runs for a mid-major team in the 2010s — a Final Four in 2013, an undefeated season and No. 1 seed in 2014, a Sweet 16 in 2015 and another NCAA tournament bid in 2016, which included a spot in the First Four in Dayton. For the group of sports writers I was traveling with, that meant one of the more insane travel schedules I’d ever been a part of.
After Wichita State received its NCAA bid on Sunday evening, within an hour we received a travel schedule that had us flying to Dayton early Monday morning to meet the team there for practice, and they played in the 9 p.m. game on Tuesday night — which they won around midnight.
From Dayton, our group flew to Boston the next morning around 6 a.m., rented a car and drove to the next site in Providence, Rhode Island, where Wichitat State won its first game against Arizona in a game that became famous for one coach’s sweat-soaked shirt before they lost to Miami in the next round.
From there, we flew back to Wichita, Kansas, and two days later drove to Louisville to cover Kansas in the South Regional semifinals and finals. Makes me want to take a nap just thinking of it.
