UConn basketball enduring travel delays ahead of Final Four; May not arrive to Phoenix until Thursday

Three of the four teams in the NCAA Tournament's Final Four have reached Phoenix for Saturday's games.

Only one team has not: No. 1 overall seed UConn — Alabama basketball's Final Four opponent — as the program is facing issues regarding its flight slowing down its arrival, per Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. Huskies' coach Dan Hurley told Norlander that the team does not have a plan to fly on at the time due to logistical and mechanical issues with a flight coming in from Kansas City.

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UConn Sports Information told USA TODAY Network it did not have any further details at the time of this article.

"It is what it is at this point," UConn athletic director David Benedict said on the Field of 68 podcast. "I'm sure coach (Hurley) will use this in an appropriate fashion. But it's not the best experience. This is supposed to be about a championship experience. None of this is a championship experience at this point."

Alabama, UConn's opponent on Saturday at 7:49 p.m., arrived Tuesday, as did Purdue. NC State's plane arrived earlier in the day Wednesday. The Huskies are unlikely to reach Phoenix tonight, while the other three teams have already arrived. Media availability is scheduled to start Thursday for the men's tournament.

One of the problems, according to Norlander, is that the flight crew coming from Kansas City would be over their FAA hours and can’t fly UConn immediately to Arizona. The earliest the Huskies could get a smaller plane from Cincinnati would be 12:45 a.m. ET and they would not land until 5 a.m. In that case, the Huskies would arrive in Phoenix with hours to spare ahead of media day.

"Mistakes can happen, things happen," Benedict said. "I think the challenge is in this kind of environment, this is the biggest game of the year for us. There's only four teams you're worried about traveling. Is there not an opportunity to have a contingency plan here? Right now, there's no plane in Connecticut for us.

"We're being told that potentially, we can fly out of Connecticut sometime after midnight. We don't have a confirmation there. But the plane that we're going to get is not going to be big enough to transfer our whole party."

Benedict added that the problem isn't just flying the team, but also transporting the entire travel party around the team to make sure the transition is smooth.

"I've been in touch with Danny Hurley, he's trying to do everything they can," Benedict said. "But the reality is we're not going to have a team here until 2-3 o'clock in the morning, best case. And there's going to be quite a few people left behind because the plane that they're talking about getting is going to have to take a fuel stop. If we transport everybody it is going to add another hour to an hour and a half and that's just not acceptable."

If UConn waits for the flight crew from Kansas City, the earliest they could arrive would be 10 a.m. Thursday. The NCAA handles all travel for the NCAA Tournament.

Benedict also stated this isn't the only time UConn has run into issues with the NCAA Tournament, travel and accommodations.

"Last year we showed up in Vegas to a hotel that some rooms didn't have vanities. Other rooms had vomit on the bed," Benedict said. "We had to leave that hotel to go to another one. Our bus got broken into, kids stuff got stuff stolen on the bus. I mean, you can't make it up. But look, maybe maybe this is what we need to make sure that we're focused."

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: UConn basketball finds itself without a plane to travel to Phoenix for Final Four