EUGENE — As anyone who travels for work knows, hotel breakfast can get old after a while. It’s often free, yes. And it’s food. But not much else.
Oregon women’s basketball coach Kelly Graves experienced it firsthand this past week, staring down at his French toast as the Ducks traveled for Big Ten road games at Penn State and Ohio State.
“It’s all the same,” Graves said. “Sausage and then bacon, pancakes and then French toast. But it’s all the same. By the end, you just look at it and go, ehh. And I shouldn’t say that because there’s people out there who are starving, but it’s just different. The longer road trips, it just makes things a little bit different. Tougher.”
Breakfast was not among the most challenging aspects of Oregon’s longest Big Ten road trip of the season. The Ducks left earlier than usual, chartering a flight with the men’s team on Tuesday, Jan. 7. They dropped the men off in Columbus for their game against the Buckeyes, and continued alone to State College to take on Penn State. There was an extra day between both teams’ arrival and their games, and Graves said that time had to be filled with team bonding activities and studying to keep the Ducks busy.
“With that off day, we’ve been trying to do something,” Graves said. “Like when we were at Ohio State, we went to their hockey game. I think three quarters of our players had never been to a hockey game in their life. … It was pretty cool. That’s a great spectator sport. But they always love (team bonding). We’ll do movies, we always do study hall. With that extra day, we’ve got to fill it up. Otherwise, you’re just sitting in the hotel all day. And that just doesn’t help in any way.”
Both the men and women played their first games of the trip on Thursday, Jan. 9. The women beat Penn State and flew back to Columbus, and the men — fresh off a win over Ohio State — hopped on the same plane and took it right back to State College.
In the interim, freshman guard Katie Fiso found out that her grandfather died — having already experienced her father’s unexpected passing earlier this season. Fiso’s teammates were there to provide love and support, Graves said, before she flew back to Seattle mid-trip to be with family.
On Sunday, the women’s comeback bid fell short at Ohio State, and the men got another win at Penn State before getting on a new, admittedly less comfortable chartered plane to fly back and pick up their fellow Ducks in Columbus. It wasn’t until around 9 p.m. ET — roughly six hours after the women’s game ended — that the men arrived and the teams traveled back to Eugene together.
The maneuver was intended to save the athletic department money, but it ended up lengthening an already taxing road trip for the women’s team with a shorter turnaround ahead of their next game.
Both teams landed in Eugene on Sunday night at 11:30 p.m. PT, enjoying a much-needed day off on Monday. But the women had just one day of practice Tuesday before their home game against Purdue on Wednesday. The men won’t play the Boilermakers until Saturday.
“We went two days early for the first game, and you had two days in between. That just made for a long, long trip,” Graves said. “I know our kids were really tired. We got home late Sunday night. To have a quick turnaround, we had Monday off and we just had today to prepare for a Wednesday night game. It’s kind of the worst case. … I think our team is just excited to be home. Two weeks in their own bed. They missed their entire first week of school last week.”
In the Pac-12 era, the Ducks women flew on mostly commercial airlines to road games. In their first Big Ten schedule, it’s all charter flights, adding to the costs and challenges of being in a new conference with opponents spread across the country.
Oregon had a more manageable trip to Illinois and Northwestern for its first Big Ten road games Dec. 28 and 31, and it has two more Midwest trips on the docket this regular season: at Michigan State and Michigan on Jan. 30 and Feb. 2; and at Minnesota and Nebraska on Feb. 16 and 19. The Ducks will take charter flights on both trips without having to worry about coordination with the men’s team, easing the burden of this new era.
— Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon Ducks and Big Ten Conference. Listen to the Ducks Confidential podcast or subscribe to the Ducks Roundup newsletter.
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