Who else always forgets something important when they travel? Grand Canyon can relate.
When it comes to the NCAA tournament, the actual travel can be a new experience for plenty of teams. Some schools — particularly mid-majors — don’t often (if ever) charter flights to away games.
And for Grand Canyon’s 820-mile journey from Phoenix to Denver, the NCAA chartered the team’s flight so the Antelopes could make it safely and quickly to their first round matchup against Gonzaga. GCU’s equipment, however, is a different story.
According to Matt Norlander, when GCU arrived to Denver, the team was surprised to find out that its uniforms, bags and athletic gear did not make it to Colorado with them. Evidently, some confusion over equipment transportation for chartered flights had GCU in a rough spot ahead of Friday’s game. But hey, the brother of GCU coach Bryce Drew, Baylor’s Scott Drew, was more than happy to help.
Hold up! Just in: As luck would have it, Scott Drew is ALSO in Denver—with Bryce. GCU and Baylor both play there Friday (in different pods).
Grand Canyon's gonna practice in Baylor gear tonight 😂
"We're gonna hook 'em up. What are big brothers for!" Scott Drew just told me.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 15, 2023
With both Baylor and GCU in Denver for the opening weekend, Scott said that he was going to hook the Antelopes up — a fellow Nike program — with whatever gear they need. So, basically GCU was going to practice in Baylor gear while it awaited the arrival of its actual equipment.
But let’s return to the “how??” of all this. Grand Canyon said that the airline failed to deliver the equipment, but this was a chartered plane on an empty tarmac. It wasn’t like they were flying through a commercial terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor where they checked bags at the desk with regular travelers.
🛫 Champs headed to Denver. 🛬#LopesUp pic.twitter.com/HzYHe5R9Fn
— Grand Canyon Men’s Basketball (@GCU_MBB) March 15, 2023
Given a recent NCAA memo on equipment procedures, it sure seems like GCU’s equipment staff made a mistake.
From said memo. pic.twitter.com/JwYNHs9Vhx
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) March 15, 2023
GCU’s equipment manager should have been there to ensure the equipment made it on the plane and was properly unloaded off of it. With a Friday game, there’s still time to sort out the mishap. But in the meantime, GCU sure was lucky that Scott Drew was around in Denver — and that Baylor packed extra equipment.
