Feb. 18, 2006
Springfield, Mo. -
For tourists and music fans, the Springfield-Branson area of southwestern Missouri is a favorite destination. For women's college basketball teams, it has a history of sending teams home disappointed, thanks to the legacy of home-court dominance by the Missouri State Lady Bears. For Illinois State's women's basketball team, just getting to Springfield--where the Redbirds play the Bears at 2:05 p.m. Sunday--was something of an adventure.
The day began earlier than planned in Wichita, where the Redbirds lost 85-73 to Wichita State Friday. Shortly after 6:30 a.m., fire alarms began blaring at the Courtyard by Marriott where the Redbirds were staying. With players, coaches, staff and other guests huddled in the hotel lobby, Wichita firefighters were summoned and discovered an electrical malfunction in an elevator mechanism. But it took those firefighters and hotel staff almost 45 minutes to stop the alarms from honking and flashing.
The Redbirds went back to bed, but for a short snooze at best...on the bus to the airport by 9 a.m. The Wichita bus driver struggled a bit to find the entry gate to the tarmac, but the `Birds boarded their charter without incident and the one-hour flight to Springfield went smoothly and the plane taxied to a stop at 10:50 a.m.
With the convenience of charters, the efficiency of flight crew and airport staff, and good ground transportation, from touch down to hotel in Springfield can be as little as 20 minutes. This trip ... well, it had a few glitches.
First, the plane was directed to park in the wrong part of Springfield Branson National Airport and the Redbirds spent 20 minutes stranded on the plane before the 23-person travel party was packed into a 15-passenger mini-bus and shuttled to a private terminal to await the arrival of the bus which would take them to the John Q. Hammons University Plaza Hotel. About 15 minutes later, the bus arrived, followed shortly by the baggage from the plane.
Loaded with passengers and luggage, the `Birds finally were ready for the 10-minute drive from airport to hotel. Unfortunately, the bus itself was less prepared, stalling 11 times and seldom traveling faster than 25 miles per hour. Despite light traffic, that 10-minute drive took 25 minutes ... with the final stall just a few yards from the hotel entrance.
Upon arrival at the University Plaza, the travel party quickly off-loaded its baggage from the bus and huddled into the lobby. Rooms assigned and key cards prepared, they were ready to finally reach their rooms. Just one more stumbling block, though ... the nine-story University Plaza was down to just one operational elevator and the Redbird rooms were spread among six of those floors. Finally--about 12:20 p.m.--players, coaches and staff reached their rooms and were ready to find some lunch.
While she conceded the travel adventures might make interesting copy, Redbird head coach Robin Pingeton expected the `Birds to be ready for a solid practice late Saturday afternoon and an improved performance on Sunday.
"You control what you can control," said Pingeton. "Certainly, a lot of those events were out of our control, but it's a life lesson: adversity will strike--it's how quickly and positively you can make adjustments. We are still in the mix of things (for a top six finish in the Valley). It's another opportunity for us. We are disappointed with the Wichita State loss, but need to get focused on this rejuvenated Missouri State team."
The Redbirds, 9-13 overall, 4-9 in the Missouri Valley won't get any sympathy from the Bears either. Missouri State, 12-11, 6-8 in conference, threw up a big stop sign on Indiana State's 18-game winning streak by pounding the league-leading Sycamores 76-46 Friday. Missouri State, which has won more than 90 percent of its home league games since 1989, is looking to put back-to-back wins together for the first time since early January. The `Birds used a stifling defense to beat the Bears 64-55 Jan. 20 in Normal.
Kari Koch and Sarah Klaassen, two of the three Lady Bear seniors who playing their last regular-season game in Hammons Student Center, had 19 points each in the win over Indiana State. Koch leads the Valley in scoring with 20.7 points per game.
"It's the last home game for that great senior class at Missouri State," said Pingeton. "We know that, after the big win over Indiana State, the Missouri State fans will be out in full force. That will be a new experience for our young kids."
All 10 Valley teams will be back at Hammons Student Center in mid-March for the 2006 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
