Travelin' men

 I hate to fly.

I hate everything about it, from the TSA shakedown ("Take off your shoes, socks, pants, underwear and that nose ring, please") to the flight delays ("We have been informed your flight is enroute and will be here a week from Thursday in 2035") right on up  to the group boarding ("If you are in Group 247, you may board now").

I hate the guy who insists on cramming his steamer trunk in the overhead bin.. I hate "We are now 137th in line for takeoff." And mostly I hate being stuffed into the seating like cattle into a chute, and realizing that for the next four hours my knees will be getting intimate with my chin. 

In other words, I sympathize with Dan Hurley and his UConn Huskies, and the airline nightmare they endured to get to the Final Four.

Equipment issues. Pilots timing out with no replacements available. Weather delays.

I feel their pain. 

I just don't think it's all that painful, basketball-wise.

"I ruminated a lot," Hurley said of the Huskies' ordeal. "I spiraled. I had my head in my hands a lot. It was a real mindful exercise from 11:30 to like 1:45 on the tarmac."

Again, I get it. And, again, I'm compelled to say, "Oh, please."

I mean, Hurley made it sound like Frank Pembleton was sweating him in the box on "Homicide: Life On The Street," the best cop show of all time. He wasn't. It was just regular flying crap --  which is no fun, but isn't exactly the Spanish Inquisition.

And even if the Huskies finally arrived in Phoenix at the ungodly hour of 3:15 a.m. Thursday local time ...

Well. I'm not very good at math, but even I can figure out that means UConn arrived  roughly 66 hours before the tip of its national semifinal against Alabama.

I figure that's plenty of time for everyone to catch up on their sleep. Plenty of time for the Huskies to get back into their routine, and to make the proper preparations for sending 'Bama back to Tuscaloosa in sandwich bags.

Even Hurley finally seemed to understand that, once he was done drama queening.

"Who doesn't deal with problems with the airlines?" he said at one point Thursday afternoon.

No one I know.