I Find This From Geno Unbelievable

[UConnNick]

Traveling by commercial air is tiring. They go through security, wait at gates and sit in cramped seats like the rest of us. No one likes it and it is annoying and tiring. Why do you need to pretend that they are immune to what annoys the rest of us?

They fly charter.

 

[meyers7]

3 games in 16 days! IMO they’re tired from all the BS. Play some games and get better! Basketball players like to play basketball! Let them play! Road trips are great for kids! Away from boring routine. Basketball 24-7. Maybe these girls don’t like basketball like that. Do you think DT would complain about 3 games in 16 days?

Well then I think you're gonna make them more tired. (and us too)

 

[Jmsdawg]

If You travel a lot it can get taxing. It can suck Your energy. Doesn’t matter how old You are. I’m 23 Years old and in the rare case I have to travel a lot it can catch up to me. You can ask any athlete traveling a lot. They’ll tell You how it can get.

I am 76, going to bathroom is about all the traveling I can take nowadays.

 

[donalddoowop]

JET LAG is not a myth.

geewago, how does jet lag make people feel? I don't fly and I've wondered how it feels.

 

[geewago]

geewago, how does jet lag make people feel? I don't fly and I've wondered how it feels.

It makes you feel like you've been up all night ironing blue jeans.

 

[HuskyNan]

geewago, how does jet lag make people feel? I don't fly and I've wondered how it feels.

Your internal body clock is all out of whack. We visited family in Oregon over the holidays and I was ready for bed at 8 pm local time because my body thought it was 11 pm. Think how it feels when you stay up hours past your regular bedtime or get up hours later. Getting up later can make you quite groggy

 

[Teacherdeb]

They don't travel by commercial air. That's the WNBA. UConn is pretty much all charter, 5-star accommodations (including $500 of OJ at breakfast, if I remember one of the spending scandals correctly). I don't feel sorry for them. Plus the more you travel the more you get used to it. Not that it isn't nice to be home in your own bed, but traveling has its learning curve and you get more comfortable - they ought to be pretty good at it by now.

Occasionally they travel charter, but not regularly. And that OJ thing was the Men when they were in NYC.

 

[eebmg]

I am 76, going to bathroom is about all the traveling I can take nowadays.

As long as it's a round trip.

 

[eebmg]

Geno is clearly trying to get his players used to WNBA travel.

 

[Bama fan]

Not relevant to this year's team, but Gabby had a hip flexor issue last year. Turns out I had the same thing (only figured it out around January when my wife looked it up), and I was teaching my daughter to drive. After an hour of sitting in a reasonably comfortable, not-cramped car seat, I looked like an old man trying to get out. My daughter said something to the effect, "Dad you're crippled, why don't you give up running?"

I couldn't imagine sitting in a plane for five hours when I was like that. I'm sure all of our players have nagging issues, and most are taller than I.

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth..."

 

[Bama fan]

As long as it's a round trip.

There may be a slight delay!

 

[HopJim]

They don't travel by commercial air. That's the WNBA. UConn is pretty much all charter, 5-star accommodations (including $500 of OJ at breakfast, if I remember one of the spending scandals correctly). I don't feel sorry for them. Plus the more you travel the more you get used to it. Not that it isn't nice to be home in your own bed, but traveling has its learning curve and you get more comfortable - they ought to be pretty good at it by now.

Without sounding harsh, my opinion of people who say you get used to traveling typically have not traveled frequently or if they traveled, it was short distances. I have worked in jobs where I typically spent an average of 100-150 nights a year in a hotel and cant say I ever got used to it. When I got home, I was able to relax, not go to class, study for tests, etc. Just one person's opinion.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

"You can tell we love playing here," Samuelson said. "It's felt like forever since we actually got a home game." Nov. 11 is forever. Bad for players. Bad for fans. Would the outcome of Baylor been different had the schedule been more normal. Common sense says they'd have had a better shot at it. Geno knows better. So why?

 

[Jeff H]

"You can tell we love playing here," Samuelson said. "It's felt like forever since we actually got a home game." Nov. 11 is forever. Bad for players. Bad for fans. Would the outcome of Baylor been different had the schedule been more normal. Common sense says they'd have had a better shot at it. Geno knows better. So why?

You get boxed in. If they wanted the Baylor game they were probably stuck. I see what my high school AD goes through and my sister is a college AD. Scheduling is a bitch.

 

[hoopsfan22]

"You can tell we love playing here," Samuelson said. "It's felt like forever since we actually got a home game." Nov. 11 is forever. Bad for players. Bad for fans. Would the outcome of Baylor been different had the schedule been more normal. Common sense says they'd have had a better shot at it. Geno knows better. So why?

I don't think Geno has as much control over it as we'd like to think. They only get 7 games in Gampel per season, so there is bound to be a gap between games every year.

 

[HuskyNan]

"You can tell we love playing here," Samuelson said. "It's felt like forever since we actually got a home game." Nov. 11 is forever. Bad for players. Bad for fans. Would the outcome of Baylor been different had the schedule been more normal. Common sense says they'd have had a better shot at it. Geno knows better. So why?

1. First two games in Connecticut
2. Paradise Jam is in US Virgin Islands -nothing can be done about that. THe choices here were travel or not play any games. Given two youngsters in the starting lineup, Geno probably opted to play. Besides, UConn plays in this tourney every 4 years and it hasn’t been harmful in the past
3. ND - home and home series. I assume ESPN and just about everyone else wants this rivalry to continue forever
4. St Louis - home game for Napheesa.
5. Seton Hall in Hartford - a favor for a friend? A home game for an SH player? Dunno but it’s a bus ride from Storrs
6. OKlahoma - second half of home and home
7. Cal - Team was already out West for OK game, Geno probably wants to play a good team while he was out that way
Holidays fell in here
8. Baylor and Houston - UConn has no control over the AAC schedule and most likely figured it could fit Baylor in without having to travel to Texas twice this year. SMU is in Storrs this season and there’s no time available around the Tulsa game

Remember, if UConn is playing game two of a home and home series this year, it got home games last year. It’s just time to pay the piper. No use crying about the schedule

 

[vtcwbuff]

Spoken from someone who did a lot of traveling during the college athletic career I suppose? NOT! That's what I like about this board, so many well informed because they lived views and have lots of compassion.

Familiar surroundings, normal routines, friends and ability to be by yourself are what makes people successful, athletes included. I have done both college athletic trips and business trips (both when I was young and now that I am older) and YES, they are taxing on the mind more so than the body but taxing on both.

These are not normal routines by any stretch and add in the time zone changes, eegads...

Nope, spoken by somebody who traveled for a living. Much of it done when I was in my 50's/60's and some of it done in less comfortable circumstances (try 20 hours in a John Wayne seat in the back of a C-130).
UConn away games usually require East to West travel. Much less disruptive than the other direction. Jet lag should be a non factor. Why would being away from normal surroundings for a couple of days be tiring to a 20 year old. My guess is that it would be exciting. New places, faces, things to see and do.

 

[meyers7]

I don't think Geno has as much control over it as we'd like to think. They only get 7 games in Gampel per season, so there is bound to be a gap between games every year.

True. About 1/2 of the games are gonna be Home games. Half of them are going to be at XL. Add in Bridgewater "Home" game. Not that many left for Gampel.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

1. First two games in Connecticut
2. Paradise Jam is in US Virgin Islands -nothing can be done about that. THe choices here were travel or not play any games. Given two youngsters in the starting lineup, Geno probably opted to play. Besides, UConn plays in this tourney every 4 years and it hasn’t been harmful in the past
3. ND - home and home series. I assume ESPN and just about everyone else wants this rivalry to continue forever
4. St Louis - home game for Napheesa.
5. Seton Hall in Hartford - a favor for a friend? A home game for an SH player? Dunno but it’s a bus ride from Storrs
6. OK - second half of home and home
7. Cal - Team was out west, Geno probably wants to play a good team while he was out that way
Holidays fell in here
8. Baylor and Houston - UConn has no control over the AAC schedule and most likely figured it could fit Baylor in without having to travel to Texas twice this year. SMU is in Storrs this season and there’s no time available around the Tulsa game

Remember, if UConn is playing game two of a home and home series this year, it got home games last year. It’s just time to pay the piper. No use crying about the schedule

But I'm like Stef, I like to cry.

 

[vtcwbuff]

JET LAG is not a myth.

It is not a myth West to East. The other direction not so much - except for long hauls to Hawaii, Japan etc. Anyone who gets jet lagged on a trip to OK has a problem.

 

[meyers7]

UConn away games usually require East to West travel. Much less disruptive than the other direction. Jet lag should be a non factor.

Jet lag is always a factor. May not be as big a factor depending on direction, but it's still a factor. I'm sure they do things to minimize it though.

Why would being away from normal surroundings for a couple of days be tiring to a 20 year old. My guess is that it would be exciting. New places, faces, things to see and do.

Well as has been explained in this thread, it's not "a couple days". It's been a lot of travel over a couple of months. You don't have to believe they are kind of worn out if you don't want to. Your choice. However, last night's performance would tend to confirm that.

 

[j66kicker]

Without sounding harsh, my opinion of people who say you get used to traveling typically have not traveled frequently or if they traveled, it was short distances. I have worked in jobs where I typically spent an average of 100-150 nights a year in a hotel and cant say I ever got used to it. When I got home, I was able to relax, not go to class, study for tests, etc. Just one person's opinion.

Must be an individual thing. I traveled quite a bit for a long time - not 150 nights per year, but China 10X in one year while working around projects in Brazil, Europe, Australia, etc. Most years not that extreme, but I traveled a lot to drastically different time zones.

To me there were 2 types of jet lag learning. First just learning how to deal with it the best way for you. Still had to fight through it but you learn how to make it easier on yourself. Second, during stretches of really zipping around and never getting settled into one time zone, I found the jet lag to be less - maybe just never quite getting readjusted to your home time zone made it easier to adjust back out of it.

The first type of learning sticks with you. The second type goes away as soon as you finally stay in one place and get settled in for a few weeks.

For both the jet lag and the other inconveniences of travel, I think it makes a huge difference if you really enjoy and are excited about the reason for your trip, or the novelty of going to a new place, or SOMETHING that has you psyched about your trip. That excitement/enthusiasm can get you through the jet lag and also cause all kinds of other enjoyment. I can imagine if your mission is just a drag, then the travel would just make it that much worse.

 

[Waquoit]

(including $500 of OJ at breakfast, if I remember one of the spending scandals correctly).

That was the AD spending money on himself and his family.

 

[Bigboote]

. . .including $500 of OJ at breakfast. . .

Reminds me of that Frank Zappa line (from about 1975):

Sitting there, face to face with a 75-cent glass of orange juice about as big as my finger.

 

[MSGRET]

1. First two games in Connecticut
2. Paradise Jam is in US Virgin Islands -nothing can be done about that. THe choices here were travel or not play any games. Given two youngsters in the starting lineup, Geno probably opted to play. Besides, UConn plays in this tourney every 4 years and it hasn’t been harmful in the past
3. ND - home and home series. I assume ESPN and just about everyone else wants this rivalry to continue forever
4. St Louis - home game for Napheesa.
5. Seton Hall in Hartford - a favor for a friend? A home game for an SH player? Dunno but it’s a bus ride from Storrs
6. OKlahoma - second half of home and home
7. Cal - Team was already out West for OK game, Geno probably wants to play a good team while he was out that way
Holidays fell in here
8. Baylor and Houston - UConn has no control over the AAC schedule and most likely figured it could fit Baylor in without having to travel to Texas twice this year. SMU is in Storrs this season and there’s no time available around the Tulsa game

Remember, if UConn is playing game two of a home and home series this year, it got home games last year. It’s just time to pay the piper. No use crying about the schedule

Nan, the Cal game was the second half of a home and home series. Lou injured her ankle in the first half of last year's Cal game, I believe it was in Gampel, and had to sit out for the home game against Maryland and the road games against UCLA, Michigan State, and Nevada.