Think your life is tough? Try being Mike Krzyzewski or one of the players on this year's men's basketball team.
Last Tuesday, about 48 hours after playing for the third consecutive day to win their fifth consecutive ACC Tournament championship, the Blue Devils left Durham on a plane bound for Salt Lake City. So much for the pod system keeping the top 16 teams close to home.
It wasn't the long distance upset Krzyzewski; rather, the fact that his team faced such a quick turnaround.
"I wish it was Friday and Sunday so that we could get over the ACC Tournament thing, which I really thought was the cause of us getting sick," Krzyzewski said at a press conference Monday. "It's just too much. I think people who don't play sports don't understand that. Like people who make commercials, produce TV shows, run athletic departments, they get away from actually playing some, and you don't realize what it takes out of you or else they wouldn't put those kids in those situations."
Duke dealt with the brief turnaround, and pulled out victories against Colorado State and Central Michigan. Though some had wondered whether Duke would opt to simply remain on the West Coast rather than be subjected to two more cross-country flights, the Blue Devils touched down in Raleigh early Sunday morning, knowing that only two days later they would again be airborne, this time bound for Anaheim, Calif., and the Sweet 16.
"For us, we love being here," Krzyzewski said. "It rejuvenated us getting in to Raleigh-Durham airport, coming back here to this campus. Getting back, especially because you can charter, that helps out a lot."
For most college students, March means spring break. For the Blue Devils, it's exactly the opposite.
Krzyzewski is able to point out some positives in being shipped out West; he singled out the relative calm in Salt Lake City as helping his team focus.
"I think being in Salt Lake, away from everything... we were kind of in our own little world there," he said. "I thought we got a little bit better, and there wasn't the media rush or anything like that on us."
At least Duke didn't suffer the same fate as the UCLA Bruins did in 2001, when they were forced to play their opening round games in Greensboro before returning to campus to take finals for that quarter's classes. After returning to campus, the Bruins had to pack up two days later to head out to Philadelphia, where they lost to Duke in the Sweet 16. Then, it was back to campus again to take those exams which they had missed the week before.
"This is the part that nobody thinks about," Bruins guard Jason Flowers told the UCLA Daily Bruin. "Everybody thinks that UCLA basketball is all peaches and cream. That we have everything all made for us. We have to take finals just like everybody else."
And then there's Vermont, who Krzyzewski feels got the raw end of the deal in this year's draw. After receiving their first NCAA bid in school history, the Catamounts were shipped out to Salt Lake City, far away from the fan base which had waited so long for such a day to happen.
"For me, if Vermont made it and it was the first time in the history of that school, I'd put them in Boston. What are they doing in Salt Lake City? Their people have never been to an NCAA Tournament. I don't mind that we're in Salt Lake City, our people have been there, and we're in it and have been in it a number of times. But those types of situations, and then they got caught in a snowstorm. I felt really bad for them, if they're going to get in a snowstorm it should be in Vermont, so they can use their snowmobiles to go to Boston free of charge."
At least Duke can look at the bright side: Final exams are hardly a concern at this point in the year, and their nationwide fan base will undoubtedly make a strong showing out in California.
But for the Blue Devils, who will have spent seven of the past nine nights sleeping either on planes or in hotel rooms before tipping off against Kansas, it's probably little consolation. At least the Final Four is in New Orleans, only 869 miles down the road.
Evan Davis is a Trinity senior and senior associate sports editor.
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