OU, OSU basketball teams waiting to travel
By David Ubben, Staff Writer,
dubben@opubco.com The Oklahoman
Published: January 29, 2010
Both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have yet to escape the weekend's ice and snow, leaving road games on Saturday in doubt or prompting quick time changes.
Oklahoma is scheduled to play Nebraska in Lincoln at 7 p.m. Saturday instead of the originally scheduled 12:30 p.m. The Sooners were still in Norman as of Friday afternoon, waiting on a charter plane from Dallas to arrive. Friday's snowstorm limited visibility and hasn't allowed the plane to leave.
Oklahoma State is scheduled to play Missouri in Columbia on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Cowboys, believing their plane could leave, traveled from Stillwater to the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City by bus. When they arrived, they were told they could not leave. The team is waiting at a nearby hotel.
Oklahoma State's charter plane is at the airport in Oklahoma City. Once the snow stops and the runway is cleared, the team has been told they will be able to depart.
OU has yet to speak with officials at Nebraska to discuss possibilities of rescheduling. Oklahoma has no mid-week game before hosting Texas on Saturday, but Nebraska is scheduled to host Kansas State on Tuesday.
The Oklahoma women’s basketball game at Texas Tech on Saturday has been moved back to 7 p.m., a school spokesman said. The original tip-off time was 2 p.m. But weather delays prevented the Sooners from flying out to Lubbock until Saturday morning.
The Oklahoma State women's basketball team is scheduled to leave Saturday morning for College Station, Texas, where it will play Texas A&M at noon Sunday.
The OSU men's golf team is patiently waiting at the hotel with the men's basketball team. The wait will likely be worth it for the golfers. They are leaving for a tournament that begins Wednesday -- in Hilo, Hawaii, where the temperature Friday was 83 degrees with a few showers.
Even the pros are socked by the weather. The Denver Nuggets were scheduled to leave Oklahoma City late Friday night after their NBA game with the Thunder. Instead, the Nuggets will leave around noon Saturday.
The Nuggets have had a prolonged stay in Oklahoma City as it was. They arrived Wednesday night in Oklahoma City after playing that night in Houston to beat the winter storm.
"It seems like we've been here a long time," said Nuggets coach George Karl. "All you do is hang out in the hotel room. You don't do anything. Normally, you get out and run about or have dinner. I'm kind of tired of room service and bar food."
Denver's next game is a nationally televised contest at noon Sunday in San Antonio.
"It disorients your preparation, how you normally prepare," Karl said. "We'll stay here, have a shootaround here (Saturday morning) -- a short practice and walk-through on San Antonio -- then fly out."