Redhawks travel like queens of OVC

DENVER, Colo. -- Talk about arriving for your first NCAA Division I tournament appearance in the smoothest way possible.

The Southeast Missouri State women's basketball team, along with other university personnel and support groups, couldn't have asked for much more.

"That was cool," senior guard Tiffanne Ryan said.

Instead of battling long lines and long waits at major airports as most travelers do, Southeast's travel party was shuffled from Cape Girardeau to Denver in a manner fit for royalty.

And it was all courtesy of the NCAA.

Much of the Southeast group of 90 strong arrived at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport by 7:30 a.m. Thursday, with the team following a bit later after busing over from the Show Me Center.

A 172-passenger Miami Air International Boeing 737-800 was already waiting on the runway.

After all the passengers had checked in and boarded, the charter took off at 8:50 a.m. -- 10 minutes earlier than scheduled.

A little more than two hours later, landing was achieved at a regional airport in Denver, again saving the hassle of navigating through a major metropolitan airport.

Two charter buses awaited the party, and after all the baggage had been transferred, the group arrived at the DoubleTree Hotel-Denver North.

Total travel time from Cape Girardeau to DoubleTree: 3 hours and 10 minutes.

"It was cool," senior forward Natalie Purcell said. "No big airports ... it was a lot easier."

Southeast coach B.J. Smith was certainly impressed, and appreciative.

"To travel this way is just unbelievable," Smith said. "We need to win these two games just so we can do this again."

The underdog Redhawks need two victories in Denver to advance to the following weekend's regional semifinals in San Antonio.

Smith said a recent talk with Michigan coach Cheryl Burnett -- who led then-Southwest Missouri State to national prominence before moving to the Big 10 Conference -- convinced him how important Thursday's form of travel was.

"She told me travel is such a big thing," Smith said. "She said if you have a 12-hour ordeal getting there, it can really wear you down.

"But doing it this way ... there definitely shouldn't be any kind of a travel hangover for us."

The NCAA picks up the tab -- including travel, lodging and a daily stipend -- for 75 people. That includes everybody associated with the team, along with a certain number of band members, cheerleaders, administrators and support staff.

"I thought it was outstanding, being able to fly out of Cape Airport and travel this way," said Southeast athletic director Don Kaverman, who was on board. "Credit to the NCAA for getting us a great charter, and also to Bruce Loy and all the people at Cape Airport. It was seamless.

"Also credit to our people at the university, who really lobbied the NCAA for us to be able to get a charter like this, because there aren't that many available and a lot of times you have to fly commercial."

Also making the flight -- and responsible for their own expenses -- were several print, radio and television media personnel, along with a few fans, although perhaps up to 100 fans are expected to be on hand Saturday night, when the 14th-seeded Redhawks play third-seeded Stanford.