ORLANDO, Fla. — President Joe Biden delayed the arrival of the San Diego State men’s basketball team to the site of its first-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament by about two hours this week.
The U.S. president was in the San Diego area on Monday meeting with the prime ministers of the United Kingdom and Australia. He left town on Tuesday just as the team was scheduled to depart on its chartered flight for Orlando.
They eventually left at 5 p.m. and landed just after midnight.
“Our plane was a little late getting in to pick us up because of restricted airspace around Air Force One,” Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher said. “Charters, as much as they sound like they’re going to get you here early, they usually get you here when they get you here.”
The fifth-seeded Aztecs (27-6, 15-3) will face the 12th-seeded College of Charleston on Thursday in their 15th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. It is their 10th trip to the Big Dance in the last 14 years and just the eighth time the program enters as a single-digit seed.
Dutcher maintained his team will be ready to play without any lasting effects of their late arrival in Central Florida, though the sixth-year coach was still thinking about his (late) midnight snack.
“I was eating chicken wings at 2 a.m. They were good,” Dutcher said. “They tasted really good, and we were happy to have them, and we’re happy to be here.”
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