Auburn suffers plane mishap, forced to split travel party en route to Greenville

Auburn suffered some mechanical issues to the plane it used to travel to Greenville, S.C. on Wednesday ahead of its first-round NCAA Tournament game on Friday with Jacksonville State.

The Tigers’ team plane was forced to turn around because of a mechanical issue and land back at Auburn, as the team was split into different traveling parties to get to South Carolina.

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said “We’re getting on a couple small planes and a bus. We will get in tonight, All good!,” per Trey Wallace.

Some context on Auburn basketball’s plane issues. NCAA doesn’t provide flights for teams less than 350 miles. Auburn used its normal charter company to keep this like a normal road trip. Just had unfortunate mechanical problems. 1/2

— Jason Caldwell (@ITATJason) March 17, 2022

Auburn’s regular rotation and some coaches will fly up tonight. Everyone else busing up, but should be there in a few hours. 2/2

— Jason Caldwell (@ITATJason) March 17, 2022

Auburn (27-5) is looking to get back on track after it had a disappointing end to the regular season and a flat performance in the SEC Tournament. The Tigers began the season 22-1, but slipped to 5-4 in their final 9 games.

After Auburn squeaked out its first outright SEC regular season championship since 1999, but then fell 67-62 against an upstart Texas A&M team that won 3 games in the SEC Tournament, but didn’t make the Big Dance.