PITTSBURGH - Pitt didn't know the road to the NCAA basketball tournament could be so long and tiring.

Because of a problem with their chartered jet, the Panthers spent all day Tuesday traveling to Boise, Idaho, for Thursday's first-round game against Pacific. The travel delays forced Pitt to miss a scheduled practice, so coach Jamie Dixon improvised with a walkthrough session at the Sioux Falls, S.D., airport.

The Panthers left campus at 9 a.m., and the plane stopped in Sioux Falls to refuel. A problem with an instrument gauge was discovered, forcing the Panthers to wait for a replacement plane to be flown in from Minneapolis.

Pitt's traveling party of players, coaches, administrators, cheerleaders and other school officials finally arrived at its Boise hotel about 1:45 a.m. Mountain time - a campus-to-hotel trip of about 19 hours.

During the delay, players and coaches watched game tapes on laptop computers.

The travel delay was the second in as many weeks for Pitt. Last week, the Panthers' plane to the Big East tournament was turned away in New York by a snowstorm, forcing them to return to Pittsburgh, fly to Philadelphia and then bus to New York. That all-day trip also forced a practice to be canceled before their only tournament game, a second-round loss to Villanova.