March Madness will never be the same, not after a maddening day that had nothing to do with basketball.

I was relieved to hear the sound of a referee's whistle and watch a jump ball going up for Tennessee's NCAA women's basketball tournament opener last Sunday in Pittsburgh. It sure beat the voice of an equivocating airline official and my connecting flight to Pittsburgh going down off the board two days earlier. On that day, a winter sleet storm engulfed the Philadelphia airport and I had no clue what to do.

At least that's what I thought at the time. In retrospect, I dealt with the gathering chaos by borrowing some strategy from the teams I've watched navigate this treacherous month. In my case, I wouldn't call it a game plan but it sure worked out like one.

Trust your teammates: First, I had to find some.

When these disasters happen, all you have is your resourcefulness or your good fortune.

Randy and Jim were somewhere ahead of me in the luckless line at the departure gate. They had secured a rental car and hotel rooms for the night before I had any idea just how bad things were.

For some blessed reason Randy turned to me and said "I have a car."

It was as if Lady Vol Candace Parker had just demanded: "Give me the ball."

Either way, it's a good idea to listen.

Why Randy invited me to join him and his IT colleague from Eaton Corporation, I'll never know. And I don't want to know. Maybe it was because I wasn't as arrogant as the dope in front of him in line. He called his travel agent, was assured of a seat on the 4 p.m. flight to Pittsburgh and crowed, "It pays to spend the extra $31."

No, since there would be no flight to Pittsburgh before Sunday, it pays to find two guys like Randy and Jim. I didn't care if they turned out to be serial killers, they had a car and way out.

Have a sense of humor: If Tennessee men's coach Bruce Pearl can chuckle about a bad half of basketball in the midst of a second-round game against Virginia, why couldn't we joke about our plight.

The Vols got to the Sweet 16 and we got through a wacky weekend of long lines, snarled traffic, a Bobby Knight-like reaction from a cab driver who rear-ended our rental car and a six-hour drive to Pittsburgh Saturday.

Randy was our go-to guy.

On the bus to the rental car lot: "What a weekend to give up Crystal Meth."

Upon emerging from the rental car office into a 20 mph wind that was blowing the sleet sideways: "Guys we're in luck. I got the last convertible."

At the Pittsburgh airport, trying to describe some contents of his lost luggage as a means of identification: "Well, there's this pink number "

Obviously this guy was traveling light.

Improvise: Not sure if this would help clear some space for Lady Vol Sidney Spencer to get off a jumper, but it's worth a try.

To satisfy the rental car folks, the guys had to have the number of the police report of our fender-bender. So when we piled into a Pennsylvania Turnpike rest stop Saturday morning, Jim said loudly enough for our fellow patrons to hear, "I have to check with the police."

Could've shot a layup after that announcement.

Savor the moment: We said this several times to ourselves. The last time was at the Pittsburgh airport when we were saying our good-byes.

"We'll never forget this."

Winning in March must feel something like this.

We did it together. Sure beat spending the extra $31 and trying some other game plan.

Dan Fleser covers women's basketball. He can be reached at 865-342-6288.