ESPN Men's Basketball

WASHINGTON -- Unwilling to miss the big game between their Georgetown Hoyas and No. 2 Villanova, Connor Gregoire, Ben Mishkin and Chris Yedibalian wanted to make sure they got to the Verizon Center before the noon tip.

So at 8 a.m., they walked out of their campus dorm and made like a slow-paced Forrest Gump, walking the 3-plus miles in the blizzard to downtown D.C.

"It took us about an hour,'' Gregoire said.

The trio only saw a few other brave souls -- mostly people shoveling their driveways and walkways -- and thanks to no traffic were able to walk down the middle of the street.

Well, almost no traffic.

"I almost got hit by a truck, '' Mishkin said. "It spun out right in front of me. I didn't really have time to react so I just sort of stood there thinking, 'Oh please, turn the other way. Please.' And it did.''

Yes, there is a Metro stop in Rosslyn, Va., they could have taken but the trains were running on a 30-minute delay and to get to the Metro Center requires a 20-minute walk over the Key Bridge (cabs are not an option in these weather conditions) so they did the math and put on their walking shoes.

The million-dollar question, of course: How are they getting back?

"We're not sure yet," Yedibalian said.

WASHINGTON -- With streets snowed under by a blizzard and the Verizon Center only a quick subway ride away, Villanova assistant coach Doug West had what he thought was a great idea: he, Scottie Reynolds, Antonio Pena and graduate manager George Halcovage would hop on the Metro before the bus left the team hotel. The group likes to get some extra shots in before tip-off so West, an NBA travel veteran figuring the train would be faster, checked in with the hotel staff. They told him it would leave at 10 a.m. -- and with just a two-minute ride versus what could be a tricky bus trip -- West packed the crew up and headed down to Union Station.

Only problem: thanks to the snow, the trains were running on an abbreviated schedule. Arriving on the platform at 10, West & Co. discovered the next red line train would be departing at 10:30. So they waited and as they waited the platform got packed ... with Georgetown students.

Reynolds and Pena kept their blue sweatshirt hoods pulled over their heads and kept their heads down, but decked out in Villanova gear they would have needed a burqa to go unnoticed. As they finally boarded the Metro and headed to the back of the train, students whipped out their camera phones and pointed. "Is that Scottie Reynolds... on the Metro?'' one girl asked her neighbor. "Wow, we're riding with Scottie Reynolds,'' another guy said before adding, 'Go Hoyas.'

To add insult to the best-laid plan gone awry, by the time the group got to the arena the rest of the Villanova team (the ones from the bus) were in the locker room.

They'd been there for 15 minutes.