Cal taps NASA specialist amid concerns over ACC travel

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Moving to the ACC has been a boost for Cal and Stanford from a number of different standpoints, providing both schools with a long-term home in a power conference after the Pac-12 fell apart in the summer of 2023.

But the change also has brought worries over travel during conference play, with nearly every road trip in January, February and March involving a multiple-game swing and several days away from home.

“I’m absolutely concerned about the travel,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said Thursday at ACC Tipoff.

The Golden Bears, however, are taking steps to minimize the impact the long-distance travel will have on their student-athletes, Madsen said.

In the offseason, Golden Bears athletic director Jim Knowlton brought in a NASA specialist to give a presentation to the school’s sports teams.

“He specialized in recovery across time zones. How the body can recover under duress. It was very informative,” Madsen told ESPN. “We were there with all the head coaches. A lot of great information was shared. The bottom line is we’ll come out during conference play, we’ll come out either two days early or one day early, depending on the academic workload.”

“We’re not going to leave a single stone unturned,” he added. “If it means one or two additional wins across 10 different teams, the preparation level, we’re going to do it.”

Madsen also said he spent time in the offseason thinking about how to incrementally improve the performance of the men’s basketball program, from nutrition to how to help players visualize scouting reports. And among those potential improvements was drinking water while flying.

“Hydration on long flights. Can we get a little bit better? Yes,” he said.

Stanford coach Kyle Smith has similar concerns as Madsen, although the travel problems Smith had during his time at Washington State the past five years prepared him and his staff for this season’s trips.

“I imagine it’s something you probably have to get used to,” Smith said. “Our staff’s ready because we were at Washington State and we were going commercial. So it was a bus ride, a flight into Seattle, then Seattle to, it might be another stop. So everything — honestly, it’ll be less time. Our time travel [was] more in Pullman. And it’s chartered.”

Smith is cognizant of how it could impact his players, though.

“Players, that’s going to be different. The time zones. That’s real,” he said.

On Wednesday, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips spoke about the travel — pointing out that the conference already had a preview of any potential issues with the league’s fall sports.

“In the end, I really feel we’ve scheduled well. We’ve come up with travel partners for the first time, so when you go out to California, the teams that are on the East Coast, they’ll play two games. When Cal, Stanford come in this direction, they’ll play two games,” Philips said. “I think it makes a lot of sense to do that. We’ve gotten an early kind of snippet view with our Olympic sports. I think it’s worked out pretty well, but I’m sure it won’t be perfect. I just know that because we’ve gone now outside of our footprint that we had for 71 years.

“So we’ll adjust and make some changes as we go into the future, but so far so good.”

The ACC isn’t the only league dealing with new logistical concerns, with the Big Ten and the Big 12 both expanding out West. UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington all joined the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah all went to the Big 12.

Oregon coach Dana Altman said at Big Ten Media Day that he is talking with NFL and NBA teams who are helping him find ways to keep his team fresh when the Ducks have to make multiple trips to the East coast and Midwest during college basketball season.

“We’ve done a lot of calling around to the NBA, to all the West Coast teams in the NBA, and even some NFL teams and how they travel when they go east,” Altman said. “Everybody talks about how tough it is to go east and west and all the numbers prove it out, the road records and so forth. So we’ve studied that.”

He said those teams have given him tips, such as making sure players don’t fall asleep on flights so they can adjust to their new time zones when they land.

“I’m going to have to do a better job of cutting back on some days of practice maybe, which is hard for an insecure coach to do because you want to go over everything one more time,” Altman said.

UCLA’s Mick Cronin said he’s not as concerned as Altman. He said his players have been traveling the country since they were teenagers on the AAU circuit — although he wants his team to have chartered flights that have lounge chairs so players can relax on their flights.

“I think it’s all a little overrated,” he said. “But [Altman] and I have talked about it, trying to get a certain type of charter flight. You’ve seen them in the NBA, with the lounge chairs. But is that really going to matter with victory? I think recruiting and toughness and shot-making matter more.”

ESPN’s Myron Medcalf contributed to this report.