SALT LAKE CITY - Tom Brennan knows that he doesn't coach at a big time college basketball program.

The Vermont team doesn't stay in fancy hotels, doesn't recruit McDonald's All-Americans and definitely doesn't travel first class.

So when UVM was unable to get out of the Denver airport for two days because of a snowstorm, the team finally found a way to get to Salt Lake, on a charted plane from Colorado Springs, Colo.

"That has definitely been the best thing in the last 48 hours," said Brennan, who is in his 17th season with the Catamounts. "It was weird looking around the plane and only seeing my guys."

Vermont's NCAA Tournament stay didn't last as long as their unexpected stay in Denver, but for 10 minutes the team gave the nation's best basketball team over the course of the season a run for it's money.

Matt Sheftic was able to push around UA's Channing Frye. Taylor Coppenrath showed why his team deserved to be in the tournament.

That was until Arizona had one of its patented runs, outscoring Vermont 18-5 at one point in the first half to put the game out of reach.

"We're a team all year long that gets a big spurt and I think that's what happened this afternoon," UA head coach Lute Olson said.

But the Vermont players said the game was still an unbelievable thing to be apart of.

"It's a wonderful thing for the state of Vermont," said Coppenrath, a native of West Barnet, Vermont a town of only 200 people. "

It was the first time that Vermont has had a team in the tournament and it was unfortunate for them that they had to meet Arizona, a team they really had no chance of beating.

"It was unfortunate that it was a mismatch today," Brennan said.

But both teams showed class in the process.

Brennan said before the game he wanted to "detest" UA's Luke Walton.

However, before the game he overheard Walton when he was being interviewed and he talked about how bad he felt for the Vermont players because of their delay.

"He is a first class kid," Brennan said. "I told him before the game that I really appreciated that."

Brennan also said Olson is a class act because he didn't try to run up the score in the second half when his team was "dead."

Brennan was wearing a $2,900 suit that his brother gave him to wear for the tournament.

He said he doesn't know when he is going to get a chance to wear it again.

Vermont showed Thursday that with a tough heart and a smart coach, it could be back in the tournament as soon as next year.

Before today's game, the Catamounts might have thought that nothing could seem as long or hard to endure as what they went through this week. But after getting its first taste of the tournament, next March can't come soon enough for Vermont.