Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Pitt coach Jamie Dixon would like to arrive in San Jose, Calif., as early as possible. Click photo for larger image.

That's the way Pitt coach Jamie Dixon looked at the proposition of having to travel more than 2,600 miles from Pittsburgh to San Jose, where the Panthers will face UCLA in the Sweet 16 Thursday night.

Initially, the Pitt charter was slated to leave this morning, but a plane became available yesterday to take the team to the West Coast. Pitt departed the Petersen Events Center en route to the airport a little after 4:30 p.m. yesterday.

"We didn't find out until late [Sunday] night," Dixon said of the change in travel plans. "As you know, we're one of the few teams that will be traveling across country. It is good for us to get out there as soon as possible."

Pitt has an unlikely source to thank for the tweaked travel itinerary -- the Florida State women's basketball team.

"We are taking a plane that is headed west to pick up the Florida State women," Dixon said before saying with a chuckle. "So, we jumped on it and got it for cheap."

Florida State played at Stanford in the NCAA women's tournament last night.

"It will give us a chance to adjust to the three hour time difference," Pitt junior guard Keith Benjamin said. "Just to get out there and be out there and not have to worry about travel will be so much better then sitting here and just waiting to leave. When you sit here and wait, all you keep doing is thinking about how you can't wait to get on that plane. And, oh yeah, I think it will be nice to get out in that California weather."

Benjamin is onto something.

Today's forecast for Pittsburgh calls for highs in the low 40s; San Jose is expected to see morning rain then sunny skies and a high of 66.

Past experience was another reason Pitt jumped at the change. In 2005, the team was sent to Boise, Idaho, for the first round, and when the plane stopped in Sioux Falls, S.D., to refuel, a problem with the oil gauge was discovered and could not be fixed. A different charter plane had to be summoned, and the whole ordeal forced the Panthers to be more than six hours late into Boise. Pitt lost, 79-71, to Pacific, its first-round opponent.

Injury update

Guard Mike Cook did not practice yesterday after playing only seven minutes in the second half of Saturday's victory against Virginia Commonwealth because of a bruised knee.

Cook, though, expects to play against UCLA.

"I feel good, though," Cook quickly interjected yesterday after he said he didn't practice. "I'll be ready to play, that's for sure."

Trouble Bruin?

Pitt has a 1-5 all-time record against UCLA, but the teams haven't faced each other since 1992. Pitt lost to UCLA in 1949, '50, '70, '72 and '91 before defeating the Bruins in 1992.

In good company

In advancing to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in the past six seasons, Pitt becomes one of just five programs to have done so, joining Duke, Kansas, Texas and Connecticut.