Speculations swirled in Lawrence Thursday afternoon that a plane bound for Lawrence from Tulsa would carry Lawrence “Bubba” Cunningham, one of the most-rumored candidates to replace Lew Perkins.

When the plane touched down at 5:30 p.m., however, the individuals who stepped off the plane were not connected to the Tulsa athletic department, but rather KU fans in town for tonight’s men’s basketball game against UCLA.

But search committee chairman, and former KU football player Ray Evans, said “we’re getting closer,” when reached Thursday afternoon.

Evans said he could not comment on the specifics of the process or the names of the candidates. The search committee pared down the list of candidates, but it’s the chancellor who will make the final decision — and that isn’t expected to happen until she meets with the candidates.

The flight that was the subject of so much speculation departed Riverside Airport in the Tulsa suburb of Jenks, Okla., at 4:38 p.m. and arrived in Lawrence an hour later.

One source said he would be “shocked” if a new AD is named in the “next couple of days” and said a time frame of 10 days to two weeks is more realistic.

Evans would neither confirm nor deny any details about a timeline.

“One thing that’s been great to see is how upbeat and optimistic about KU everybody we’ve talked to has been,” Evans said. “With the indictments and ticket scandals, I think some KU people might be feeling down, but people on the outside say every school has problems. What they keep going back to is they don’t have to build anything because we have great facilities. They feel it’s a shame — the ticket scandal — but at least the NCAA is not involved.”