San Jose, Calif., the often-forgot third-largest city in California, will play host to the Saint Louis University Billikens for the next few days. The largest city in Silicon Valley is an eclectic mix of Spanish colonial and bustling, innovation-driven modernism. On one corner is a 200-year old basilica, on another, the sprawling Googleplex.
San Jose lies 1716 miles away from and a generation ahead of St. Louis. Spurred by IBM establishing its West Coast headquarters there in the 1940s, the city soon experienced one of the most tremendous rises to national and global prominence in recent memory. Now, the city has a population of 958,966, with entrepreneurs, tech geeks, and innovators driving its economy even further upward.
While St. Louis has struggled to adapt to the modern “information economy,” San Jose has been the harbinger of such discoveries, as companies like Pay Pal, Cisco Systems, and the aforementioned Google are all headquartered in the “Capital of Silicon Valley.”
So what is there to do for those SLU fans brave enough to make the cross-country trek to support Dwayne Evans, Kwamain Mitchell and the rest of the No. 4 seed Billikens? Besides rubbing shoulders with some of the country’s most famous nerds, San Jose lays claim to a variety of historical and modern attractions, thanks to its unique and affluent history.
Much like St. Louis, San Jose can thank its Roman Catholic heritage for one of the most impressive basilicas in the United States. The massive dome of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph sits high above the San Jose skyline, matching the contemporary glass edifices in its impressive architecture.
The city of San Jose is host to only one professional sports team, the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. Blues fans can take solace in the fact that the Sharks currently sit on the precipice of a playoff berth, while St. Louis is comfortable in the fourth position. However, the entire Bay Area contains a hodgepodge of professional teams, from the Super Bowl loser San Francisco 49ers to the recent Cardinal-killers, the Buster Posey-led San Francisco Giants.
The child in every visitor will enjoy the Children’s Discovery Museum, while our inner nerds will awe at every exhibit in the Tech Museum of Innovation. Meanwhile, romantics everywhere can stop and smell the roses at the Rose Garden of San Jose, one of the largest of its kind in the country.
Not that the Billikens have had time to enjoy any of this. After their Atlantic 10 championship, the team made a 16-hour pit stop in St. Louis before heading out west to prepare for the NCAA Tournament’s second round. Evans isn’t worried about the long trip though.
“I’m kind of used to it by now. I didn’t really know where we’d end up or where we’d be seeded, but we’ll play wherever as long as we’re in the tournament,” he said.
The Billikens made the brief stop in St. Louis to catch their charter plane to San Jose and were joined by the Saintsations and the SLU Pep Band.
In between the national media attention, practices at a small gym at a local San Jose college, and watching tape, the team has had little time to stop and smell the roses.
With their gritty defense, inspirational story and even their brief stop at a Best Buy to watch Sunday’s selection show, the Billikens have captured the heart of the nation.
“We’ve got to concentrate on the upcoming game, because obviously anything can happen in the tournament. We play a giant team, but hopefully we’ll be able to get out and run against them,” senior Cody Ellis said of his last opportunity to make some noise in March.
The Sharks’ HP Pavilion, which seats 17,496, will host the Billikens’ second- and third-round matchups, starting on the afternoon of Thursday, March 21.
