Ducks Do San Jose

March 21-23, 2013
San Jose, CA

This week I cashed in some miles and made my way to San Jose to watch the Ducks play in the NCAA Tournament. I flew down on the 5am on Thursday morning to SFO. I stopped in the United Club for some snacks and a triple shot espresso. I then picked up a car and made my way to HP Pavilion in San Jose.


Sunrise at SFO.

The first game in SJ was St. Louis vs New Mexico State. The game was never really close. St. Louis ended up winning 64-44. The most interesting part of the game was watching New Mexico State’s Sim Bhullar who is 7’ 5”. Not surprisingly, he doesn’t move all that well. But he’s only a freshman. It will be fun to see how he develops. In between games I checked out a little more of HP Pavilion. It’s a very nice arena. I imagine it’s a great environment for Sharks’ games.

The Oregon vs Oklahoma State game was awesome. Arsalan Kazemi played ridiculously well. He was everywhere, grabbing 17 rebounds and scoring 11 points. I had fun chatting during the game with my seat mate, Tom. We had chatted about both the Duck game and travel. He works for IBM as a consultant out of Newberg and logs more miles on United than I do. The Ducks led virtually from start to finish eventually winning the game 68-55.



The Duck victory meant that I would not be flying home Thursday night. I had booked three return tickets with miles, as I wanted to be able to stay in the event the Ducks won. After the game I cancelled my ticket for Thursday night. Joel tried to talk my into driving up to Sacramento to celebrate Ilia’s birthday but on two hours sleep, in 5 o'clock traffic, I was too tired to do it. Instead I booked a room at a Hilton Garden Inn out in the suburbs and made my way to it. Upon arrival I took a brief nap and then went out to meet a friend for dinner and drinks back in San Jose.

I spent virtually all of Friday at the hotel. I did some work, worked out and watched lots and lots of basketball. After the last game of the night I decided I should venture out at least a little. I walked across the parking lot to In-N-Out for dinner.

Tip-off on Saturday for the Ducks was at 4:10pm. I watched the early games in the hotel before driving back into San Jose. I arrived extra early to find street parking to save the $25 fee for parking in the lots. I walked around the main drag, settled on getting some Mexican food for lunch, ate it (it was poor man’s Mucho) and then walked to the game.

I left my camera in the car for the first game and I wanted to take a good shot of the court from center court before tip off. I walked a section over from my seats, took the photo and made my way back to the aisle. While leaning against the seat on the aisle and looking down at my phone I heard someone say to me “cheer loud”. I knew the voice. I looked up. It was Uncle Phil. I assured him I would and said thanks for everything before a fan grabbed him away.



My assigned seat was on the aisle in row 12. Tom was behind me, which allowed for our banter to continue. I also ran into half the neighborhood who decided to fly down for game Saturday’s game. I enjoyed giving them all a bad time about being fair-weather fans and only showing up after we established ourselves in the tournament. I also told them I would hold them personally responsible if we lost since the Ducks played so well without them on Thursday. Anita assured me that they would win again. Fortunately she was right. The Ducks played fantastically well, beating St. Louis 74 - 57.


Tip-Off for Tony.


Arsalan, Ben and Johnny celebrate the Ducks victory.

I decided to fly home this evening as to save on a hotel night. That meant I had to leave for SFO at halftime of the Syracuse vs Cal game. The game was competitive, so I was bummed to leave but what can you do?

I’m now back in the United Club at SFO after a fantastic 54 hours in San Jose. Thanks to the Ducks victory and a planning assist from Dad during the second half of the Duck game, I’ll now be on my way to Indy with Mom on Thursday.

Until then,
Katy