Get To Know A Marquette Basketball Opponent: San Jose State

Name: San Jose State University

Location: San Jose, California

Not Cal State - San Jose, or UC-San Jose, Huh? Nope.  While it's not named like Cal State Fullerton or Cal State Northridge, SJSU is part of the California State University System, just like San Diego State and Fresno State.  SJSU is actually the founding school of the CSU system and it's the oldest public institute of higher education on the West Coast.  Go figure, huh?

Founded: 1857

The SJSU Name Goes Back Almost To The Gold Rush, Huh? I didn't say that.  SJSU was founded as Minn's Evening Normal School, educating San Francisco area women to be teachers.  The state of California took over control of the school in 1862, changing the name to California State Normal School.  They shifted the name to recognize the location in San Jose in 1887, and it got changed again to San Jose State College in 1935.  They were granted university status in 1972, but - surprise - they were called California State University-San Jose for a couple of years before going to the current nomenclature.

Enrollment: 32,713 (26,664 undergrad, 6,049 grad)

SJSU Is So Much Older Than Marquette: They have a bell on campus that was installed in 1881, the same year Marquette was founded.  That bell has been retired from regular campus use and is currently a monument on campus.

Not All Historic Places Are Great: Uchida Hall, a multipurpose building on the SJSU campus used by both Intercollegiate Athletics and the College of Applied Sciences & Arts, was used a a registration center for Japanese-Americans on their way to internment camps during World War II.  The building is named for Yoshihiro Uchida, whose parents were actually processed in the building that's now named Uchida Hall.  Can't make this stuff up.

Nickname: Spartans

Why "Spartans?" That's what they picked in 1942 after they had been SJSC for a few years.  Before that they had some terrible nicknames, including "Normals," because they were from the Cal State Normal School.  That's terrible.

Notable Alumni: Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, members of legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac, attended but did not graduate; Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons, founders of the Doobie Brothers; Doug Clifford, founder of Creedence Clearwater Revival; Paul Kantner, founder of Jefferson Airplane; Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club; Omid Kordestani, Senior VP, Google; Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel; Ed Oates, co-founder of Oracle; Daniel R. Scoggin, founder & CEO of TGI Friday's; Danny Lee Clark, aka Nitro from American Gladiators; Jerry Juhl, writer/producer on The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and Fraggle Rock; Kurtwood Smith, aka Red Forman in That 70s Show or Clarence Boddicker in Robocop; Tom & Dick Smothers, aka The Smothers Brothers; Dave Meltzer, founder of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter; Christopher Darden, O.J. Simpson prosecutor; Gaylord Nelson, former US Senator for Wisconsin and Governor of Wisconsin; Dian Fossey, noted gorilla expert and author of Gorillas In The Mist; Pat Hughes, radio play-by-play voice of the Chicago Cubs; Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Walsh; John Carlos & Tommie Smith, Olympic medal winners and social activists; Joey Chestnut, competitive eater; and last but very definitely least, Krazy George Henderson, who claims to have invented The Wave.

Wait, You're Telling Me: That San Jose State might be responsible for the most popular activity at Busch Stadium, yes.

Oh, Man, Screw These Guys. Can't argue with you there.

Last Season: 0-28, with non-Division 1 wins over Bethesda and St. Katherine's

Uh Oh.  What About Before That? 5-24.

This Season: 2-4, with non-Division 1 wins over Alaska-Anchorage (as part of the Great Alaska Shootout) and Antelope Valley.

ANTELOPE VALLEY? That's The University of Antelope Valley to you.  They're NAIA Division 2, just like Valley City State.

That Was Marquette's Exhibition Opponent. Yes, it was.  I'm not 100% sure about how the scheduling rules work, but apparently you're allowed to schedule NAIA teams as a regular season opponent.  I guess.

Current KenPom Ranking: #328

KenPom Projection: 8-22, with a 2-16 record in the Mountain West.

They Might Seem Like Pushovers At A Glance, But: SJSU is top 25 in the country in Offensive Steal Percentage, meaning that they do not allow defenses to steal the ball from them.

Stats Leaders:

Points: Frank Rogers, 17.4 ppg
Rebounds: Frank Rogers, 9.5 rpg
Assists: Princeton Onwas, 3.1 apg

Hey, Didn't That One Kid Go To SJSU? The top five college prospects in Wisconsin last year were Henry Ellenson (Marquette), Diamond Stone (Maryland), Brevin Pritzl (Wisconsin), Nick Noskowiak (?), and yes, Cody Schwartz, who is at SJSU.  The West De Pere native playing 17 minutes a night, averaging 5 points and three rebounds.

Head Coach: Dave Wojcik, in his third season at SJSU.  He was an assistant all over the country for 19 seasons with a 2 year stint as a head coach at the high school he attended mixed into the middle before being hired by the Spartans.  He has an official win-loss record of 13-56.

That Name Sounds Familiar: You're thinking of his older brother Doug, formerly the head coach at Tulsa.

All Time Series: Marquette leads the all time series, 1-0.  The Golden Eagles defeated the Spartans, 80-68, on December 28, 1954.