PHILADELPHIA • SLU forward Cody Ellis had been in America all of about a month when the Billikens made their fateful trip to Philadelphia in the 2009-10 season, a trip that two years later still evokes sighs and rolled eyes from those who got through it.

It was supposed to be a good thing for SLU. Since the Billikens have to play road games against two of the league's three Philadelphia schools every other year, the league, at SLU's request, had done them a favor and scheduled the games back to back so SLU would have to make the trip to Philadelphia only once, saving them a lot of money on airfare.

SLU played at La Salle on Saturday and then stayed over for a game against St. Joseph's on Tuesday. And then, when it was time to go home, came one of the worst storms to hit the East Coast in years. Airports were shut. Roads were blocked. Escape was impossible. And there was Ellis, who six weeks earlier had been sunning himself by his pool in Perth, Australia, snowed in in Philadelphia, barely able to leave the team hotel and wondering what he had gotten himself into.

"Absolutely," Ellis recalled. "It's definitely going through my mind. 'Geez, am I really here right now?' ... It was like nothing I'd ever experienced. We don't get snow where I come from and to come to America and be snowed in for nine days, that was a completely different experience."

There was little the team could do. They were able to get by bus to nearby St. Joseph's, which allowed them to practice there and, maybe more importantly, do their laundry. But most of the time, the team sat around, bored.

"You'd study a bit, then basically sit in the hotel," Ellis said. "We had Philly cheesesteaks for a week straight because nothing else was open."

"I think I took a test on the road at the very start of it," forward Brian Conklin said. "Then I didn't have any tests to study for, didn't have any homework. You just had to find a movie on TV or take a nap. You couldn't even go out and play in the snow. Very depressing."

But for all the tedium that trip brought, it was also one of the high points of the season for SLU. The Billikens won both games, and when added to a win over St. Bonaventure at home before the trip began, it was the start of a six-game winning streak and a run of eight wins in  10 games as the team rallied for a 20-10 regular season. SLU coach Rick Majerus usually points to the end of that season and how his team was playing, prior to the struggles of last season that were brought on by the losses of Kwamain Mitchell and Willie Reed, as the impetus for this season's strong play. If SLU's current success began two years ago, then that road trip to Philadelphia was where it started.

The Billikens begin this year's version of that trip tonight at St. Joseph's, and then face La Salle on Saturday. Though the team has yet to play a game, the trip is off to a good start: There's a chance of snow in the forecast for Wednesday and then nothing for the rest of the week. This trip should end on schedule.

Meanwhile, the challenge for SLU (18-5, 6-3) isn't just to survive the week but to improve its lot in the Atlantic 10 Conference. St. Joseph's (15-9, 5-4) had boosted its stock in nonconference play with wins over Creighton and Villlanova, but then stumbled in league play, losing to Charlotte at home. La Salle (17-7, 6-3) moved to the top of the league — the last time the Explorers won a league title was 1989 — but have slipped into a tie with several teams, including SLU, for second. If SLU can pick off one win on the trip, it will bolster its chances for both the league title and an NCAA berth. Grab two and they've got a 20-win season and are sitting pretty.

Of course, it's a two-way street. A win over SLU, which has the second-best RPI in the league behind Temple, would be big for St. Joseph's and La Salle. Much is riding on these games from both sides of the street.