Caught the 2nd half of the Caltech-Chapman game.  Some home cooking by the refs, especially in the final 10 minutes when Caltech tried to take the lead.  The nail in the coffin was a blown shot clock violation that gave Chapman a wide open layup to go ahead 68-64 with a minute left.  This was probably the best 2 game stretch by Caltech in who knows how long.  If they keep it up they're bound to pick up a win.

My breakdown of the SCIAC teams so far:

CMS is stacked and should be ranked ahead of Whitworth.  Teams have to bring their A games just to hang around against them.  They're actually playing noticeably worse now than they were at the start of the year, but it's hard to sustain that level of play for 25 games.  I expect them to win a few tournament games.

PP is tough to peg.  Not a lot of size, rely on the jumper, excellent guard play.  Some bad losses to Cal Lu and Oxy.  But they've had a lot of close losses to great teams (D1 Pepperdine, NAIA Biola, St. Thomas, CMS, D1 CSU Bakersfield) so they raise their level of play when it matters.  I think they have the best chance to knock off CMS, if they get hot.

Whittier is overrated.  Their only impressive win is against CMS in 2OT.  No impressive OOC wins.  They obviously match up well with CMS and can just run most average teams out of the gym, but come playoff time they'll be exposed.

Redlands looked like a suprise early in conference play, but they've come back to expected levels recently.  They have one very impressive win against Puget Sound where they shot lights out.  But that looks like a fluke more than anything.  Don't have a chance against CMS and they'll most likely lose to PP in the tournament.

Cal Lu and Oxy are teams with great front lines, but huge weaknesses elsewhere.  Cal Lu just has no guard play.  Oxy has Jack Hanley, but no point and very little depth.  They've played better with Montoya back, but it's too little, too late.

La Verne is a two man team with no impressive wins in conference or out.

Caltech's playing as well as you can expect, given their personnel.  Lack of size gets them killed on the boards late in games.  They outplayed Cal Lu, but gave up 2 offensive boards when they were down 3.  They don't have a go-to play-maker and have relied on freshmen Joel and Hogue off the dribble.  A lot of their offense was built around *odd *ramer, so they looked really bad early in conference play after he left, but they're starting to play better now that the freshmen have some experience.  They really need get some recruits with size.

Caltech also played that game without their best player, Todd Cramer, who decided to transfer out.  Huge blow to the team, as he was their best rebounder and playmaker.  Once Chapman turned the pressure on down 22-15, Caltech turned it over multiple times and Chapman went on a 15-2 run to end the half.

Without Cramer, this is a completely different Caltech team.  They're gonna need major contributions from the two freshmen Joel and Hogue to win in conference.  They'll be playing undersized almost every night so they need to push the pace and make jump shots. They can still win some games but they won't be favored in any matchups.

Watched the most of the Caltech @ West Coast Baptist game online.  The stream came on with about 3 minutes to go in the first half.  The announcers mentioned Caltech was hot early and jumped into the lead, but the game was back and forth for most of the 1st half.  The box score isn't up yet, but from what I recall:

Caltech was just the better team.  WCB was down ~10 at halftime after Bryan Joel got hot and knocked down 4 first half threes. ending with 16 first half points.  Caltech started the 2nd half on a 5-0 run to extend the lead.  WCB cut the lead to single digits a few times, but Caltech always had a response.  Todd Cramer and Mike Edwards carried the team in the 2nd half.  Cramer still looked rusty shooting after the shoulder injury, but he was killing on the boards and had some impressive assists.  Wouldn't be surprised if we had another near triple-double.  Also the freshman Andrew Hogue looked solid shooting from outside and finishing inside.

Caltech could have hit 100 tonight if they made some more free throws.  They give up 79 but a lot of that is the result of an uptempo game and WCB piling on 3's at the end trying to cut the lead.  They've got some very winnable games with Macalaster (0-4), Hamline (1-3), and UC Santa Cruz (2-3) coming up before playing Chapman at home. 

Quote from: hopefan on November 24, 2011, 05:59:21 AM

Quote from: David Collinge on November 24, 2011, 01:33:29 AM

Quote from: hopefan on November 23, 2011, 10:07:59 PM
Games of 11/22:

Caltech  63,  Pacifica  (Other)  62   

No longer a newsworthy event. Ho-hum, just another Beaver victory.

Even more shocking when combined with last night's score:

Occidental     66      Pacifica     67     Final

Not really all that shocking.  Caltech had 6 or 7 conference games they could have won last year.  Just so happened they only won once and beat Occidental.  They're a deeper, more experienced team this year so I'd be surprised if they don't pick up multiple conference wins.

Solid win for Caltech considering they had two starters, including their best player, out for this game.  Pacifica is a decent guard-heavy team, better than their record indicates.  Only play 7 guys big minutes, so they get worn down late in games.  But they played CMS tough on the road and led at halftime, so they have some talent.

This is the deepest Caltech team in recent history.  It looks like the rotation is about 10 deep this year, with 2 freshman.  6 of the guys are juniors who saw heavy minutes the last two years.  The freshman PG Joel is solid - he started the last game and is averaging 12.5 pts/4.5 ast on nice percentages the first two games.  Lots of TO but that's expected for a freshman PG.