MBB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[scandihoovian]

I thought this might be of interest since the U.S. News rankings sometimes make their way on to this board.  (You know, like when a CLU alum pokes fun at a Pomona Alum for their inferior educational background  )

From this week's issue of Time magazine: The Rankings Revolt

[AndOne]

OB      I know some guys in Hollywood that would appreciate your script writing talents.  Once again, you have me in stiches!!  I would hit you with +k if I could.

Snoop-----

I agree with your comments about OxyBob's script.
I'll give him the +K that you can't yet. 

[AndOne]

diehardfan:

>>Snap... can I have the [Oxy AD] job? I would totally do a kick butt job relatively.<<

Do you look good in black and orange?

I read that as SID job... I definitely have no desire or skill to take over an entire Athletic Department.

I do look good in black (the neutral color I wear to most games) and orange (a wheaton color) though.

One vote for DHF for Queen of the Halloween Ball!   

[Browneagle64]

Just in case some of you guys ever want to remember Cal Tech's first win in 21 years, there is a documentary that C.I.T made and paid for to remember.the 07. All SCIAC schools are shown in the film of course. Heres what the local Star News has been running in the paper about the school and film

PASADENA - Roy Dow fondly recalls his first day coaching the Caltech Beavers as a complete disaster.

The basketball team hadn't won a game since 1985, and scanning the court, he said he could see why.

"That first day I didn't even know what sport we were playing. The balls were flying everywhere. The sidelines didn't seem to mean much," said the coach, who took the position after a 21-year coaching career at Colby College in upstate New York.

Four years later, Dow and his team - which includes eight high school valedictorians but only two high school basketball players - are the subject of a feature-length documentary which recently won the Top 10 Audience Choice Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

"Quantum Hoops" follows the tail end of the Beavers' 2006 season as they attempt, unsuccessfully, to win a single game and break a 21-year losing streak.

Interspersed into the action, first-time documentarian Rick Greenwald also weaves into the story the surprisingly rich sports history at Caltech. The film includes interviews with members of the school's 1954 basketball team - which shocked the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference by winning a


championship - and San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. Caltech defeated Popovich's Pomona-Pitzer team in the 1980s - one of only two Beaver wins for the decade.
"None of us knew about the history here. Right now the person who knows the most history about sports at Caltech is Rick," said David Lui, a senior featured both on the court and in the laboratory in Hoops.

A private screening of "Quantum Hoops" was held Tuesday at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium for nearly 200 students and professors who have experienced the more recent decades of loss firsthand. But for those not familiar with Caltech's record, Greenwald warns that "Quantum Hoops" doesn't project the familiar story of underdogs who turn around to win a championship - although the team did win a non-conference game against Bard College the season after the documentary wrapped.

While the team has improved measurably since Dow's early days as coach - even he still defines success as a margin of defeat of less than 20 points.

Winning used to be impossible, he said. Now, as he says in the film, "It's not impossible, just improbable."

A member of his high school band with no basketball experience before walking on to a NCAA Division III team, Lui said starring in a sports documentary was not what he had in mind when entering Caltech.

But while he thought the movie was an overall positive for the team and university as a whole, he also admits that it's not always great to be famous for being bad at a game they all love.

[Roy Dow]

Just one correction brown eagle, Caltech had no role in the making of the documentary other than being the subject.  The producer, Rick Greenwald, developed this project through his initiative and hard work and, at this time, no return on that personal investment.  He is in conversation with a number of companies regarding distribution rights.  But Caltech certainly did not provide any funding or solicit the making of this documentary.

Actually another correction to the article:  the attendance was closer to 500.  The reporter perhaps could have used any number of Caltech people in attendance (including Nobel prize winners) to help with the more accurate count.  Hope you get an opportunity to see the doc at some point in time, sooner rather than later.  It does tell the "story" of the 05-06 team, but it actually uses that season and the basketball program to also tell the Caltech story, capturing the mission and essence of what goes on here quite effectively.

[David Collinge]

You can read more about the documentary at the official website:
http://www.quantumhoops.com/

I'm hoping to see the film within the near future; with luck, the fact that my brother-in-law is the president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association will give me some access.  In the meantime, I can just enjoy the T-Shirt I bought during the season. 

[Mr. Ypsi]

One other error on the story - Coach Dow's former coaching stint (Colby College) has been located in Waterville, Maine (not upstate New York) for nearly 200 years now!  Perhaps the reporter should have one of those valedictorians on the bball team fact check his articles.

[Roy Dow]

Mr. Collinge,
The director/producer certainly would appreciate any assistance with entry to the LA Film Festival.  Your brother-in-law may be able to help. 

The documentary, as noted in the article, did play at the Santa Barbara Film Festival but was not accepted to Sundance or the Tribeca/ESPN film festival.  I know he is pursuing LA among others at this time.

Thank you.

[David Collinge]

Mr. Collinge,
The director/producer certainly would appreciate any assistance with entry to the LA Film Festival.  Your brother-in-law may be able to help. 

The documentary, as noted in the article, did play at the Santa Barbara Film Festival but was not accepted to Sundance or the Tribeca/ESPN film festival.  I know he is pursuing LA among others at this time.

Thank you.

I don't know how much pull he has, but I'll bring it up when I see him later this week.  He's a fan of Caltech hoops, and we've been to a couple of games during my various sojourns in LA.

[diehardfan]

I don't know how much pull he has, but I'll bring it up when I see him later this week.  He's a fan of Caltech hoops, and we've been to a couple of games during my various sojourns in LA.

How come you sent me an email today and I am still not aware that you were going to be here this week? I know the Wheaton Men's Glee Club video was funny, but....

David's bro in law is indeed a very nice guy, and I can personally vouch for the fact that he was at Cal Tech at some point two seasons ago. However, one would think that the film would need artistic merit on top of the the obvious content merit it already possesses to be fairly considered... hopefully it has that!

Is there a reason why the viewing of the film was closed to the general public? I can't imagine that the public response would have been so overwhelming that the place couldn't hold us, and I'm sure there are several of us SCIAC regulars like me and probably Oxy Bob (who was there for The Win) who would have liked to see it....

[diehardfan]

Is there a reason why the viewing of the film was closed to the general public? I can't imagine that the public response would have been so overwhelming that the place couldn't hold us, and I'm sure there are several of us SCIAC regulars like me and probably Oxy Bob (who was there for The Win) who would have liked to see it....

That's about the last time my school won a national championship too. 

[Gregory Sager]

"Quantum Hoops" follows the tail end of the Beavers' 2006 season as they attempt, unsuccessfully, to win a single game and break a 21-year losing streak.

That's a great title.

This doc sounds like the perfect yin to the yang of Hoop Dreams. Perhaps future students of the sociology of American sports will view the two documentaries together as a compare-and-contrast double feature.

Actually another correction to the article:  the attendance was closer to 500.  The reporter perhaps could have used any number of Caltech people in attendance (including Nobel prize winners) to help with the more accurate count.

Heh!

I'm hoping to see the film within the near future; with luck, the fact that my brother-in-law is the president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association will give me some access.  In the meantime, I can just enjoy the T-Shirt I bought during the season. 

That's a great t-shirt. Perhaps it can give UCSC's Banana Slugs t-shirts a run for the money in the hip novelty apparel sweepstakes ...

The documentary, as noted in the article, did play at the Santa Barbara Film Festival but was not accepted to Sundance or the Tribeca/ESPN film festival.

... although apparently neither Robert Redford nor Robert DeNiro has warmed to the idea of wearing a Quantum Hoops Caltech t-shirt.

Aw, the heck with those two bozos.

[Gregory Sager]

John Travolta wore a UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs t-shirt in Pulp Fiction.

That's what I had in mind when I referred to "hip novelty apparel".

[Titan Q]

SCIAC friends or anyone in the know, a question...

I received a copy of Illinois Wesleyan's tentative 2007-08 schedule.  It has IWU playing @ Occidental on 12/29 and @ "Claremont-McKenna" on 12/31.  Is "Claremont-McKenna" the SCIAC school known as "Claremont-Mudd-Scripps", or are these separate schools?

Thanks.

[David Collinge]

This may not be too helpful to Q, who probably already knows this much, but I always like to take the opportunity to point this out to the casual lurker who might be confused by the SCIAC's versions of the Claremont Colleges.

Claremont McKenna College is one of the five undergraduate institutions in Claremont that have a symbiotic relationship, sharing a campus and some facilities and staff but retaining separate identities.  The shared resources extend to the area of athletics, where three of the schools (Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, and Scripps Colleges) field joint intercollegiate teams as "Claremont-Mudd-Scripps," and two others (Pomona and Pitzer Colleges) compete as "Pomona-Pitzer."

So if IWU is playing Claremont McKenna, they are of necessity playing CMS, as Claremont McKenna doesn't field separate teams.  That, I suppose, is the answer to your question.

More on the Claremont Colleges