Basketball (NBA, College, etc.)

Caltech ends 26-year conference skid

PASADENA, Calif. -- The Caltech men's basketball team ended a 26-year conference losing streak Tuesday night after posting a 46-45 victory over Occidental in the team's regular-season finale on senior night.

It was the first victory for the Division III Beavers since beating the University of La Verne 48-47 on Jan. 23, 1985, a span of 310 games in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play.

"Tonight's win is a testament to the hard work each member of this team, the alumni and the supporters have put into this program," third-year coach Oliver Eslinger said in a statement released by the school. "I hope that everyone who has participated in Caltech men's basketball is able to celebrate a little tonight."

Ryan Elmquist led Caltech (5-20, 1-13) with 23 points and nine rebounds. It was Elmquist's free throw with 3 seconds left that was the difference in knocking off Occidental (12-13, 6-8).

Caltech is a world-renowned private research university known more for its accomplishments in science and engineering than jump shots and back cuts. Despite its small size -- the school enrolls approximately 950 undergraduate and 1,200 graduate students and employs about 300 professorial faculty -- Caltech has produced 31 Nobel Prize winners.

Caltech finished the season 5-20, its best record in 15 years. The Beavers went 0-25 last season and hadn't won more than one game in any of their previous eight seasons -- but back in 2007, Caltech ended an NCAA-record 207-game losing streak with a victory over Bard College of New York.

The Beavers have a great sense of humor about their athletic struggles, but they still celebrated at the Braun Athletic Center after Occidental missed its desperation shot at the buzzer.

When Caltech won its last conference game more than 26 years ago, four-time NBA champion coach Gregg Popovich was running the bench at SCIAC rival Pomona-Pitzer.

Not everything is looking up athletically at Caltech: The women's basketball team finished its season 0-25, losing to Occidental 82-35 on Tuesday night.

Source:
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/news/story?id=6149755

^ Saw that on the news yesterday.

Good thing they're a much better technical school than a basketball team. :beaten:

trade deadline for NBA is tomorrow,

but one that I just heard about,

Deron Williams sent to NJ Nets for 1st round picks, Devin Harris, and Derrick Favors, and some $$ to the Jazz. I'm not sure what to think about that trade.

The Atlanta Hawks traded for Washington Wizards guard Kirk Hinrich and center Hilton Armstrong and give up Mike Bibby, forward Maurice Evans, and guard Jordan Crawford and a 1st round pick.

qilver wrote:but one that I just heard about,

Deron Williams sent to NJ Nets for 1st round picks, Devin Harris, and Derrick Favors, and some $$ to the Jazz. I'm not sure what to think about that trade.

I mentioned that on the previous page... :)

bmwracer wrote:
I mentioned that on the previous page... :)

i hear an echo, echo....lol

my bad dude...

i guess i didn't bother to flip the page...

not sure what to add on the Deron trade, other than Harris wanted out, so did the Nets for Harris, i had no idea Deron was unhappy and willing to part Jazz, even after Sloan quit. :bonk:

Lakers top the Blazers, 106-101, in OT in Portland. :sweat:

Good win for the Lakers. Artest finally showed some signs of life and had his best game of the year. Also the Lakers won in Portland, something they've struggled to do for the past several years. So any win in Portland is a good one for the Lakers.

mrsmith10 wrote:Also the Lakers won in Portland, something they've struggled to do for the past several years. So any win in Portland is a good one for the Lakers.

Two straight in Portland! :victory:

Chicago beat Miami 93-89 despite strong outings from both D. Wade and LeBron. However, Chris Bosh was 1-18 from the field.

Surprisingly, Denver is leading Boston at halftime 37-36.

Here's a good trade for the Clippers. The Clippers traded Baron Davis to Cleveland for Mo Williams. I think that's an excellent trade for the Clippers since Williams will always stay motivated and give 110%, even when his team is the worst in the league. Where as Davis is prone to lacking motivation at times.

With all these recent trades involving point guards, I really wish the Lakers would have picked one up. I mean, that is the weakness of the team. Fisher is just too old to be the team's starting point guard. He could be valuable for leadership off the bench, but they really need someone else.

mrsmith10 wrote:Chicago beat Miami 93-89 despite strong outings from both D. Wade and LeBron. However, Chris Bosh was 1-18 from the field.

Yay! :victory:

Surprisingly, Denver is leading Boston at halftime 37-36.

Celtics probably miss Kendrick Perkins. :beaten:

Denver pulls off the upset and beats Boston 89-75. It looks like they don't need Melo afterall.

mrsmith10 wrote:Denver pulls off the upset and beats Boston 89-75. It looks like they don't need Melo afterall.

Heh. :mrgreen:

Apparently the Celts miss all that offense from Perkins. :rofl:

Lakers take on the Clippers tonight... Will the Clips make it two in a row?

Celts only played with 9 players last night and those 4 coming off the bench are quite weak. :doh: Trur Perkins was not much of an offensive force but plays strong defense and did the little things to help the team which don't show up in the box score, can't say the same for the players they got for him, they might have taken a small step back with their moves. :beaten:

hitomi #1 wrote:Celts only played with 9 players last night and those 4 coming off the bench are quite weak. :doh: Trur Perkins was not much of an offensive force but plays strong defense and did the little things to help the team which don't show up in the box score, can't say the same for the players they got for him, they might have taken a small step back with their moves. :beaten:

I saw an article on Yahoo! Sports saying the Celts were banking on Shaq....

EDIT: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-nbatraderdp

LOL. :rofl:

bmwracer wrote:
I saw an article on Yahoo! Sports saying the Celts were banking on Shaq....

LOL. :rofl:

If that's the case serious trouble ahead for the men in green. :sweat: Not sure if the Thunder have what it takes to win a series against the big teams in the West but getting Perkins should help them, they can already score enough just needed a better player in the middle.

Besides defense I felt Perkins gave a lot more for Boston. He was a strong locker room presence and well liked by their players and coaching staff. They also gave up Nate Robinson, a quality bench player. This was a bad trade for Boston. They're better off just sticking with what they had.

I see the trade benefiting OKC more than Celtics, giving up the big man to OKC, can only make them even tougher. Boston will have even more pressure to have the big guys step up more, Shaq and Jermaine, if they can stay healthy.

The Knicks just got beat by Cleveland 115-109, playing Mike D'Antoni style defense. :beatyou: I wonder how Melo is going to work out for New York if they can't even beat the league's worst team who's without a point guard atm.

That Knicks trade court-wise made no sense, :shakehead: they were already the second highest scoring team in the league but also ranked at the bottom as far as defense goes, think Dolan put pressure on Walsh to make the trade, more for keeping them in the public eye, selling higher priced tickets and helping the MSG network attain higher profits. :twisted:
Another trade that was good for a team was Portland picking up Gerald Wallace. Not a star but can do a little of everything, if they get Roy back healthy they could be trouble for their 1st round opponent who right now who be Dallas but they could easily slip by Denver to be the 6th seed.