SCIAC Honors

Congratulations to Caltech and two of its players for being recognized by the SCIAC for the 2011 conference season.

Ryan Elmquist received the Ducey Award, the prestigious honor granted to a senior each season who truly exemplifies the term student-athlete. Besides hitting the game clinching, streak busting, out-of-this-world free throw in last Tuesday's season finale, Elmquist made his mark(s) on the basketball program. He'll graduate as the 2nd all-time leading scorer, leading shot blocker, and leading free throw maker in Tech history.

For a Q & A with Elmquist from TwinCities.com, click here. Other articles featuring the senior headed to Google are the StarTribune.com and Rivals.com.

Todd Cramer was named 2nd team all-conference. He is the only freshman on the all-SCIAC teams and the first all-conference Caltech player since Bryan Hires in 2007-08. Cramer led the league in assists and was second in assist to turnover ratio. He was the only player to be ranked in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and free throw percentage. He also eclipsed the Institute record for assists.

For Cramer quotes, check out Rick Reilly's latest column and NBC Sports.

Update (3.2.11) From Philly.com:

FORGET THOSE NOBEL PRIZES

The California Institute of Technology has produced 31 Nobel Prize winners. (Caltech) had also lost 207 consecutive basketball games until a huge win in 2007. The team had lost 310 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games until beating Occidental in the final regular-season game, 46-45, last week. (Caltech) finished 5-20.

The second leading scorer in the Occidental game was freshman Todd Cramer of Blue Bell. He went to Chestnut Hill Academy and is a two-time Philly Maccabi gold-medal winner. Next season, (Caltech) needs to play at the Palestra. And bring Occidental along.

Passing Stats

It appears Chris Erksine of the LA Times doesn't think Caltech can pass:

By the way, since when does Pasadena get to claim so many important bowls? It doesn't really have a college team of its own, aside from those warrior-nerds of Caltech. Ever seen the Caltech basketball team? They're the topic of my latest screenplay, "White Guys Can't Pass Either."

We at CxB3 appreciate the "warrior-nerds" title -- that is pretty cool -- but we're not sure about the proposed screenplay. Seems a bit artificial, forced, and even off color.

First, there are 16 players on the active Caltech roster and just half of them are white. Second, in his attempt to creatively mock a sequel to the film about white men not jumping, he failed to note -- probably because he did no research -- that the Beavers are a good shot blocking team. Third, the team in Pasadena actually boasts a decent assist per field goal ratio. We explored this statistic in comparison to the rest of the SCIAC and a handful of the top teams in the nation, with the assumption that a good pass often leads to a made bucket.

Caltech falls in with a decent rate -- a respectable 54.8 percent of its field goals have an assist factored into the play. How do other teams rank?

Well, Maryville leads the nation in assists per game (20 per contest) and 58.1 percent of its FGs are linked to an assist. Williams, ranked second in the d3hoops.com poll, is at 53.9 percent. No. 1 Wash U, the defending national champion, is at a blistering 66.7 percent. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, the regular season SCIAC champ, stands at just 43 percent.

Check out the full SCIAC standings in relation to assists/field goals.

Redlands = 55.4

Occidental = 55.4

Caltech = 54.8

La Verne = 54.0

Whittier = 51.1

Pomona-Pitzer = 50.5

Cal Lutheran = 47.9

Claremont-M-S = 43.1

Not that Asst/FG is a significant predictor of success, but interesting to say the least.

Maybe Erksine, at the very least, can come see for himself next season.