Best of College Basketball

Seth Davis mentions Caltech's historic win on CBS special: Best of College Basketball 2011

History Making at Midnight

The 2010-11 college basketball season began with a bang at Caltech as the university hosted its first Midnight Madness in history. As the clock struck 12:01 am this past Friday, more than 550 undergraduates and 100-plus other fans were there to take part in the festivities.

Prior to the varsity teams being introduced, SCIAC high jump champ Alex Lapides nailed the half court shot and won a basketball signed by the five Nobel Laureates on campus (in addition to a year's supply of sundaes). The band roared, the Beaver danced, and the varsity players' adrenaline pumped.

The event was covered by Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times and then appeared on ESPN's College Basketball Nation Blog.

Check out the highlight reel from the evening.

Flashback: A Murphy Hit

Collin Murphy started 17 games for the Beavers as a freshman and finished among SCIAC leaders in a number of categories in conference games: 2.4 apg (8th), 1.1 spg (15th), and 4.5 rpg (18th).

As an all-state high school quarterback and defensive back from Wasilla, Alaska, Murphy was a two-way standout in football who was named Colony's valedictorian after a scholastic career that included a 5.0 GPA and key roles on the basketball and soccer teams. Here is a flashback of immense proportions that demonstrates Murphy's force and prowess as an athlete.

Video Tour: Walking with a Beaver

Freshman Collin Murphy, a bioengineering major, talks about life, basketball, and opportunity as a Caltech student-athlete in "Walking with a Beaver"... a Go Beavers production filmed in March 2010.

Movin' On: Senior Headed to Stanford

Senior Ruslan Kurdyumov, a double major in mechanical engineering and business economics management and two-year member of the basketball team, is headed to the Stanford Mechanical Engineering graduate program. He will continue his work with robotics and controls as part of the masters curriculum that eventually leads to the Ph.D program.

Kurdyumov, who was recently recognized as Academic All-Conference and who was named to the NABC Honors Court in 2009, spent last summer designing a sampling system for the AXEL rover at JPL. Axel is a minimalist tethered rover designed for accessing extreme planetary terrain. This is useful because current rovers can't sample from scientifically interesting locations, such as the sides of crater walls.

Beaver Clips

Video highlights from the 2009-10 season ... featuring dynamic play by several young Beavers ... Enjoy.

2010 Alumni Game Highlights

Check out highlights from this year's alumni game ... 30 past Beavers were back to showcase their knowledge, and -- yes -- skills.