Kc Emezie is Caltech's leading scorer, and he's not a senior, either. Caltech athletics photo

For maybe the first time ever in the distinguished history of Caltech, a postgame discussion didn’t center around bouncing atoms, molecular engineering or how to make greasy proteins.

Nope, for once the chatter following Caltech’s 49-47 victory over Redlands two weeks ago revolved around backdoor cuts, pick-and-rolls and defensive philosophies. The Beavers’ victory over their conference foe snapped a 55-game, four-year SCIAC losing streak.

Seniors Bryan Joel and Andrew Hogue noticed an immediate change the next day while walking around their beautiful Pasadena campus. They were the center of attention for much of the day as they were consistently stopped by professors, students, community members and anybody else that saw them proudly sporting their Caltech gear. Caltech head coach Oliver Eslinger also received numerous congratulatory phone calls, text messages and emails.

“It was surreal because people I didn’t know were coming up to me asking when is your next game?” Hogue said. “They wanted to know details like who are we playing and what time. It’s a small school and when people started caring about wanting to see us play. It felt good to see our hard work pay off and feel that since of accomplishment that comes with winning.”

Caltech followed that victory up by knocking off Whittier, 92-77, to end the memorable week. The last set of back-to-back conference wins occurred 61 years ago, in the 1953-54 season, when the team won three straight conference games to claim the SCIAC championship. Caltech also recorded consecutive SCIAC victories during the 1960-61, 1959-60, and 1958-59 seasons, although in each case there was a nonconference loss between the two winning conference games.

“We knew we would win a conference game this year,” Joel said. “We knew we had it in us. It’s funny because when you win, you think you’re going to know how to handle yourself. We spent so many hours working towards that moment, when it finally happened, we were like now what do we do?”

Caltech is turning winning into a bit of a habit, especially at home.

An arena that used be hospitable for visiting teams has become a difficult place to get comfortable now. Caltech has transformed into a home court juggernaut protecting their house like Under Armour. The Beavers have won three straight conference home games following Tuesday’s 70-69 victory over La Verne.

However, this isn’t an ordinary three-game home court winning streak against conference opponents for Caltech, which is more noted for its sterling academic reputation than it is for its athletic prowess. The three SCIAC wins mark the most in a single season since 1960-61, when the Beavers topped four conference foes, and now equal the total number of SCIAC wins over the previous 42 years.

A world-renowned and pioneering research and education institution dedicated to advancing science and engineering, Caltech was rated the world's No. 1 university in the Times Higher Education global ranking of the top 200 universities for the third straight year.

Athletics at Caltech were completely overlooked for the past few decades as students accomplished such amazing things in the classroom. Even the geographical makeup of the campus suggested a major divide as California Blvd. runs between athletics and the majority of the rest of campus.

Now, the entire campus has taken notice as the men’s basketball team is also prominently featured on the Caltech home page.

While academics will always still be the primary focus, the athletics department has undergone a nice philosophical shift of becoming competitive.

“The main reason I took the job because I wanted to go to a place that hadn’t been very successful, really build it from scratch and make it my own,” Eslinger said. “The key was getting people here to believe in a vision that nobody had ever believed in. The job opened up and it seemed like a perfect fit for my background and it was a challenge I was willing to take on. You dream about winning a conference game for so long but you don’t know how it’s going to feel when it actually happens.”

When Eslinger arrived from MIT, a school with a similar pedigree, Caltech men’s basketball was like having a bunch of Sheldon Coopers on the team. Six of the 17 players on his first roster played high school basketball. Of course now, everybody on this season’s roster has played high school hoops.

“I inherited a team that wasn’t used to going to practice every day,” Eslinger said. “I told my team at the first meeting, if you think you’re going to miss practice for a problem set then this isn’t the team for you. I said that knowing full well, I might lose some players. Our goal was from a recruiting standpoint let’s find the best math and science students in the world and hope they are great basketball players too.”

While Eslinger's commitment to building a winning culture, connecting with alumni and engaging the community have been key factors in Caltech’s hardwood improvement, the hiring of athletic director Betsy Mitchell, an Olympic swimming silver medalist, has also been a major component in the success the Beavers are enjoying.

Since her arrival the administration has taken athletics more seriously. And that includes the athletic administration, which was cited by the NCAA for lack of institutional control back in 2012, resulting in the somewhat ironic punishment of Caltech taking a one-year NCAA postseason ban in many sports.

While a postseason bid isn't in the offing for the Beavers this season, the concept may not be so laughable eventually. 

“It just feels great, and to win a close one – a tough one – is even better,” Eslinger said following the win over Redlands.  “This means so much to so many people – our seniors, alumni, community, department and our really great fans and supporters who come out to every game and watch online. Our entire department has so much positive energy right now, with everyone working so hard and such a supportive administration. This is a true extended team win.”

This is just the start – both tennis squads experienced unprecedented success last spring (men with their most wins since 2006, first SCIAC win since 2009 after a 45-match losing streak; women with their most wins since 2000 and first winning season since 1997). Cross country sent a runner to NCAA’s in the fall (first since 1996), and every one of Caltech’s teams is competing at a higher level this year. 

Recruiting an athlete to attend Caltech is a unique experience. Sometimes, though, players fall right into Eslinger's lap like Hogue.

“I was watching TV with my dad and we started kicking around ideas about possibly playing basketball in college,” Hogue said. “I heard that there was a new coach revolutionizing how things worked and it was really exciting. I knew I wanted to play basketball and get as good as a science and math education as possible. Caltech was perfect in every observation. I sent a recruiting video to coach right away and he got back to me right away. It was a perfect fit and I couldn’t be happier with where I am right now.”

The losing never drained the spirit from Hogue or Joel.

“What kept us going is we all love basketball and each other,” Hogue said. “It’s tough to be upset when you’re in the gym with your favorite people. We could tell we were getting better even if our record didn’t reflect it. I got more motivated as my career went on.”

On the floor, Caltech has been led this season by junior KC Emezie’s 13.6 point per game average. He scored 22 points in the victory over La Verne. However, his biggest basket of the season was the game-winning shot against Redlands that snapped the 55-game losing streak.

Hogue adds 9.4 points per game and a team best 7.7 rebounds per game. Joel leads the Beavers with 46 3-pointers. Nasser Al-Rayes averages 8.9 points per game.

Junior guard Rob Anderson was named to the 2015 Allstate National Association of Basketball Coaches Good Works Team. Anderson, a mechanical engineering and business, economics and management double major, was selected based on his work in researching and designing sustainability projects over the past several years. 

Anderson designed and coded a Decision Support Tool with the University of Minnesota to calculate the economic feasibility of growing crops that could be used for conversion into cellulosic ethanol.  He has since gone on to intern in a research and development project for new, lighter composite materials to build wind turbine blades and volunteer for the FLoW competition.

Hogue and Joel will play their final home game Saturday night. As with many senior nights, it will be a bittersweet occasion for the pair. However, they can take pride in knowing that they have helped laid the foundation for future success on the hardwood and making a school take notice of basketball. Joel will earn his degree in mechanical engineering and wouldn’t mind working in sports as an analytics expert. Meanwhile, Hogue has a tentative job offer with Microsoft as a software engineer.  

“They mean so much and are tremendous people,” Eslinger said. “If you take the basketball away, they would want to be students that I want to get to know. If I wasn’t their coach, I would want to be their friend. That’s the reason I am so enamored and proud of them. There were some more experienced players who were here that they were supposed to learn from, but didn’t have the commitment level that these two have. They learned how to lead on their own.”

Gallaudet rolling

School history was made Monday as the Gallaudet University men's basketball team won its ninth straight game with a 75-70 win over first-year program Wilson in a North Eastern Athletic Conference game. The ninth consecutive win in a season surpasses the 98-year-old school record of eight set in 1916-17. GU first fielded a men's basketball team in 1903-04.

The Bison extended their winning streak to 10 games with a 66-53 win over Bryn Athyn the next night. The Bison’s leading scorer is junior guard Trey Gordon, who scores at an 18.0 point per game clip. He had scored in double figures in every game until a five-point performance  in the Bison’s last outing. Gordon has hit for 20 or more points six times this season. He scored a season-high 29 points against Penn State-Abington.

The balanced Bison also have Raymond Nelson (14.0 points per game) and Joshua McGriff (11.0) averaging double figures.

One of Gallaudet’s key players is 32-year-old senior guard Anton Jackson (who also looks like Lebron James). He was the 2001-02 Capital Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year, played for two years and then left. Jackson has a family, married with two kids and now back at Gallaudet trying to finish his degree. He also played on the same Gallaudet teams as head coach Brendan Stern.

Gallaudet finishes the season this weekend with games at Lancaster Bible and PSU-Berks this weekend.