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Film Review — "Quantum Hoops"

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With March Madness in full swing, it's only fitting to talk College Hoops.  With that in mind, Bill Littlefield has the review of Quantum Hoops, a film documenting Caltech Basketball.  As Bill says,  Director Rick Greenwald tells an entertaining story about a below average basketball team made up of above average young men.

Quantum Hoops – “I Laughed. I cried. I did both at once.”

Assuming Vince Lombardi really said “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing,” what would he have made of Caltech basketball?

Nothing.

Because the men’s basketball team at Caltech never wins.  Sometimes it loses by fifty or sixty points. Or seventy.

But the Caltech players are not entirely without distinction. In one season, the players who’d been high school valedictorians outnumbered the men who’d played high school basketball, 8-6. The roster of men who’ve played for the team in the past includes, world-class mathematicians, rocket scientists, and one winner of the World Series of Poker.

Take that, Duke.

Anyway, out of the sometimes sad and sometimes hilarious story of the basketball team at Caltech, Rick Greenwald has made an exceptionally entertaining movie. In these days of March Madness, Quantum Hoops provides an antidote to the insanity. It’s a good story well told, full of fun and, amazingly, given Caltech’s record, not entirely lacking in suspense.

This program aired on March 21, 2008. The audio for this program is not available.

Headshot of Bill Littlefield

Bill Littlefield Host, Only A Game
Bill Littlefield was the host of Only A Game from 1993 until 2018.

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