More gripping than highlight reels
By MIKE MILIARD | March 25, 2008
![beaverFever[1]inside](//cache.thephoenix.com/secure/uploadedImages/The_Phoenix/Movies/Reviews/beaverFever[1]inside.jpg "beaverFever[1]inside")
Go Beavers! |
“A lot of times, when we lose a game, it’s based on five, six minutes where we just can’t get anything going,” says Yang Hai, shrimpy guard for the California Institute of Technology basketball team. Five or six minutes. Every single game. For two decades. The Caltech Beavers — named, natch, after “nature’s engineers” — have suffered more than 240 consecutive conference losses. A streak of 21 years. After one drubbing, the scoreboard read 127-32. “To lose by 60 points, on average? It sounds impossible,” says Coach Roy Dow. “It’s not.” Rick Greenwald’s documentary flashes a wry wit and inventive graphic flair, but the best part is its subjects: the affable geeks, loaded with coursework in particle physics and theoretical math, yet still giving each game their all, and Coach Dow, unfailingly energetic in the face of absurd odds. Who needs March Madness? The final moments here are more gripping than some highlight reels. 85 Minutes | Kendall Square
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, California Institute of Technology
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