Quantum Hoops (review)

It would be a gross understatement to say that Americans are accustomed to watching inspirational sports films about overlooked athletes who eventually persevere. Images of the “Cutters” cycling team dramatically crossing the finish line in Breaking Away and a bloodied Rocky Balboa bellowing “Adrien!” after winning a grueling match are indelibly etched into America’s popular cultural memory and evidence our rich, yet repetitive, repertoire of sports narratives. In these familiar films, and scores of others like them, sport is positioned as a site through which underdogs, by using their individually-garnered grit and determination, can become heroes.

In recent years, multiple documentaries have inserted themselves into this popular tradition of sports films. In contrast to typical fictional sports narratives, however, these texts, such as Hoop Dreams (1994) and The Heart of the Game (2006), tend to end on an ambivalent note. They celebrate their subjects’ talent and resolve while critiquing the values attached to American sports.

Employing a mixture of the inspirational drama characteristic of fictional sports films and the critical orientation documentaries often impart, Rick Greenwald’s Quantum Hoops uses the men’s basketball team at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to investigate the attitudes surrounding amateur sports in America. The Caltech Beavers are a different breed of underdog. They have not won a single league game since 1985—the longest losing streak in the history of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). While the men on Caltech’s team border pathetic on the basketball court, off the court they are former valedictorians who attend one of the world’s most prestigious and rigorous academic institutions. As such, their participation on Caltech’s team constitutes a comparably minor diversion from academic pursuits they take much more seriously. Not one of the Beavers came to Caltech for the sole purpose of playing basketball and only a small handful of the team even played the sport in high school. In fact, the team’s roster at the time of the film’s production included more former valedictorians than former high school basketball players. Because of Caltech’s exceptionally demanding academic standards, the Beavers’ devoted Coach Roy Dow admits that it is nearly impossible for him to recruit players out of high school—a crippling disadvantage in the context of college athletics. Consequently, anyone who shows up on the first day of practice can be a member of Caltech’s team. While this absolutely unique degree of athletic inclusiveness makes for a diverse roster filled with aspiring physicists and engineers, it does not help the Beavers win games. Quantum Hoops examines Caltech’s peculiar place within college athletics and documents the Beavers’ quest for a single win during the 2006 season. In doing so, the film champions the merits of amateur athletic competition and critiques the victory-oriented value-system that dominates contemporary American sport.

The bulk of Quantum Hoops is organized around Caltech’s attempts to break their losing streak during the 2006 season. All narrative hints gesture toward an eventual Caltech victory. Even the film’s tagline—“Before they change the world, they need to win one game”—suggests that the Beavers will somehow eke out a win. After setting this dramatic foundation, the film focuses on the Beavers’ last home game of the season against Whittier College. Caltech led Whittier during much of the game and even forced the match into double-overtime. However, it was Whittier who hit the winning shot in the game’s waning moments. One more loss—though by a closer margin than most—for the Beavers.

This heartbreaking loss at the film’s end constitutes Quantum Hoops’ most salient point. Without it, the film would be just another inspirational sports story about a rag-tag group of overmatched underdogs who emerge victorious despite a seemingly insurmountable field of adversity. Though certainly disappointing, the loss simultaneously inspires viewers with the Beavers’ resolve and critiques the common notion that victories are the only way athletes can gain from their participation in sports. Though the Beavers’ players...