Returning home after an eight game road trip, the Jumbos were happy to find themselves in the friendly confines of Cousens Gym on Tuesday, defeating Newbury by 36 points.
If Tufts can duplicate those results this weekend against the Trinity Bantams and Amherst Lord Jeffs, the men's basketball team won't have to play a game away from its home floor for a long time.
The Jumbos, who enter this weekend's play at 6-1 on the conference, have a chance to earn home court advantage throughout the NESCAC Tournament if they can defeat conference powers Trinity and Amherst this weekend.
"[Home court advantage throughout the NESCAC Tournament] is huge," coach Bob Sheldon said. "We've already guaranteed the first round. If we win Friday or Saturday, we'll guarantee the second. Coming into Cousens, it's just a great place to play and it'll be packed. We just shoot better and we play a little better at home."
The Jumbos face two big obstacles, though, on their quest for first place in the NESCAC. Amherst, 7-0 in the conference, is No. 4 in the country and Trinity, tied with Tufts for second in the conference at 6-1, is No. 25.
The Jumbos are excited by the challenge.
"We just have got to keep building on the past two wins," sophomore Brian Kumf said. "It's a big weekend. There's going to be a lot of emotion. Everybody's going to play all-out. We're going to score the basketball. We just have to concentrate on defense."
That will be a challenge for a Tufts defense that is ranked last in the conference in points allowed per game, while Trinity and Amherst present the second and third best offenses in the conference behind Tufts' conference leading attack.
Trinity, which will come to Medford to play at 7 p.m. on Friday, has the No. 1 scorer in the conference in junior Tyler Rhoten. Rhoten, the defending Conference Player of the Week, is averaging 21.8 points per game and is fifth in the conference with 7.9 rebounds a game. Tufts players feel that stopping him will be a key to winning the game.
Amherst, on the other hand, has a more balanced offensive attack.
"They're just a really great team," Kumf said of the Lord Jeffs. "They've got really great players. They've got a great system. They all hit shots. They all play really good team defense. They're just a really good team."
Amherst's effort on the defensive end is apparent as it is allowing a conference low 62.5 points per game. The Jumbo offense is leading the conference scoring 82.8 points a game.
The team waited to start preparing for this weekend's games until it had defeated Newbury.
"If you think about it too much, you're going to psyche yourself out, so the coaches are going to just have to work hard and scout them," Kumf said. "We played them last year. It's the same two teams. We know what we've got to do. It's the NESCAC so you're pretty familiar with every team."
The Jumbos head into the game with momentum, having won three games in a row, including a conference win over Bates.
"I think we have good momentum," Sheldon said. "We're loose right now. I think we've showed them that we've got nothing to lose this weekend. We're 6-1. We've earned the right to be in these games this weekend. We're loose and we're going to go in and just play our stuff. We've won three in a row. We hit a little slump but we got it back and we're playing well."
The Jumbos have been playing well on the road lately, as they went 5-3 on their eight game road trip. Yet, Sheldon feels the team will be helped immensely by its home court advantage this weekend.
"They've got to travel, spend Friday night playing a game, stay in a strange bed, get up and come up here whereas we're going to play Friday here in front of our friends, go home and sleep in our own beds, get up a little later, and come here and play a game at home again," Sheldon said. "Part of it is, in our conference, since we don't travel that much, we're not Division I on the road all the time, the travel wears you out a little bit."
If the Jumbos can take care of Trinity and Amherst this weekend, there could be many other NESCAC teams visiting Tufts in the near future.
