After a disappointing loss to Colby on Saturday, the men's basketball team heads to Williamstown for a first-round match-up in the NESCAC Tournament with Williams tomorrow.
Despite a mediocre 13-11 season, the Ephs finished third in the NESCAC standings with a 6-3 record, earning the right to host the sixth-seeded Jumbos at the Chandler Athletic Center this weekend. Tufts and Williams have already met three times in NESCAC Tournament history, with the Jumbos most recently winning a 101-89 shootout in last year's quarterfinal meeting.
Coach Bob Sheldon's crew hopes to repeat that performance, as well as its regular-season showing from two weeks ago, when the Jumbos, propelled by sophomore Jon Pierce's 20 points, handled the Ephs in an 85-69 win on Feb. 3.
Needing a win to advance to their third-straight NESCAC semifinal game, the Jumbos are confident they can pull out another win at Chandler.
"Winning on the road in the NESCAC is very tough," senior tri-captain Dave Shepherd said. "It definitely helps a lot that we already beat [Williams]. We match up well with them, and we know we can beat them in their gym."
A win for the Jumbos over the Ephs could set up another Tufts-Amherst show-down in the semifinals, since the teams are reseeded after first-round play. While Tufts players are excited at that possibility, they are focused on the task at hand.
"We have all next week to think about Amherst," junior forward Jake Weitzen said. "We have been concentrating on Williams. They're a good team, and we need to play well against them before we can even think about playing Amherst."
For the third-consecutive year, and fourth time since the NESCAC went to a playoff format in 2001, the Amherst Lord Jeffs will host the NESCAC championship.
Next weekend, Amherst will hope to hoist the championship plaque for a fifth time. The only other team to capture a NESCAC Tournament crown is Tufts' current foe, Williams, who took home titles in 2003 and 2004.
The Jeffs will only be hosting the championship weekend, however, if they can get by their first-round opponent, the Bates Bobcats. While no No. 8 seed has ever upset a No. 1 in NESCAC Tournament history, this year's game brings a much more intriguing match-up.
After starting the year 11-0, the Bobcats slumped through their NESCAC schedule and finished the year with a disappointing 18-6 record. Bates went 3-6 in league play, including two home losses to in-state rivals Colby and Bowdoin to finish the season last weekend. Despite their struggles, Bates features two of the league's most talented players: senior co-captains, forward Rob Stockwell and guard Zak Ray.
Beating a 23-1 Amherst squad will be no small task. Amherst has dominated play this winter, only losing its final game of the year at Trinity. The Lord Jeffs are a perfect 12-0 on their home court in LeFrak Gym, and are led by Cousy Award nominee junior Andrew Olson, who is also a leading candidate for NESCAC Player of the Year honors, having headed the league with 7.2 assists per game.
Amherst beat Bates 79-64 earlier this winter in a game played in Lewiston, Maine on Jan. 13, but the Bobcats will look for revenge this time around.
Though Amherst was awarded the No. 1 seed, Trinity is going into the postseason as the hottest team in the NESCAC. The Bantams were also perfect on their home floor this season, and they will get at least one more opportunity to play in Oosting Gym when they host No. 7 seeded Bowdoin. The 20-3 Bantams suffered one of their three losses on the season when they visited Bowdoin and lost 75-69 on Jan. 26 in Brunswick, Maine.
The Middlebury-Colby game will be a rematch of an offensive showdown from early January when the Panthers outlasted the Mules, 100-93.
This will be the first time Middlebury has ever hosted a NESCAC playoff game, and the Panthers have never advanced past the quarterfinals. The big men will battle it out tomorrow, as Colby senior Drew Cohen will be looking to unleash the same type of fury he released against the Jumbos on Saturday.
Middlebury will counter with Evan Thompson, who is averaging 12.8 points per game and who scored 24 points in the first meeting with the Mules.
