Next weekend, the men's basketball team will be doing something it has not done in a long time. Six years to be exact. On Feb. 18, the Jumbos will host the NESCAC quarterfinals in Cousens Gymnasium for the first time since 2006.
But the question of whether they will have the No. 3 or the No. 4 seed remains unanswered. Tonight, the Jumbos — who currently sit at 6-3 in-conference and third in the NESCAC — will take a long trip to Hamilton in search of the best insurance policy against falling down the rankings ladder: a win.
Still, the Jumbos don't have full control over their fate. Wesleyan, which is the current NESCAC fourth seed and beat Tufts with a buzzer-beater on Jan. 20, still has two conference games left against Bowdoin and Colby. A weekend sweep would give them the head-to-head advantage and bump the Jumbos out of third, regardless of the Jumbos' showing against the Continentals.
Ultimately, the Cardinals control their destiny, but Tufts is aware that late-season momentum can sometimes be more important than seeding.
"In our mind, we're going into Hamilton with the mindset that if we lose this game, we never know what could happen," junior tri-captain forward Scott Anderson said. "We set a goal at the beginning of the season to make the NCAA tournament. If we want to give ourselves any kind of shot at doing that, we will have to not only win these two games, but make a big impact in the NESCAC tournament as well."
One boost to the team's momentum came on Wednesday, when the NCAA gave Tufts the No. 10 ranking in the Northeast — another recognition none of the current players has ever enjoyed. The acknowledgement came as welcome news after an emotionally draining trio of games last week, when the Jumbos won a mid-week overtime non-conference thriller on Tuesday, pulled out a buzzer-beating win on Friday and finally fell to national No. 6 Amherst on Saturday in front of Cousens Gym's loudest crowd this season.
The Jumbos have two regular season contests remaining: tonight at Hamilton and Monday against Clark. For now, though, they only have one thing in mind.
"We definitely want to build some momentum headed into NESCACs, but we aren't worried about Clark yet," senior tri-captain forward James Long said. "For us, the momentum starts [tonight] at Hamilton."
Although the Continentals have struggled this season, beating them may be easier said than done.
Hamilton is an unknown team to the Jumbos, and the two teams haven't met since 2000, when the Continentals beat the Jumbos 95-91 in double overtime. This season, Hamilton, a new entrant into the NESCAC in certain sports, is tied with Trinity for the eighth and final conference tournament spot with a 2-6 conference record. The Bantams have the head-to-head advantage over the Continentals, but they still have tough games remaining against national No. 2 Middlebury and Williams.
If the Continentals take at least one of their weekend matchups against Tufts and Bates on Sunday, they could potentially clinch the last playoff spot in their debut season in the league. In other words, they will likely be playing their hearts out tonight.
Still, if the Jumbos play up to their standards, they should come out on top. For one, they are a deeper team, with 10 different players on the roster scoring double-digit points at least once. They have four players in the NESCAC scoring top 30 compared to Hamilton's two, with their top five players all averaging over 7.3 points per game. Hamilton's third leading scorer is averaging 7.2 points.
"We want to focus on defending this weekend first," Long said. "Then we want to get back to what we do well on offense, running the floor and getting post touches for layups and kick-out threes."
On defense, Hamilton's 6-foot-7 senior forward Patrick Sullivan will be the Jumbos' primary concern, as his 16.9 points per game rank fourth in the league. Tufts, which remains last in the conference in points allowed, will have to lock down defensively inside to keep Sullivan at bay.
"We know Hamilton has two guys in particular that could hurt us," Anderson said, referring to Sullivan and his perimeter counterpart Greg Newton.
"It seems like these weaker teams are the teams that have been able to hurt us in the past. In the past few years we have played down to other teams' caliber, and the game turns into a dogfight at the end. Having played with a few of the other guys on the Hamilton team in the past, I know they have the potential to score and score in large quantities if they get hot," he added.
One place Hamilton does not have the advantage is on the glass. Tufts — led by Orchowski, who averages 8.4 rebounds per game — is averaging over 40 boards per game on the season, topping the Continentals in both offensive and defensive rebounding.
But with their backs against the wall, the Continentals can't be taken lightly.
