Throughout its history, the Daily has primarily focused on coverage of professional or Tufts basketball. In celebration of Daily Week, I aim to reflect on how the Daily gave me the opportunity to write about a passion of mine, college basketball, and in turn, how my column has contributed to the sports section of the Daily.
On Feb. 3, the Jumbos women’s basketball team welcomed the Bowdoin Polar Bears to Cousens Gymnasium on Senior Day. Though the Polar Bears emerged victorious with a final score of 77–63, the Jumbos showed that they could compete with the NESCAC’s top dog.
PECOTA stands for Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm. It’s a fancy way of describing a system used by the organization Baseball Prospectus to predict the MLB standings in a given season, which it does every year. Let’s just say I’m not too crazy about the algorithm — and not just because it doesn’t have the Chicago Cubs winning the National League Central. These are, in my opinion, the five most insane PECOTA projections from this year’s iteration.
The Tufts women’s and men’s track competed in the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Gordon Kelly Invitational last Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Jumbos proved themselves a force to be reckoned with, as they recorded strong finishes and held their own against D1 competition.
The women’s basketball team dropped two road games this weekend to conference opponents Wesleyan and Trinity. The two losses will put the team’s regular season record at 11–12. Prior to its last weekend of NESCAC play, the Jumbos came off a four-game losing streak, including a triple overtime loss to the Middlebury Panthers. With a tall task of shifting momentum and — on Saturday — clinching NESCAC Tournament entry with a win against Trinity, Tufts ultimately came up short.
Tufts men’s basketball looked to conclude their regular season on a high note in games against Wesleyan Cardinals and Trinity Bantams over the weekend. Walking into the Friday evening game, the Jumbos knew they needed a win against the Cardinals in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Cardinals sat at 12–10 for the season going into Friday, while the Jumbos had the record of 17–5.
This week’s focus is on the Norris Trophy, which is awarded to the best defenseman of the NHL season.
Here are my big questions for every conference in the college basketball Power 6.
It’s Aug. 18, 2023. My friend and I had bought last-minute tickets to see the Chicago Cubs play the Kansas City Royals at Wrigley Field. A Cubs win should have been a safe bet — they had been playing good baseball since mid-July, but more importantly, Kansas City was an abysmal 39–84. Unfortunately, Bobby Witt Jr. had other ideas.
The singular thing I’m most excited for as the elite domestic season begins in the lead-up to the Olympics is Gabby Douglas’ elite comeback. Douglas competed in the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, becoming the first Black woman to win the Olympic All-Around with her 2012 victory.
In April 2021, the NCAA decided that first-time transfer student-athletes would be able to immediately suit up for their new schools, eliminating the one-year sit-out policy. Just a couple of months later, the NCAA suspended its prior rules on name, image and likeness that restricted players from receiving any compensation. The combination of these two significant changes to college athletics made for a whole new landscape in college basketball, along with other highly competitive sports.
This weekend, the Tufts men’s ice hockey team played against Connecticut College twice. This proved to be the second chance the Jumbos needed. After losing 4–3 in overtime at home against the Camels on Friday night, the Jumbos came back with a 4–0 win on Saturday in New London, Conn. to show that Friday night was an anomaly.
“Messi mashed on Merseyside.” If Anfield had ever dreamt of hearing a sweeter line, that dream was unfolding tenfold. A corner of traveling Catalan fans were left speechless as a sea of red chanted on. Although Peter Drury is often lauded as the master of modern commentary, it was Darren Fletcher who uttered those words. And he hadn’t planned it.
Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams triumphed over Hamilton College on Friday. The women’s team won 175–113, and the men’s team won 166–109. The meet, the last home meet of the year, also served as an opportunity to celebrate Senior Night and honor the 19 swimmers and divers in the Class of 2024.
The men’s basketball team braved the cold for a pair of conference matchups against the Colby College Mules and Bowdoin College Polar Bears last weekend. They fell by a single bucket to the Mules, but the next day they then iced out the Polar Bears to end the trip with a win.
This week, I will focus on the first individual award of the column: the Vezina Trophy.The Vezina Trophy is awarded to the best goaltender of the NHL season.
As the New Balance Grand Prix returned to Boston, thousands of fans packed the stands of the TRACK at new balance on Sunday to see the athletes set to compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
On Feb. 3, the world tuned in to view a historic college basketball rivalry clash. Two conference foes, their campuses within driving distance, reignited a feud that had seen hundreds of memorable iterations. The home team, donning blue, packed the arena with loyal fans who anxiously awaited a season-defining matchup as the campaign’s crunch time neared.
News that ace pitcher Corbin Burnes was being traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Baltimore Orioles was about the last thing I expected to see on Thursday night. It was looking very much like the 2021 NL Cy Young winner would be in Milwaukee until at least the trade deadline. Instead, the Orioles swung one of the biggest offseason moves in franchise history.
Typically, a two-game weekend for the Tufts women’s basketball team features 80 minutes of gameplay. However, to the delight of basketball fanatics, the Jumbos’ slate this past weekend lasted 95 minutes, thanks to a triple-overtime thriller against the Middlebury College Panthers and a nailbiter against the Williams College Ephs. Though the results were mixed, the Jumbos’ weekend was undoubtedly action-packed.
