The men's basketball team started its 2001-02 season in a hole. Not only did it lose one of the most talented classes in recent memory to graduation, but that class was one of the biggest. Three of last year's five seniors were listed at 6'5" or above, and all played an important role on the floor.
Their graduation left the Jumbos coming into this season without much experience in the paint and not much more in other places. The plan was to ignore the gaping hole in the middle of the floor - stay on the outside, rely on a stacked backcourt, and put up a lot of threes - until a suitable replacement could be found.
As last night's 84-77 come-from-behind win over the visiting MIT Engineers showed, Tufts may not have to do much more looking.
Freshman Craig Coupe, who had 16 points, eight rebounds, and four assists in the win, has filled that hole. Through the first seven games of the season, the 6'7" center has emerged as one of Tufts' top scoring threats and has helped Tufts secure a three-rebound-per-game advantage over its opponents, leading the team with 42 boards.
What started as a perimeter-based offense has slowly shifted towards a more balanced approach as the team has begun to take advantage of Coupe's inside presence. Having an option down low gives Tufts the ability to take higher percentage shots, and opponents can no longer just concentrate on taking away the three.
"I think teams are really going to try to take our three-point shots away, and because of that we've got to go back-door, and we've got to go inside," coach Bob Sheldon said. "[MIT] did a good job of taking it away, but we got 41 points in the first half, so I thought we did a good job adjusting to that."
With the emergence of Tufts' frontcourt, the outside game has diminished slightly. Although guards Phil Barlow and Brian Shapiro continue to lead the team on the floor, the Jumbos attempted just 16 three pointers last night, the lowest total of the season - Tufts came in averaging 24.7 attempts per game - and well below Sheldon's preseason prediction of 30-35 a night. The Jumbos went to their inside game to keep up with the undefeated Engineers late in the second half, looking to Coupe and junior forward Kyle Van Natta instead of relying solely on perimeter play.
"We're not really shifting, we're trying to balance," Sheldon said. "Part of that was that we didn't really know how good [Coupe] was going to be. Now we know how good he is, and it's just gonna make us better in the long run."
Coupe proved to be invaluable down the stretch, scoring seven of his career-high 16 points in overtime to help Tufts pull away. The Jumbos fed the ball in to the freshman repeatedly, going to him on consecutive trips down the court a number of times in the game's closing minutes and turning the same play to him five times.
"We went to [Coupe] in overtime and down the stretch, and he produced," Sheldon said. "It's nice to see that from a freshman. When he gets bigger and improves his footwork a little bit, he'll be unstoppable."
Junior transfer Mike McGlynn, Tufts other stand-out newcomer, has helped fill another gap in the lineup, providing the team with some of the valuable collegiate floor experience it lost. With McGlynn joining up with Shapiro and Barlow, Tufts possesses the strongest back court it has seen in years. Against MIT, the three combined for 46 of the team's 69 shots, and 53.6 percent of the overall offense. McGlynn is currently second on the team in scoring with just under 14 points per game.
After Saturday's game against Wheaton, the Jumbos will be off for three weeks over winter break. Usually, a large break in the middle of a season can be disastrous to a team that has spent the past few weeks trying to build up momentum. The 1998-99 squad started off 5-2, but could never get things going in the spring semester and lost its last nine games to finish at a disappointing 9-15. But this year's team should benefit from the time off and will use the break as an opportunity to adjust its game plan and fully incorporate its new weapons.
"We have three weeks off, so as a staff and as a team, we're going to look at tape, and we're going to make some adjustments," Sheldon said. "[We want to] get more balance going, go inside, maybe set up some more plays to get the ball inside. Tweak things a little bit and adjust it so we do go in and get more balance."
