Junior guard Mike McGlynn achieved a career milestone - the 1,000 point mark - on Friday night in a 88-87 loss to Trinity College.
The 1,000th point was actually just McGlynn's 244th of this Tufts career. But after having scored 756 as a member of the Brandeis Judges during the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons, he can now lay claim to 1,000 for his career.
"To tell you the truth, most of the guys on the team didn't even know that he was that close before the game," junior guard Brian Shapiro said. "That tells you how humble Mike is. I'm sure he would've substituted his getting his 1000th point for a win against Trinity that night, but everyone is definitely happy for him. We just wish he could've scored all those 1000 points in a Tufts uniform."
McGlynn sat out last season after transferring to Tufts in the fall of 2000, but he has returned to the court this season as the prolific scorer he was for the Judges. McGlynn has totaled 50 points in his last two games alone, including 26 against the Amherst Lord Jeffs on Saturday afternoon. The 26 points pushed McGlynn to 1,046 for his career. The junior guard currently leads Tufts in scoring with an average of 17.1 per game, good for seventh in the NESCAC. He also leads the NESCAC in three-point shooting, connecting on 48.5 percent of his shots.
"Obviously he's brought a lot of scoring to the team but most importantly I think that he has gained the confidence of everyone on the team," Shapiro said. "Every time he shoots, everyone knows that it's going in. It's nice to be able to have someone on the team that is so consistent shooting the ball."
While McGlynn has already proved his worth to the Tufts basketball program, he will have to take on an expanded role in the next few weeks to make up for the loss of his backcourt mate, sophomore point guard Phil Barlow. Barlow is sidelined for the remainder of the season after undergoing ankle surgery. In addition, fellow starter and second leading scorer Shapiro (14.8 ppg) hurt his knee during Friday's game and missed Saturday's contest. He plans to return to action against Colby on Friday but will miss Tuesday's game versus Keene State.
"[McGlynn is] going to be a go-to-man for us for the rest of the season," Shapiro said. "With Phil out, we needed for him to step up and play on both sides of the ball, and that's what he has done."
