Jumbos prepare for another big NESCAC weekend

The men's basketball team brings its 9-10 overall record (3-2 NESCAC) to Cousens Gymnasium this weekend in its second to last NESCAC weekend of the season. The Jumbos, currently fifth in the conference, face off against the Bowdoin Polar Bears tonight, and the Colby White Mules on Saturday afternoon.

"We're really gearing up for these last two weeks of the season," coach Bob Sheldon said. "We have no more non-conference games left, it's all NESCAC now, and we need to take it one at a time, because if we win our games, we get in the playoffs. That's the bottom line."

The Jumbos look to end their two game skid and climb back to .500 on the season Friday night against Bowdoin, a team that currently stands tied for eighth in the conference with a 7-12 overall record (1-5 NESCAC). The Polar Bears have lost ten of their last 12 contests. The Jumbos, who have won two out of the past three meetings with the Polar Bears, look to avenge last year's 19-point blowout.

"We cannot afford to lose this game," Sheldon said. "They are lower than us in the standings, but we are preparing for this game like it's the national championship."

Tufts looks to work the ball from the inside out against the Polar Bears, who have had trouble dealing with big men in the NESCAC.

The Jumbo offense features sophomore center Craig Coupe, who averages 14 ppg and a 13th best in the nation 11rpg. The Jumbos also rely on the strong outside shooting of senior guard Mike McGlynn, Tufts' leading scorer with 18 ppg, who with 294 career three pointers, is just nine short off 20th on the all-time three-pointers made in Div. III history.

"We are considerably bigger than they are," Sheldon said. "So we basically are going to pound the ball into our big guys inside and work our way out."

The Polar Bears, because of their lack of size inside, are a team that loves to shoot the three. They average almost 20 three-point attempts a game, making 36 percent of them per contest.

Less than 24 hours after the game against Bowdoin, the Jumbos return to Cousens Gymnasium to face the Colby White Mules, who are tied for eight place in the conference with Bowdoin. Tufts and Colby have squared off four times over the past three seasons with both teams coming away with two victories. The White Mules are 5-13 overall (1-5, NESCAC) this season, but have lost seven of their last eight matchups.

Similar to Bowdoin, Colby is a smaller team that loves to shoot the three pointer. They have taken 314 three pointers thus far this season, but have converted only 30 percent of them.

"Because both teams take a lot of three's, its kind of nice that we can get ready for both of them with one plan," Sheldon said. "We've worked on different defensive techniques this week, but basically we need to get in their shooters faces and not give them any open looks."

In practice, Sheldon concentrated mainly on defensive strategy, not really worrying so much about offense.

"We're sort of letting the offense take care of itself. We're scoring 80 points a night, and nobody's really been able to stop us," Sheldon said.