Jumbos prepare for Middlebury in playoff opener

The men's basketball team looks to avenge last weekend's loss tomorrow with the Middlebury Panthers at 3 p.m in Cousens gym, in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. Despite finishing the season with losses to both Williams and Middlebury, the Jumbos held on to the third seed with a little bit of help from their NESCAC foes, thus setting the stage for a rematch against the Panthers tomorrow.

"We dug ourselves into a big hole early in the first half because we hadn't played them before and we were very tentative on D," senior co-captain Jim Wilson said. "They took it to us early, but we bounced back and played much better in the second half. We now know their style of play and we'll definitely be ready for tomorrow."

Last weekend against Middlebury, the Jumbos got solid performances from their five starters, all of whom scored in double digits. Tufts was led by its two go-to guys, senior guard Mike McGlynn and sophomore center Craig Coupe. McGlynn led the Jumbos in scoring with 21 points in 33 minutes. While he did not shoot particularly well from the field, McGlynn hit nine of 12 shots from the free throw line and bucketed two three pointers, putting him on the top-20 all time three pointers list in Div. III with 304.

Coupe also had an outstanding performance, bucketing 15 points, hauling down a team and season high 20 rebounds, and dishing out a team high of four assists. Going into this weekend, Coupe is ranked 1st in New England and 8th in the nation in rebounding with 11.4 per game.

In order to come away victorious this weekend however, the Jumbos need much more production from their reserves. In the previous game against Middlebury, Jumbo reserves scored a total of only ten points in a combined 46 minutes of play. Tufts has always relied on its depth to pull out victories in close games, and the bench players especially need to come through come playoff time.

"Our offense has been pretty solid all season, we're not really worried about it," Wilson said. "We are fully capable of scoring enough points to beat any team, we just need to work on holding them on defense."

Once again, this week in practice, the Jumbos focused primarily on defensive strategy. The Panthers are ranked 12th in the country in overall team scoring, something that the Jumbos are very well aware of.

"We've mainly been focusing on defense all year, but especially this week. Middlebury shoots a lot of three pointers and does not have many post-up guys, so we've sort of tailored our defense to their style," Wilson said. "In practice, we worked on getting back on the fast break and finding shooters along the three point line rather than running under the basket like we usually would. We're pretty much playing the same style of defense, just tweaked a little to fit their fast paced style of offense."

However, the major difference between last weekend's game and tomorrow's game is that the Jumbos will be at home to face the Panthers rather than on the road. The Jumbos are 5-3 overall at home this season, including an impressive 3-1 mark against NESCAC opponents, while Middlebury is a mediocre 1-4 on the road in conference games this season.

"It's definitely a huge advantage to be at home no matter what, but especially in the playoffs," Wilson said. "We usually get huge crowds to come and support us, and we're playing on the court that we practice on every day, which gives us that much more confidence that our shots will drop."