Heading into the NESCAC Tournament as the No. 2 seed, the men's basketball team has one simple goal.
"The goal is to win the NESCAC Tournament, hopefully against Amherst," freshman Jake Weitzen said.
Kicking off the single-elimination NESCAC Tournament against Colby at 3 p.m. this Saturday at Cousens Gym, the team must win to stay alive. Luckily for the Jumbos, this do-or-die game will be played on their home floor.
"Home-court advantage is an advantage because of the crowd," freshman Ryan O'Keefe said. "With the crowd on your side, when you get momentum on your side, it's hard to stop it. We play our best at home."
This mental edge has not always produced wins for the Jumbos this season as they are 15-9 overall but just 5-4 on their home floor. While it started the season with three consecutive home losses, the team turned home record around by winning five in a row at Cousens before losing to Amherst this past weekend.
One of those home victories came against Colby, which Tufts will host this weekend. On Jan. 14, the Jumbos defeated the Mules 76-69 to open what would eventually become a 7-2 NESCAC season.
"They're solid," sophomore Dave Shepherd said. "They're a scrappy team. They've got a lot of guys who can shoot. They're not really a flashy team, but they're good at what they do."
Indeed, at 14-7, Colby holds a better record than Tufts heading into the matchup. The Jumbos, however, played a tougher schedule than the Mules as Tufts went 8-2 against schools that both teams played, whereas the Mules only went 7-5 in those matchups.
The most important game from earlier in the season, of course, was the one in which the Jumbos and the Mules met head-to-head. While the Jumbos won the game, it certainly was a battle as they were forced to fight back from a 59-48 deficit with 13:20 left in the ballgame.
From that point on, however, the Jumbos held the Mules to 10 points the rest of the way and ended up winning the game by seven. The players will have this game in their minds as they face the Mules once again.
"We've got to play defense," Shepherd said. "We played really well in the last 10 minutes [of the first game with Colby]. We outscored them by almost 20 [in that span]. Part of that is that we kind of figured them out."
The Jumbos also recognize that they must play more consistently this time around.
"You have to be tough for 40 minutes," O'Keefe said. "You can't have lapses, where you don't play as hard. If we come out for 40 minutes and play hard, we will be alright."
Colby brings a two-pronged attack to Cousens Gym, led by sophomore center Drew Cohen and senior shooting guard Patrick McGowan. The two combine to average 31.9 points per game, but only combined to score 24 points in the previous meeting with Tufts.
"We know what they're going to do and who their guys are, first hand," Shepherd said. "We have to defend our first victory. We have to prove that it wasn't a fluke and that we're the better team."
While the Jumbos have won four out of their past five games, they will have to rebound from the shock of their 94-61 romp at the hands of nationally-ranked Amherst this past weekend.
The lopsided defeat allowed Amherst to win the regular season title and earn home court advantage throughout the NESCAC Tournament.
The Jumbos would love to even the score by handing the Lord Jeffs a loss in the tournament, but the team is careful not to look to far ahead.
"We're definitely looking at this as a three-game season," Shepherd said. "We have to get the first one to get the second one, and the second one to get to the third. We've got to take it one game at a time. We want to get some momentum going, but at the same time, if we don't win the first one, we're done."
Despite entering the game off a loss, the players feel that they have regained their composure.
"Everybody's pretty confident," Weitzen said. "We know we had an off night [against Amherst], but the last two practices have been good and we know we'll be ready on Saturday."
