Have you ever yelled at a professional athlete through the TV, fully knowing they can’t hear you? Have you ever punched a wall, thrown a remote, or shed a tear after a particularly disastrous performance? Or, like a friend of mine — a Steelers fan, unfortunately — have you experienced what was described as a “depressive tailspin” after yet another playoff loss?
When the Jumbos men’s basketball team returned to Medford, Mass. to resume their spring semester campaign on the Cousens Gymnasium floor on Friday night, memories of the struggles the first weekend of NESCAC play of the previous three years lingered as the Jumbos looked to sweep the opening weekend of conference play for the first time since 2019–20. When the clock hit triple zeroes on Saturday afternoon, the now No. 9 Tufts had taken care of business against Colby and Bowdoin, moving to 14–2 for the season for the first time since 2016–17.
As students made their way back to campus during the final days of winter break, the Tufts men’s and women’s squash teams headed to San Diego to play against Denison University’s teams. The men and women alike saw lots of success on Jan. 11, with the men taking home a clean 9-0 sweep and the women only dropping one match, winning 8-1. The wins were much needed to start the momentum for 2025 after both teams lost to Cornell in December.
Ana Bǎrbosu of Romania recently stunned the gymnastics world with her announcement that she had committed to Stanford University for gymnastics. Bǎrbosu is notable because she was the Romanian gymnast involved in the dispute with American gymnast Jordan Chiles over the floor bronze medal at last year’s Olympics. In case you missed it: Bǎrbosu and her teammate Sabrina Maneca-Voinea were tied in third place with a score of 13.700.
Tufts men's basketball swept all four of its games last week and heads into the winter break ranked No. 16 nationally. Look back at Tufts’ home games versus Keene State College and Brandeis University.
Returning from Thanksgiving break, men’s squash welcomed Cornell University this past weekend. Tufts beat the University of Rochester 6–3 at home, leaving them with a record of 2–3 as of Nov. 23. The Big Red are ranked No. 9 while the Jumbos are ranked No. 10. The matchup was a highly intense game, with the Jumbos losing 8–1. Sophomore Rutva Samant secured the lone win for the Jumbos.
Ellie Black sometimes gets overlooked by casual fans because she is from Canada, but she is one of my favorite gymnasts of all time. To be fair, I’m partial to any gymnast who does front handspring vaults, and she has an excellent handspring front full (and even a rudi at one point). I also have to give props to anyone who can rock a maple-leaf-themed leotard — I appreciate Canada’s commitment to a theme.
In a 1977 regular season game, Lakers’ power forward Kermit Washington punched the Rockets’ Rudy Tomjanovich in the face so hard that it fractured his skull and he tasted spinal fluid leaking into his mouth. He would later need facial reconstruction surgery.
The past week was one of, if not the busiest week of the NHL season thus far. A lot of important moves and decisions were made, and we are going to look at the ones with the biggest implications.
As I stirred mashed potatoes over Thanksgiving break, an avid reader of “Full Court Press” (and, coincidentally, a family friend) approached me, asking my opinion on the name, image and likeness phenomenon that has taken over college sports in recent years. One week earlier, superstar high school quarterback Bryce Underwood flipped his commitment from Louisiana State University to Michigan State University in one of NIL’s wildest stories yet: one that involved billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy and what even conservative estimates say will be a fat $10 million paycheck.
After two weeks featuring many challenging NESCAC matchups, Tufts ice hockey went on the road to play the North Country Tournament in Canton, N.Y. Tufts won the tournament, winning both games by a solid margin.
The Tufts men’s basketball team continues to demonstrate why they’re one of the top NCAA Division III programs. After a Sweet 16 run last year and a blazing 5–0 start this season, Tufts faced their first setback against No. 20 Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Saturday in a hard-fought 74–61 loss at home. But the mark of a good team is its ability to bounce back and that’s just what Tufts did. In emphatic fashion, they dismantled Emmanuel College 86–51 on the road on Monday.
We are at a watershed moment for professional women’s sports in the United States, with more successes this past year than ever before. However, women’s sports leagues in the U.S. have had a rocky history of unsustainable teams, lack of interest and financial woes. We can either fall back into this pattern or push the momentum to set U.S. women’s sports leagues into stone.
Just about a month into the season, it feels like we’ve seen every top ranked team drop a game, especially during Feast Week[a]. We didn’t have as many ranked matchups as past years, but that is mostly a product of all the upsets in these Thanksgiving tournaments. As a result, the AP rankings for this upcoming week have seen quite a bit of volatility. Here are the teams that feasted and the ones that were left hungry.
Of all sports, wheelchair basketball is perhaps the most truly inclusive. If a high school edge rusher racks up 20 sacks in 10 games but is a prisoner to a 5 feet, 10 inches, 160 pound frame, then there is no chance that they will be recruited for the highest level of college football. In wheelchair basketball, however, there is a place for everyone on the court.
The National Hockey League had an exciting slate of games over the Thanksgiving weekend, with a lot of thrilling matchups and highlight plays. Now, teams shift their focus to the month of December. Let’s take a look at the latest news from around the league.
As winter sports roll into season, the men’s squash team has kicked into high gear, having already completed five matches since Nov. 15. The team, ranked 10th out of 34 teams in the College Squash Association pre-season rankings, bested No. 15 University of Rochester 6–3 in an away match on Saturday. The team earned their wins primarily in the middle of the ladder, taking down the Yellowjackets, who have been “one of the best teams in college squash for the past 20 years,” as head coach Joe Raho wrote in an email to the Daily.
Last semester, I did my final project for my Geographic Information Systems class on what I called the “Geographic Origin of Human Capital in American Women’s Gymnastics” — in other words, where do the top gymnasts, coaches and clubs come from? It was a very fun project.
We are now about a quarter of the way into this NHL regular season, and it has been a very busy week around the league. Particularly, we have our first coaching changes of the season.
Last week, after winning the NESCAC field hockey tournament, Tufts hosted the first three rounds of the Division III field hockey tournament.“We had made it a goal to host the sweet sixteen and elite 8 so the players were really excited to play on our home field,” Head Coach Tina Mattera wrote in an email to the Daily.
