Unable to take a lead in the first half against the Bates Bobcats, Tufts went full throttle until the final buzzer. Thanks to junior guard Dylan Thoerner's layup with ten seconds left on the clock and 55 combined points from Thoerner and senior big man Luke Rogers, the final scoreboard sounded with a 71–70 Jumbos win.
Even though the spring semester has just begun, the Tufts women's basketball team and its season is already in full swing. On Saturday, Jan. 15, the Tufts Jumbos hosted the Amherst Mammoths for their third NESCAC conference matchup of the season, where they ultimately fell short 62–53.
Despite the challenges that Tufts sport teams have faced throughout the last two years, trying to compete and practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jumbos have shown resilience and patience. Not only have our athletes survived, but they have thrived. Many spring sports, including softball and lacrosse, achieved tremendous success at the NESCAC and national levels last year. Now, with relatively fewer COVID-19 restrictions, here are what spring sports at Tufts will be up to this season.
Men’s basketball earned mixed results over winter break, bringing its overall record to 6–8. After a rocky start to the season, the team started to find its groove during its trip to Nashville for the Music City Classic. The squad competed against its first NESCAC opponents, losing to Hamilton (77–64) and beating Amherst (74–66). In its final matchup of the break, Tufts basketball secured a commanding victory over New England College (79–53). Senior center Luke Rogers made his return to play over the break after missing the first eight games of the season.Rogers said he’s optimistic about the trajectory of the team.
While the debate for the 2021 men’s Ballon d’Or had fans around the world split between Robert Lewandowski and Lionel Messi, the women’s award grabbed fewer headlines, despite having a clear winner. For years, the glamour and glory of the beautiful game have been dominated by male athletes, from the academy systems at elite clubs all the way to the podium of the FIFA World Cup. The sad reality is that a wunderkind making his debut for twenty minutes is likely to gain more popularity than a female legend who has won everything there is to win. To shine as a female player appears an elusive dream for many, but for Alexia Putellas it was a dream destined to become reality.
When NFL teams face off in the divisional games this weekend, it can be tempting to evaluate the matchups in a black-and-white manner. But the NFL has taught us repeatedly that the Super Bowl puzzle is nebulous and complex. With that in mind, I’m diving into the narrative-driven arguments for every remaining team to go all the way.
Molly Laliberty still has her mind on the final game of last year’s lacrosse season. Down 14–10 with six minutes left against Salisbury for the Division III national championship, Tufts surged back but still fell just short, losing 14–13. Laliberty played well, but she could have played better. She could have stepped up and taken Tufts to the promised land; at least, that's what she kept telling herself while watching the College Football National Championship.
On Jan. 11, a student petition on Change.org circulated that contested Tufts' COVID-19 return-to-play protocols. According to the petition, Tufts requires student-athletes who test positive for COVID-19 to wait about 12 days, including a two-day reconditioning process, returning to play or practice. While this information has yet to be verified by either the athletic department or the university health department, the petition already has received over 450 signatures.
This past weekend, Tufts ice hockey team was swept in the two NESCAC games they played. In Friday night’s match against the Colby Mules, the Jumbos fell 4–0. In Saturday’s game, they lost 3–2 in overtime to the Bowdoin Polar Bears. Tufts’ record now sits at 1–7–1 overall and 1–4–1 in the NESCAC.
It is only Week 14, butreports of Urban Meyer-created dysfunction in Jacksonville and speculation about offensive-wonderkid Joe Brady’s next destination has already begun to fuel the 2022 NFL coaching carousel. While teams will likely have household names such as Eric Bieniemy, Brian Daboll and Todd Bowles at the top of their lists, I am going to dive into some of the underrated head coaching candidates and their best fits around the NFL.
As New England Patriots fans, we truly do not recognize the magnitude of greatness that this franchise has sustained over the past two decades. Since 2000, the team has been to nine Super Bowls and has won six Lombardi Trophies; they've missed the playoffs only four times in that span and have produced some of the greatest seasons in NFL history. Even with Tom Brady's upsetting departure from the Patriots to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the former team strategically retained most of its core and treated the 2020 season as a re-tooling year to develop a few young prospects. After drafting quarterback Mac Jones 15th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, Bill Belichick slowly developed a talented and experienced depth chart. Free agent additions Matthew Judon and Hunter Henry excelled in the offseason and only offered more promise for this revamped Patriots team. Now, with four games remaining in the season, the Patriots lead the AFC East at 9–4 and hold the AFC's first overall seed.
Coming off a five-overtime thriller that ended in heartbreak, the Tufts men’s basketball team looked to bounce back against a hot team in Nichols College, but fell just short in the second period by dropping a double-digit lead and ultimately losing 90–85. Head Coach Brandon Linton, who left Nichols College last year to continue his coaching career at Tufts, mixed and matched lineups again to try and find the right group that could hold up defensively but still maintain the offensive rhythm that the Jumbos have lacked since losing former NESCAC Player of the Year senior center and co-captain Luke Rodgers to injury in their first game of the season. The home team also played without junior guard Carson Cohen and sophomore guard Jay Dieterle, both of whom offer playmaking and scoring skills. Junior guard Dylan Thoerner, who came second on the team in scoring with 15 points, explains how the team must make up for all these injuries.
The Phoenix Suns always seem to be a fun, exciting team to watch, year in and year out. From Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire to Chris Paul and Devin Booker, their superstars engineer a brand of high scoring basketball that makes them a favorite of fans around the league.
Coming into December undefeated in NESCAC play, both the men’s and women’s squash teams collected their third conference win against Bates College last Friday. At their home Tufts Squash Center, the Jumbos won both matches 7–2, defeating a Bates team that had dominated the series in previous years.
The Premier League is about a third of the way finished, and about six managers have been fired, with the last one being Manchester United’s club legend, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. His team was underperforming, and the argument for his sacking is convincing — Solskjaer won only three out of his last ten games in all competitions. Moreover, Manchester United lost abysmally to its rivals Liverpool and Manchester City. Both games also echoed a discouraging view of the future as both Liverpool and City outplayed and tactically asserted their dominance over Solskjaer’s team. Although it is difficult to defend a manager with such a record, the sacking is frustrating since Manchester United appeared to have finally gained a stable leadership and an attacking playing style.
The Tufts hockey team split a NESCAC doubleheader on the road this weekend, winning its first game of the season 3–2 against Middlebury on Friday and falling to Williams 5–4 on Saturday. The team now sits at 1–5–1 overall, with a 1–2–1 NESCAC record that puts them ranked in the middle of conference play.
Minutes before the MLB owners and MLPA issued a lockout of the 2021 offseason over the expired Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Red Sox orchestrated a trade that received a questionable response from the fan base. Hunter Renfroe, one of the bigger offensive contributors for the team in 2021, is now a Milwaukee Brewer; in compensation, the Red Sox receive Jackie Bradley Jr. (JBJ), a fan favorite in Boston, and two young prospects. Without examining the fine lines of the deal, this seems like a lopsided trade for the Red Sox. In 2021, Renfroe was a 2.3 WAR player with 31 home runs and 96 RBIs; JBJ could barely hit his weight in 2021 with a .163 AVG and -0.7 WAR. Although JBJ does provide a massive defensive value to a team's outfield, Renfroe was an average defender with a cannon of an arm; he had 16 defensive assists which led all MLB right fielders. By simply looking at statistics, the Red Sox gain nothing from this head-scratching trade.
It’s Week 14 and for the final time this year, let’s look at who’s Hot and Cold:
Tufts’ men’s and women’s track and field teams began the indoor track season admirably at the Sharon Colyear-Danville meet, hosted by Boston University on a banked track on Saturday, Dec. 4.
The Jumbos brought the heat to the MIT pool this past weekend for their first away meet of the season. The men came in as runner-up to MIT but dominated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Wheaton College and Keene State College, while the women defeated MIT, Wheaton, RPI, Wellesley, Keene State and Simmons.
