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.
The Tufts men’s basketball team has entered the 2024–25 season with one goal: to go further. Last year’s Sweet 16 finish was a significant achievement, but the team hopes it was only the beginning. With three starters returning and a roster bursting with young talent, the Jumbos are poised to make an even bigger statement this season.
The Tufts men’s swim and dive teams took on Bowdoin this past weekend, coming out on top 197–90 on the score sheet.
I have an admission to make. Last March, on my WMFO show “AirBall,” I made it quite clear that I did not believe in the Boston Celtics.I argued they were chokers and that their style of basketball wasn’t conducive to crunch-time decision-making. I spat on Jayson Tatum as a leader and clowned Joe Mazzulla’s coaching. I confidently said Kristaps Porziņģis’ injury proneness would leave them with a gaping hole in the center of their roster come playoff time. Every time I watch this godforsaken team, I cannot help but hear these rotten takes ricochet around in my head.
Last weekend delivered two of the most talked-about fight events of 2024. The much-hyped, but unsurprisingly ultimately lackluster, showdown between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul took center stage on Friday night. Then, on Saturday, UFC legend Jon Jones made his long-awaited return to the octagon after 623 days, facing off against Stipe Miocic — widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight in MMA history.
Head coach Kyle Dezotell called it the best season he ever had. The record will say 12–0–6, an undefeated season. But after 110 minutes of enthralling play on the frigid terrain of Bello Field Sunday night, the number in the heads of the 2024 men’s soccer team will be 4–3. That was the score by which they lost the penalty shootout to the Buffalo State University Bengals, ending their NCAA campaign two weeks after their NESCAC title hopes were ended the same way by the Bowdoin College Polar Bears.
The Tufts ice hockey team started their season with split results, showcasing both their strengths, especially their returning offense, and some of the areas for improvement that the team is hoping to clean up this season.
After a hard-fought loss to Bowdoin, the eventual NESCAC winner in last season’s conference quarterfinals, Tufts began this year’s preseason with an away win against Brandeis. A dominant second-quarter display proved key in securing victory in an otherwise tightly contested matchup.
