Now that football season is over, it's time to turn our attention back to basketball. The 2011 NBA season has been one of the most exciting in recent memory.
Stapled to the Amherst men's locker room door, in bold black lettering, a sign reads "NCAA 2011 — every day, every play, no excuses." The motto can be seen on t-shirts and signs across campus. It is recited habitually in team meetings. They are words that the Amherst men's basketball team lives by, serving as a constant reminder of what their goal for this season is, what they're working so hard to reach and, most importantly, that there are no off-days.
In spite of two tough conference losses this past weekend, the men's basketball team is having a pretty darn good season. It has clinched a spot in the NESCAC tournament for the first time since 2007 and has at least some control over which team it will face in the first round.
Any longtime fan of soccer living in the United States knows that it has not always been easy to follow the beautiful game, particularly if your favorite team was not a major club. (I remember the days when Manchester United's game was always shown on television every weekend, but no other teams ever made it on the schedule.) Fox Soccer Channel (FSC), or Fox Sports World as it was then called, was pretty much the only option for fans of international soccer in the United States. Given that FSC had the production quality of a 20th-century shortwave radio broadcast, the American soccer viewer's world was indeed bleak circa 2005.
Vanessa Miller's kitchen is an oasis.
Fans of all 30 NHL teams tuned in on Jan. 30 to see the league's elite players come together in Raleigh, N.C. for the annual All-Star Weekend.
The ski team traveled north this past weekend to Cranmore Ski Resort in North Conway, N.H., for their penultimate regular-season race weekend. While the team excelled on Saturday, Sunday's events took a slight turn for the worse.
Fencing, perhaps more than most sports, is defined by inches. One tough break here or there can often be enough to decide a bout. The women's fencing team learned this the hard way this weekend, dropping three close matches to NYU, Wellesley and Sacred Heart. Due to strong individual performances, however, at least five Jumbos are on the brink of qualifying for the March 11 NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.
Albert Pujols is the best player in Major League Baseball.
The Athletics Department's decision to hold "open gym time" in lieu of a winter intramural season was implemented without any major problems, but intramural diehards remain frustrated that they'll have to wait until late March for the spring season to begin.
The women's track team hosted the Tufts Invitational II this weekend — the second of three meets that Tufts will hold this season — and continued to gain momentum as the championship season approaches.
It's a foregone conclusion that one of my favorite movies of all time is "(500) Days of Summer" (2009). That is not up for debate. I think it's a great movie, an even better story, and if Joseph Gordon−Levitt's character were female I'd have a colossal celebrity crush on her.
The good news just keeps on coming for freshman Andrew Turk. On Sunday, Turk learned that he will be the 24th and final swimmer on Tufts' conference championship roster; yesterday, he found out that he is also the men's swimming NESCAC Performer of the Week.
The No. 24 Jumbos exited the weekend's NESCAC tournament, hosted by Trinity, with a series of not−so−surprising results. Tufts dropped matches to Wesleyan and Colby — a pair of teams ranked above them — but took care of business against lower−ranked Conn. College. The matches brought Tufts' record to 6−12 overall and 1−4 in the NESCAC.
The Gantcher Center was extra busy this weekend, playing host for the Tufts Pentathlon Friday night and Tufts Invitational II on Saturday.
After three losses in the NESCAC Championships this past weekend, the No. 25 Tufts men's squash team will almost assuredly lose its place in the College Squash Association (CSA) C−division, forcing the squad to compete in the less−prestigious D−division at the CSA National Singles Championships on Feb. 25 at Harvard. The losses bring Tufts to 4−15 overall and just 1−10 against NESCAC opponents this season.
The hockey team continued to slip in the rankings this weekend, suffering losses to NESCAC rivals Wesleyan and Trinity on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
In a weekend when points were hard to come by, the women's basketball team fell to NESCAC opponents Amherst and Trinity, losing 73−35 to the Lord Jeffs on Friday night and 63−48 to the Bantams on Saturday afternoon.
Tufts had an incredible weekend at the two−day unscored Wheaton Invitational against Wheaton, Clark and No. 5 MIT, earning numerous lifetime−best and conference record times. For half the team, it was the last meet of the season, and for the other half it was the final tune−up before the NESCAC Championships.
Before we get started, I'll give you a bit of my sports background. I love the New York Yankees, but also root for underdogs no matter who they are. I hate Boston sports, but love soccer and golf. Now that I have probably pissed off my entire readership, let's get down to business.
