I am so unbelievably sick of watching the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers sign or trade for every big name in baseball. It’s just not fair, and it needs to stop.
Typically, fire and ice don’t mix. After all, in the presence of fire, solid ice becomes dripping, liquid water. This contradiction has not stopped the Tufts men’s ice hockey team from setting the NESCAC on fire in recent weeks. After starting the season 0–4–1, the Jumbos rattled off seven consecutive wins, starting with a 7–4 win over Williams College on Dec. 1. So, a Friday night trip to take on the Amherst Mammoths presented another opportunity for the Jumbos to make their mark at the top of the NESCAC standings.
Alejandro Garnacho might have scored the goal of the season against Everton, but the jitters from Argentina’s magical strike would soon fade on the back of a potentially season-defining draw in Turkey. Before Manchester United’s trip to Istanbul on Nov. 29, qualification for the knockout stage was in their hands.
I will be studying abroad in Germany next semester, so with the semester coming to a close, this will be the last Sports and Society column for at least a really long time and potentially ever. However, instead of writing some sappy introspective summation of all we’ve learned, I’m just going to keep things like they usually are and send the column out just like it came into this world: by overthinking relatively simple concepts.
The Tufts men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams had strong starts to their season at the MIT Winter Invitational over the weekend. The men’s team came in first place out of five teams, and the women’s team came in second place out of seven teams. The men’s team ended with 1,875 points, beating runner-up MIT’s 1,567.5 points. The women’s team ended with 1,348.5 points, losing to MIT by 591 points but beating third-place team Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by 512.5 points.
Five weeks into the season, we’ve had three different teams at the top of the AP poll. The University of Kansas held its own for three weeks but lost handily to Marquette University in the Maui Invitational. Purdue University held the No. 1 spot for one week, losing to an unranked Northwestern University team on Dec. 1. Now, the University of Arizona sits atop the rankings. While it has only been about a month and teams are still working out their kinks, there have been no signs of a single dominant squad in the sport.
The 2023 NFL season has been one of the most unpredictable and volatile in years, for individual players and for entire organizations. This puts many of the NFL’s major awards up in the air, so I’d like to offer my own predictions for these awards to close out the regular season columns.
In college sports, a team’s conference schedule is the most important, and usually the most difficult, part of its season. The Tufts men’s hockey team, though, has found its groove during the first few NESCAC matchups of the young season. The Jumbos defeated the Williams Ephs 7–4 on Friday and the Middlebury Panthers 4–1 on Saturday to claim their first two victories of the year. “It’s always nice to get the six points on the weekend, but also for our team morale and everything. It’s what we needed,” sophomore forward Max Resnick remarked.
The Anaheim Ducks are yet another team that is in a rebuilding process. The Ducks revolve around forward Trevor Zegras, who is an up-and-coming star, and goaltender John Gibson, who, despite being on the older side, is still playing at a very high level. Apart from these two players, the Ducks do not have any other extremely noticeable pieces on their roster, although there are a few nice role players in place, such as Adam Henrique, Alex Killorn and Troy Terry. Despite the average forward core and good goaltending, the Ducks have one of the worst defensive cores in the league, which will likely be the root cause of many losses this season. As the Ducks continue their rebuild, they are not in contention for a playoff spot, but with the vision they are trying to build on, they aim to be there soon.
For a look at baseball history this week, these are my picks for the five biggest Hall of Fame snubs in MLB history. This does not include players who have been left out due to steroid use (like Barry Bonds) or any other illicit activity (like Pete Rose).
As we enter into week 13 of the NFL regular season, the playoff picture is beginning to sharpen. While there are still plenty of spots up for grabs in the National Football Conference, the cutthroat jumble of teams stuck grappling for a wild card spot in the American Football Conference warrants a more in-depth look. With that in mind, let’s jump into where the 16 teams in the conference stand in the hunt for the playoffs.
The Anaheim Ducks are yet another team that is in a rebuilding process. The Ducks are centered around forward Trevor Zegras, who is an up-and-coming star, and goaltender John Gibson, who, despite being on the older side, is still playing at a very high level. Apart from these two players, the Ducks do not have any other extremely noticeable pieces on their roster, although there are a few nice role players in place such as Adam Henrique, Alex Killorn and Troy Terry. Despite the average forward core and good goaltending, the Ducks have one of the worst defensive cores in the league, which will likely be the root cause of many losses this season. As the Ducks continue their rebuild, they are not in contention for a playoff spot, but with the vision they are trying to build on, they aim to be there soon.
As the age-old idiom goes, “third time’s the charm.” For the No. 8 Tufts women’s basketball team, their third time out on the court each game, the third quarter, has proven this cliché to be true. For the third consecutive game, a strong third quarter in which they outscored their opponents by ten or more points propelled the Jumbos to victory, as they defeated the University of New England Nor’easters 64–50 on Sunday.
Every year, college basketball has countless tournaments on the week of Thanksgiving, and they never seem to disappoint. This Feast Week gave us not only great games but also lots of movement within the AP Poll. Here are the teams that either boosted their ranking or busted their resume.
The Jumbos stayed close to home this weekend, taking on UMass Boston at 12:30 pm on Nov. 25th. Walking into the game, the Jumbos were 4-0 and looking to maintain their undefeated streak. Meanwhile, the UMass Beacons were 1-3 and on a two game losing streak.
In 2021, the Chicago White Sox were one of the best teams in baseball, cruising to an American League Central title with a record of 93–69. Tim Anderson’s epic walk-off home run against the Yankees in the Field of Dreams game was perhaps the best moment of the entire baseball season (look it up, it’ll give you chills). Years of rebuilding the farm system were paying off. Despite a disappointing exit in the division series, the future seemed bright. Heading into 2022, the White Sox were ranked No. 4 in ESPN’s preseason power rankings.
The College Football Playoff is ridiculous. To demonstrate, let me paraphrase a conversation I heard between national analysts Danny Kanell and Ryen Russillo on the latter’s podcast about which teams deserve to make the playoff: Russillo argued that if Georgia beats Alabama, the question then becomes if Florida State should get into the playoffs over Texas, even with their backup quarterback.
What defines an NBA champion? Domination? The hard road? Historical impact? With each season ending in a new coronation, how do we compare championships over time, and determine which teams are truly the best in NBA history?
Three weeks ago, when the Tufts women’s soccer team was bounced out of the NESCAC playoffs in the quarterfinals, most people would have told you it was a long-shot for the squad to make the NCAA tournament. Yet, after analyzing the resumés of potential Pool C teams, the selection committee decided to award the Jumbos an at-large bid. Even then, people would have told you that the Jumbos would not be a tournament team for any length of time.
Soccer can be a funny game. For all of the meticulous analysis, hours spent training and constant repetitions that go into preparing for a match, the true determination of a contest’s outcome can sometimes be luck. Luck — that elusive, fickle force that can turn dreams into reality for some and bring nightmares to life for others. Unfortunately, the Tufts men’s soccer team found themselves on the wrong side of chance on Nov. 18 in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Division III men’s soccer tournament against Washington and Lee University. Despite convincing results in the first two rounds of the tournament and a 12–3–3 record across the regular season and NESCAC tournament, a cruel twist of misfortune led to the only goal of the game, meaning the Jumbos fell 1–0 to the Washington and Lee Generals and would not dance on to the Elite Eight.
