Every year, no matter who is playing well or what teams seem to be dominating the NBA, there is always debate over who should win the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the league.
Last year, the Middlebury men's basketball squad enjoyed one of the best years in the program's 92−year history. The team — which was led by NESCAC Player of the Year Ben Rudin — had cruised to its first conference title in school history and headed into the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 9 in the nation on the strength of a 24−3 record.
Outside of the awesome Phoenix Suns hat I lost when I was five, the first memories I have relating to sports all occurred in 1994. I was six then, and attended the first three sporting events that I can recall.
For the red, white and blue, the Vancouver games were a magical run. Team USA had successful results across the board, from Nordic combined to ice hockey, ending up with 37 total medals, a Winter Olympics record. It was also the first time the United States has led the medal count in the winter games since 1932 in Lake Placid. The Daily takes a look at the top five American athletes at the center of the success.
The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics contained all the excitement, heartbreak and pride necessary to make it an instant classic. Now that one of the most successful and ground−breaking Winter Olympics of all−time has drawn to a close on Sunday, the Daily takes a look ahead at the 2014 Olympics, to be held in Sochi, Russia.
In the Olympics, just like any other sporting event, there are favorites and underdogs. Some countries have established reputations of winning in figure skating and bobsled, while others are happy just to come away with a medal. During the 17 days of competition in Vancouver, streaks were snapped, and upsets were plentiful. Here are the five biggest surprises of the 2010 Winter Games.
Sidney Crosby's game−winning goal in overtime Sunday night in the gold−medal final of men's hockey against the United States was the exclamation point to two weeks of exciting Olympic action at the 2010 Vancouver games. An Olympics that started on a somber note with the tragic death of Georgian Nodar Kumaritashvilli in a luge practice run gone awry ended in jubilation for the hometown fans, who had been longing for hockey gold ever since Canada last took first in the event eight years ago.
As part of a historic day for the NESCAC, the women's basketball team was awarded an at−large bid to the NCAA Tournament yesterday afternoon by the tournament's selection committee.
The Tufts men's swimming and diving team started its season with one date above all circled on its calendar: this weekend's 12th−annual NESCAC Championships, held at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. After finishing only 237 points behind the Ephs at least year's tournament, the 24 Jumbos competing at NESCACs had high hopes that this would finally be the year that they would break through and claim their first−ever conference title.
For the ski team, the regional race usually serves as a measuring stick for the team to end its season. But for junior captain Brian Bresee, the Eastern Regional Championships from Feb. 20−21 at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire were simply another stepping stone.
After two straight weeks of friendly scrimmages without a single match, the women's squash team came away from the Epps Cup (D Division) at Yale University with a strong performance, defeating nationally ranked No. 32 Boston College and No. 28 Northeastern before falling to a talented opponent in No. 26 Columbia.
Bear with me for a second because I'm going out on a limb here. Just call me Homer Simpson about to jump Springfield Gorge. Weeks before March becomes madness, I'm making a snap judgment, and believe me that it's going to come true. Don't need facts, because this is coming from the gut.
With the NCAA Championships just two weeks away, the women's track and field team's goal at this weekend's All−New England Championships at Boston University (BU) was to qualify as many athletes as possible for the national meet.
Andrea Caruth, Women's Track and field - In the next-to-last meet before the NCAA Championships, Caruth turned in some of her best performances of the year at this past weekend's All-New England Championships. Caruth, a junior, posted a time of 58.58 seconds in the 400-meter dash, a personal record for the third-year. Yet, in running on the banked track of Boston University, Caruth's time was adjusted up by four-tenths of a second, bumping her showing past the 58.64-second provisional qualifying time necessary to race in the NCAAs in the upcoming weeks. Caruth also ran the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay squad, which turned in a ninth-place finish, 11 seconds behind first-place Connecticut. Caruth teamed up with senior co-captain Andrea Ferri, sophomore Kayley Pettoruto and junior Kaylee Maykranz to post a time of 3:59.16, though the final mark was adjusted by 1.6 seconds, which once again caused Caruth to miss the NCAA qualifying time. Caruth's efforts helped the Jumbos tie for 16th place at the meet and will have her final chance to qualify for NCAAs this weekend at the ECAC Championships.
As Olympic hockey in Vancouver took a break on Saturday, the hockey team took to some Olympic−sized ice when it visited Middlebury at Kenyon Arena for the first round of the NESCAC postseason tournament. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, Tufts struggled to find its Olympic spirit and fell 6−2 to the No. 2−seeded Panthers, ending its season and hopes for a longer playoff run.
In every season since it joined the NESCAC, the ice hockey team has never made it past the first round of the conference tournament. This year, as the seventh seed, the Jumbos have a stiff task ahead of them if they hope to break that trend.
Needless to say, it's been a strange few days for the women's basketball team.
The men's swimming and diving team started its rigorous workout schedule earlier than usual this season. Four months ago, in mid−October, senior Lawrence Chan and his fellow quad−captains were leading the team in grueling practices and weightlifting sessions.
As expected by many — due to the upcoming free agent class this summer — last Thursday's NBA trade deadline was one of the most action−packed in recent years.
As everybody knows, 2009 was a bad year for celebrities. Among the dozens of literal casualties were Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Brittany Murphy, Natasha Richardson, Dom DeLuise, Billy Mays, Steve McNair, Walter Cronkite, Ted Kennedy, Patrick Swayze and, of course, Eddie Fatu.
