Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, January 30, 2026
The Print Edition Print Subscription
Donate | About | Join Us
Advertise | Submit a Tip
Subscribe to our newsletters

Owen Short

Owen Short is a sophomore who is studying quantitative economics. He can be reached at owen.short@tufts.edu.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: The season of the first-year

By Owen Short | January 28

Saturday marked a historic day for first-year in college basketball. At 2 p.m, Houston’s Kingston Flemings dropped an absurd 42 points. An hour later, Illinois’ Keaton Wagler broke the first-year single-game scoring record with 46 points on just 17 shots, followed by BYU’s AJ Dybantsa’s 43-piece at 5:30 p.m. This marked the first time in at least the past 30 years that three first-years scored 40 points or more on the same day. It then feels like the perfect time to rank the first-years performing best at this point in the season.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: Midseason question marks

By Owen Short | January 15

We are now almost halfway through the college basketball season and there has been no shortage of storylines up to this point. With every team well into conference play, the top contenders are becoming clearer, while bubble teams are striving to build their resumes before Selection Sunday. So far, these are the most important questions regarding the state of college basketball as I see it.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: The key clashes of opening week

By Owen Short | October 29

The first day of the NCAA hoops season is less than a week away. We’ve already had our first taste of basketball, with a plethora of great NBA games kicking off the league’s opening week. Not only that, but the college preseason exhibition games have been highly competitive this year. This is almost entirely thanks to the rule change implemented in January, which allows these matchups to be streamed and officially scored for the first time.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: What to make of the preseason Top 25

By Owen Short | October 16

With about three weeks to go until the opening tip of the college hoops season, we finally have the first official Associated Press Poll of the 2025–26 season. Most of the names and general rankings aren’t very surprising, given all the time spent analyzing these now mostly finalized rosters, but ...

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: The pecking order of the Power 5

By Owen Short | October 2

Just like everything else in college basketball, the pecking order of the top conferences seems to shuffle from year to year. With the constant churn of the transfer portal and a fresh round of coaching changes, this feels like the right moment to take stock of the Power 5. The goal: to predict which leagues are poised for the most success, whether by racking up tournament bids, producing true championship contenders or simply standing out in overall competitiveness.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Columns

Moments ‘til Madness: What’s Shaping the Season Ahead

By Owen Short | September 24

The first tip-off of the 2025–26 college basketball season comes on Nov. 3. With just under six weeks left, the excitement leading up to opening day is starting to build up. Still, we don’t have official preseason rankings, schedules are being finalized and, apparently, the coaching carousel is still taking its course. While we wait for the actual basketball to start, these are the offseason storylines I found to be interesting and also important for this year of college hoops.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Sports

Moments ‘til Madness: A Feast Week frenzy

By Owen Short | December 4

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.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Sports

Moments ‘til Madness: The news to know

By Owen Short | November 19

Two weeks into the season, we are starting to see some very interesting storylines develop. With most teams having about four games under their belts, the rankings have expectedly been shaken up. Although there weren’t as many high-level matchups as I would have liked, there has been no shortage of news in the sport. These are the headlines that most stood out to me.

"Moments 'Til Madness " Column Graphic
Sports

Moments ‘til Madness: Opening week’s can’t-miss games

By Owen Short | November 7

After waiting about eight months for the first tipoff of the college men’s basketball season, we have finally made it. Although opening day doesn’t typically offer many competitive, high-level matchups, there were still some surprisingly consequential results and upsets. Most notably, No. 6 Gonzaga blew the brakes off of No. 8 Baylor, winning by 38 points.

More articles »

Trending
The Tufts Daily Crossword with an image of a crossword puzzle
The Print Edition
Tufts Daily front page