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Teams: Men's Basketball: Team
Overview
Tufts University features one of the strongest men's basketball
traditions in New England. Including the 1949-50 team that won 20
games while opposing the likes of UConn and Boston College, through
the successful tenure of Coach Tom Penders in the early 1970s, to
current coach Bob Sheldon's teams that have made three NCAA
Tournament appearances, Tufts has a well-established reputation as
one of the top programs in the region.
The 2005-06 Jumbos recorded one of the best seasons in the team's
103-year history by advancing to the NCAA Tournament Sweet
Sixteen. Their NCAA Tournament run included a clutch road victory
at Cortland State and an overtime loss to Amherst in the round of
16. Sheldon was voted as D3Hoops.com's Northeast Region Coach of the
Year. The all-time leader in victories at Tufts with a 288-190
record, he guided the team to a school record for wins with a 23-7
finish in 2005-06. Now in his 20th season, Sheldon is 12 wins shy of
300 for his career.
Members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC),
Tufts plays in the nation's most competitive small college
conference academically and athletically. The Jumbos advanced to the NESCAC Tournament championship game in 2006 and have reached the
conference tournament semi-finals in three of the last five seasons.
Tufts' conference schedule features games against national powers
such as 2007 NCAA national champion Amherst, Trinity and Williams.
The Jumbos regularly travel to play out-of-region competition and
face the best in New England during the non-conference slate. In
tournaments last year, they faced eventual NCAA "Sweet 16" teams
Rhode Island College and Stevens Institute of Technology. Playing
their home games at historic Cousens Gymnasium, men's basketball
action is a popular attraction on campus. With its arched roof and
bench seating, Cousens was built in 1932 and is one of New England's
oldest and most charming sites for indoor sports. During the summer
2005 it was featured in the NCAA News as a "One of a kind"
facility.
The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and
universities that share an academics-first philosophy for
intercollegiate athletics. Basketball players at Tufts have
consistently received recognition for their academic efforts.
Co-captain David Shepherd earned Northeast Region All-Academic Team
honors last season.
Sheldon's 1994-95 team electrified the campus, winning 20 games and
earning the program's first NCAA berth. In 1996-97, Tufts won its
final seven games to clinch their second NCAA Tournament berth. The
1999-2000 team captured the Eastern College Athletic Conference
Championship and won 21 games. A 1977 graduate of St. Lawrence
University, Sheldon has participated in nine NCAA Tournaments as a
player and coach.
Associate Head Coach and recruiting coordinator Reggie Hobbs returns
for his fifth season with the Jumbos. Hobbs is a 2000 Carleton
College graduate and has participated in three NCAA tournaments as a
player and coach. Matt Malone, a 2007 Tufts graduate, is in his
third season as an assistant with the program.
Sheldon and his staff have recruited some of the top players in the
nation to Tufts. Chris McMahon was a First Team All-American and
Third Team Academic All-American in 1995. Pat Skerry's 634 career
assists from 1988-92 is 16th best all-time. Chad Onofrio's career
free throw percentage of 86.8 from 1992-96 is 17th among the
all-time leaders in Division III. Andrew Kaklamanos and Reggie
Stovell both graduated in 2005 and played professionally in Europe.
Last year, Jake Weitzen scored his 1,000th career point as a junior
and Jon Pierce was selected Rookie of the Year by the conference's
coaches.
With the top three scorers returning, Tufts looks to get back to the
NCAA Tournament this year. Weitzen was an All-NESCAC second team
pick and Ryan O'Keefe sits just 10 points shy of 1,000 entering the
season. Pierce led the Jumbos in scoring with 16.5 points per game.
Point guard Jeremy Black has logged more than 20 minutes a game off
the bench in each of the last two seasons. Senior Pat Sullivan,
junior Aaron Gallant and sophomore Dave Beyel were leading reserves
who must step into bigger roles.
Located right outside of Boston, Tufts offers a well-rounded
collegiate experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque
small-college campus, Tufts is a major university with "an
unprecedented diversity of programs, exceptional faculty and staff,
and bright and talented students," according to President Lawrence
S. Bacow. The Athletics Department sponsors a varsity program of 28
sports that is among the most competitive in the NCAA's Division
III. Tufts finished sixth in the 2006 U.S. Sports Academy Directors'
Cup, the award presented annually to the best overall collegiate
athletics programs in the country. The University's proximity to a
world-class city renowned for its academic institutions is also a
major draw.
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