ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM Monday, December 7, 2015
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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CAMPUS LIFE
Speakers combat HIV stigma with monologues ANDREW COHEN/Daily
Engineering freshman Ben Gerton presents the blimp designed in his Engineering 100-700 class during ‘Aerospace Day’ at the FXB Atrium on Saturday.
‘U’ hosts middle schoolers for third ‘Aerospace Day’ Biennial celebration on North Campus includes hovercrafts, rocket-building
convening to build rockets and fly hovercrafts as part of the third biennial Aerospace Day. Throughout the day, the 140 middle school students in attendance rotated through a series of eight activities, and observed a blimp and hovercraft competition for University engineering students. Freshmen and sophomores in the College of Engineering constructed blimps and hovercrafts from scratch through their various
By LYDIA MURRAY Daily Staff Reporter
Middle schoolers filled the Aerospace Engineering building on North Campus on Saturday,
classes, then brought them to the competition, where they timed how long they took to fly through a course The Aerospace Day culminated with the completion of a mega-blimp built by groups of students throughout the day. Each team built a different section of the blimp, and the final product was flown at the end of the day. Engineering senior Caue Borlina, who helped organize
Wolverines to finish season versus Florida in Citrus Bowl
By MAX BULTMAN Daily Sports Editor
For the first time since 2013, the No. 14 Michigan football team will be playing football on New Year’s Day. The Wolverines announced Sunday that they will play Florida in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl at 1 p.m. on Jan. 1 in Orlando, Fla., marking Michigan’s 44th bowl game alltime. The Wolverines (6-2 Big Ten, 9-3 overall) and Gators last played in the Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1, 2008, when the game was called the Capital One Bowl. Michigan won that contest,
which was Lloyd Carr’s final game coaching the Wolverines, 41-35. The 19th-ranked Gators are coming off a loss in the SEC Championship Game to Alabama and boast a 10-3 record. Michigan, meanwhile, is coming off a loss of its own to Ohio State. Fifth-year senior quarterback Jake Rudock left that game after being sacked by the Buckeyes’ Joey Bosa, and his status is unclear against the Gators. Florida was undefeated until mid-October, when quarterback Will Grier tested positive for a banned substance. The Gators dropped their next game to LSU, 35-28, but did not lose again until the final week of the regular season, when Florida State beat them 27-2. On paper, the Gators’ offense looks like a favorable matchup for Michigan, which is 7-5 all-time against SEC teams in during bowl season.
HI: 46 LO: 35
Daily Staff Reporter
University students have hosted performances of the popular stage play “The Vagina Monologues” for years. But on Friday, the University’s Black Student Union and the National Council of Negro Women teamed up to present “The HIV Monologues.” Presented in the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the production aimed to educate students about people who are HIV-positive and destigmatize common stereotypes affiliated with the disease. The monologues were affiliated with World AIDS Day — an international movement typically held on Dec. 1 that calls on the world community to sup-
port those diagnosed with HIV, remember those who have died from the disease and rally support behind efforts aimed at prevention and treatment. Friday’s event featured a mix of spoken-word monologues and personal accounts of those who have been affected by HIV in some way. This is the second time the BSU and NCNW have organized the HIV Monologues; the first occurred in winter 2014. LSA juniors Williamena Kwapo and Micah Griggs, members of the NCNW and organizers of the event, said they decided to bring the event back after realizing how important it was to discuss HIV issues with the campus community. Kwapo noted that college students rarely discuss the largescale effect of HIV, and Griggs said this silence often lends itself to the recycling of uninformed, negative stereotypes. “There’s definitely a negative connotation associated with HIV, and there’s definitely a stigma See HIV, Page 3A
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
In memory of fallen rock star Scott Weiland Stone Temple Pilots frontman passed away at age 48 By JAMIE BIRCOLL Senior Arts Editor KRISTINA PERKINS/Daily
University alum Dieter Burrell, an employee at the UM Institute for Social Research, browses for handmade holiday gifts at the annual Ann Arbor Potters Guild Winter Sale on Saturday.
Detroit Partnership raises funds for food, appliances Students volunteer at ‘One Stop Shop’ event for Redford, Brightmoor areas By JACKIE CHARNIGA Daily Staff Reporter
DETROIT — Seventy percent of the people who reside in Brightmoor, a neighborhood on
On the offensive WEATHER TOMORROW
By TANYA MADHANI
POT TE RY PU RCHA SES
FOOTBALL
Gators, Wolverines played in same game in 2008, when Michigan won, 41-35
the event, said the day’s activities sought to increase exposure of the aerospace field. “We want more people to study aerospace engineering,” he said. “The greatest thing is we have 90 volunteers from the department … The energy is great, and we hope to share that energy with the parents and students.” This year, the event filled up within 36 hours of the See AEROSPACE, Page 3A
Event intended to tie with World AIDS Day advocacy efforts
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Detroit’s far west side, live below the poverty line, according to Karen Plants, executive director of the Redford Brightmoor Initiative. Saturday marked the 13th annual One Stop Shop, a charity event in which appliances, winter clothing, food and toys are distributed to residents who reside in Brightmoor and neighboring Redford. This year, the Detroit Partnership, a University
student group, helped distribute donations to more than 300 families. The event was held at the Brightmoor campus of the Redford Aldersgate United Methodist Church. The drive was organized much like department store, though all of the items are free. All clients were paired with a personal shopper and are provided a full grocery bag of food. There was See DETROIT, Page 3A
When you look up Stone Temple Pilots on iTunes or Spotify, and you look at the suggested or similar artists, you’ll see Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and Aerosmith — all bands that STP is not nor ever could be. They lack the crunch of Alice in Chains, the flair of Aerosmith, the prowess of Zeppelin, the influence of the Stones, the political charge of Pearl Jam and the range of Soundgarden. And because their sound is so derivative of all of these other bands, STP are incredibly easy to mock, write off and forget. STP hasn’t aged well, and its music lies perpetually stuck in the early ’90s. Their songs are the ones you’ll hear played on the few remaining adult alternative radio stations, whose listeners See WEILAND, Page 6A
Michigan won two high-scoring affairs, one in a shootout
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News
2A — Monday, December 7, 2015
MONDAY: This Week in History
TUESDAY: Campus Voices
DINO DIGS
WEDNESDAY: In Other Ivory Towers
THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
Judge upholds admissions policy
LSA sophomore Franny MeLampy demonstrats how a clovis arrow head scored a rib bone at the University of Michigan Natural Science Museum on Sunday.
U.S. District Judge Patrick Duggan ruled that the University’s policy of using race as a contributing factor in undergraduate admissions was constitutional. The lawsuit upheld the use of affirmative action, but made the grid system of admissions — in which an applicant’s grades and test scores were plotted on a graph and are assigned a number denoted whether they should be admitted or not — unconstitutional. That’s because a minority student with the same grid scores as a white student could make the cut due solely to race. The grid system had already been replaced in 1998
in favor of a point selection index. The selection index system awarded applicants points based on a variety of criteria, including race. When a student earned more points, their chances of admissions increased. The case was brought before the court by the Center for Individual Rights on behalf of Jennifer Gratz, a white in-state undergraduate applicant who was denied admission to the University. “In regards to the plaintiffs, it’s a total victory. In regards to the case, it’s a partial victory,” Curt Levy, CIR director of legal and public affairs, said after the ruling. Then-University Provost
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
WHAT: Student prints, drawings, ceramics and metal work will be for sale. WHO: University Library WHEN: Today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: Duderstadt Center, Gallery
Community partnerships workshop WHAT: Through activities with Ann Arbor organization leaders, participants will learn how to prepare for community or social justice work. WHO: Ginsberg Center WHEN: Today from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. WHERE: Ginsberg Center
Student quartet recital
Free movie screening
WHAT: Students will perform songs from a variety of different composers in this quartet recital. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance WHEN: Today at 8 p.m. WHERE: Walgreen Drama Center, Stamps Auditorium
WHAT: A screening of the movie, “Autism in Love.” WHO: The Trotter Multicultural Center WHEN: Today 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. WHERE: The Trotter Multicultural Center
WHAT: The latest findings regarding mental health symptoms and services in college populations from the Healthy Minds Network will be presented. WHO: Population Studies Center WHEN: Today from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: 6050 Institute for Social Research
WHAT: Justin Berg will speak about improving the selection and rejection of novel ideas in organizations. WHO: Michigan Ross Center for Positive Organizations WHEN: Today 4:30 p.m.to 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Ross School of Business, 6th floor
Caribbean symposium
WHAT: A panel and performance on the potential of Caribbean studies and the sugar industry. WHO: School of Music, Theatre & Dance WHEN: Today from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: 100 Hatcher Graduate Library
WHAT: Kyle Hyndman of the University of Texas will present a seminar on risk in economics. WHO: Department of Economics WHEN: Today at 3:30 p.m. WHERE: North Quad Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@ michigandaily.com.
Guest speaker discusses Arab, Zionist identities By RIYAH BASHA Daily Staff Reporter
About 30 students gathered in the Trotter Multicultural Center on Sunday to hear from Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, an Arab Zionist who discussed his experience living in Egypt during the Arab Spring. Mansour, now an assistant professor of Hebrew Studies at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., delivered a talk titled “Surviving Tahrir Square: An Egyptian’s Story of the Revolution.” Though Mansour’s remarks touched on his imprisonment during the
Arab Spring, a large portion of his speech was also dedicated to advocating for Zionism — broadly defined as a movement supporting the existence of a Jewish state — and condemning radical Muslim movements. Mansour was born into an Arab Muslim family. He said, as a Zionist, he has very different political views from the majority of those who identify as Muslims. He said he felt constantly threatened while living in Egypt, due to the conflicting nature of his Arab Muslim and Zionist identities. During the Egyptian Revolution, Mansour said he was imprisoned for his pro-Israel views. He sought asylum in the United States in 2012, where he now resides. “I started to learn Hebrew and learn about the Jewish people and their history,” he said. “For the first time, I started to expose myself to resources and
historical sources way different than the sources I had been exposed to as a child. And these stories made much more sense than the ones I had heard about Jews being a ‘super-villain.’ The first time I heard the definition of anti-Semitism, I immediately recognized it because it was everywhere around me. I read for the first time about Jews not as Zionist soldier pigs, but as mothers and fathers. These stories made much more sense and explained reality better.” Mansour repeatedly emphasized the importance of discussion and education about Israeli causes on college campuses. He specifically called out the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement as antiSemitic. “I wish that things like BDS can be called out for what they are, which is bigotry,” Mansour said. “And American campuses, because of their diversity, should be the places where this dialogue starts.” The divestment movement, set in motion on the University’s campus by the organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, has gained widespread attention in the last two years, particularly as resolutions — which would have called on the University to divest from companies that some say facilitate human rights violations in Israel — were proposed in Central Student Government. Mansour said though many American Muslims as moderate, he wants to see American Muslims take more responsibility for those who subscribe to more radical interpretations of Islam, particularly in light of the recent shooting in San Bernardino — the Dec. 2 attack in which two shooters who were potentially inspired by ISIS killed 14 people during an employee holiday party. Read more at michigandaily.com
Nancy Cantor called the ruling “an unequivocal victory for (the University).” The case, Gratz v. Bollinger, was eventually appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a controversial 6-3 ruling in 2003, the court decided that the point selection index system’s automatic awarding of 20 extra points to underrepresented minority applicants was unconstitutional. In a separate case, the court ruled the University Law School’s narrow use of race as one of many factors in selecting a class of students. But by 2006, Michigan residents voted to ban the use of affirmative action in admissions. — TIMOTHY COHN
THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW TODAY
Mental health Positive links Economics seminar presentation speaker
Egyptian activist, imprisoned during Arab Spring, talks Israel advocacy
FRIDAY: Photos of the Week
15 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (DEC. 14, 2000)
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Student holiday art show
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Former President Jimmy Carter announced to a Sunday School that his cancer is now gone, the Atlanta JournalConstitution reported. In August, melanoma lesions were discovered on his brain and they are now gone.
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The Michigan hockey team opened Big Ten play over the weekend, beating Wisconsin, 6-4, on Friday and following it up with a 7-6 shootout win on Saturday. Justin Selman scored three goals on the weekend.
3
After yelling, “This is for Syria,” a man attacked three people with a knife at a London underground station Saturday, BBC News reported. Police are investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. All victims survived the attack.
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ANDREW COHEN/Daily
Interarts juniors Sophie Goldberg, Emma Bergman, Mia Massimino and Eliza Cadoux perform an art piece as part of the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition at the Stamps School of Art and Design’s Slusser Gallery on Friday.
PICKING OUT POTS
KRISTINA PERKINS/Daily
Ann Arbor resident Karen Moore browses for gifts at the annual Ann Arbor Potters Guild Winter Sale on Saturday.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE “What we think important, both on campus and nationally, is that whatever the terrorist threat ISIS poses, it can never justify discrimination against Muslim Americans.” Statement from the University’s Chapter of the College Democrats after President Obama’s address from the Oval Office on combating terrorism
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News
Monday, December 7, 2015 — 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
‘U’ architecture dean search comittee selected University Provost Martha E. Pollack appointed an advisory committee Friday that will oversee the search for a new dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. The committee will present a slate of potential candidates curated from a broad search. Current dean Monica Ponce de Leon will step down from her position at the end of the year to become the dean of the School of Architecture at Princeton University. Robert Fishman, a professor in the school, has been appointed interim dean, and will serve until June 30, 2016. Margaret Dewar, professor of urban and regional planning and faculty director of the Real Estate Development Certificate Program at Taubman College, will chair the committee.
Study finds online classes appeal to affluent students John D. Hansen, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University’s School of Education, found that free online courses may not be increasing access to education as much as some may have believed, according to the New York Times. In a study, Hansen and his colleagues analyzed registration and completion patterns in massive open online courses at Harvard and M.I.T. They determined that those living in affluent neighborhoods were more likely to register and complete these courses. Hansen said despite these findings, most students enrolled in online courses are not very affluent, and that courses could be better designed so that lower-income students would find them more appealing and accessible.
Report finds widening racial gap in graduation rates The Education Trust released a report Wednesday that found, though graduation rates are increasing for minority students at several public universities, they are not growing as fast as the rate for white students at any time in the 21st century. The racial graduation rate gap at public schools in the study was large: For white students, it was 64.2 percent, and for minorities, it was 50.1 percent, according to the Washington Post. Andrew H. Nicholas, a coauthor of the report, said these racial gaps should be included in the current dialogue about race that has been prevalent on college campuses.
Obama vows to defeat ISIL in Oval Office Address In the wake of what he called the largest terror attack in the United States since 9/11, President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office to calm the American public and promulgate his administration’s strategy to quell extremism and related threats. This was the third time the president delivered an address from the Oval Office during his two terms in office. Obama said the recent assault in San Bernardino, Calif., was an act of terrorism that was inspired, but not expressly directed, by ISIL. In the address, the president urged Americans not to turn to discrimination in times of fear. He also asked American Muslims to openly reject extremism, reaffirming a point he has often made that the Islamic faith and the extremism touted by groups like ISIL and Al Qaeda are anomalies.
—SAMANTHA WINTNER
GRANT HARDY/Daily
LEFT: Elizabeth James, program assistant for the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, speaks during the HIV Monologues at the Museum of Art on Friday. RIGHT: LSA seniors Brandon Grant and Lauren Ingram perform during the HIV Monologues, which was hosted by the National Council of Negro Women and the Black Student Union at the Museum of Art on Friday.
HIV From Page 1A with HIV,” Griggs said. “This event’s purpose and its mission are to destigmatize those negative perceptions.” As a result, Kwapo said, the event was meant to provide a constructive forum where students could be exposed to others’ nuanced, firsthand experiences with HIV. “We want it to be a learning experience, and we really aim for students to know actual facts about the disease and to not look at someone who’s HIV positive and just assume the worst of them,” she said. Among these speakers was Leon Golson, the director of prevention programs at Unified — an organization formed with the merger of AIDS Partnership Michigan and the state’s HIV/ AIDS Resource Center. According to a press release, Unified serves 10 counties in Southeast Michigan where 63
DETROIT From Page 1A no criteria for admission. After families waited in the pews until their appointment time, no area of the church was off limits. Appliances were being distributed in a room across from the chapel, and volunteers served a free meal in the kitchens housed beneath the church. Personal shoppers acted as guides to families shopping, serving lemonade and cookies to those in line. One shopper in attendance, who asked to not be named, said she was using One Stop Shop for the second time. After losing her job last year, she said the event helped eased the financial burden of buying her grandkids gifts for the holiday. LSA senior Danielle Wallick, major events director for The Detroit Partnership, said it was her second time working at One Stop Shop, and noted this was the first year organizers implemented timed appointments to ease the shopping process. “Last year people would just start lining up at 6 a.m. or earlier and that’s how it’s been for like the past 10 years,” she said. Wallick added that, though people can sign up for an appointment time the day of the event, most appointments were made a month prior. Beside collecting food and clothing on campus, The Detroit Partnership launched an online campaign to help fund the purchase of appliances and toys for One Stop Shop. “Last year we raised almost $2,500,” Wallick said. “This year,
AEROSPACE From Page 1A registration launch, drawing students from several local middle schools, the Boy Scouts and a student electronics club from Midland, Mich. Engineering junior Miranda Peterson said she decided to volunteer for Saturday’s event because she thought she would have enjoyed it as a child. “When I was a kid, I would have loved to have a day like this — a day to hang out with college kids and see what
percent of Michigan residents living with HIV reside.” Golson, who is afflicted with HIV, shared his experiences with the diagnosis, and provided tips for preventing the spread of HIV. “That’s what I have in my body right now, HIV, slowly but surely trying to chip away from my immune system,” he said. “A healthy T-cell count runs anywhere from about 800 to 1,200. My T-cell count is holding steady between 700 to 800, so far so good.” Golson said while most people know that wearing a condom or abstaining from sex can prevent HIV, diagnoses are still widespread, despite this knowledge. “Why is it that about a month ago we had to diagnose a young person?” he said. “This young man was 24 years old and we’ve been studying this for 30 years. He knew the answer to (how to prevent HIV), so what is going on? There’s a lot more to it than just using condoms. There’s a lot more to it than just saying no and
it’s those issues that we need to talk about. Being HIV positive does not take place in a specific vacuum.” Golson encouraged students to share information they learned from his presentation with their friends, and with as many others as possible. “One of my take-home messages for this group is, first of all, please share this information with the folks that aren’t here,” he said. “This auditorium should be filled to capacity, but it just reflects where people are in regards to this issue.” Kwapo was also a speaker at the event, sharing anecdotes from a trip she took to Ghana. While there, Kwapo said, she was surprised by how little the disease was talked about given that HIV has significantly impacted the country. “What I want people to get from this event is that it’s OK to talk about it,” she said. “We talk about things like cancer all the time, so why is this disease such a horrible thing to even men-
tion?” Griggs said the event’s monologue format conveys the disease from a more personal, human source and, therefore, was intended to be more compelling than a normal lecture might be. “We definitely wanted to take a different approach through creative expression, to make people more comfortable and also to tell a story,” she said. “We hope that people enjoy these monologues, but that they also learn a lot and then teach it to their friends and whatever community that they belong to.” LSA junior Kennedy Clark said she thought the performance touched on issues relevant to the campus community. “I feel like we still think of AIDS and HIV as something that’s part of the past rather than something that’s still an issue, despite its history,” she said. “It’s important, just because of the fact that we’re risky individuals and we’re in college, and I just think it’s a good time and place.”
LSA junior Merin Paul attended the event in preparation for an Alternative Spring Break trip focused on HIV and AIDS. “The reason a lot of people don’t know about it is because there’s such a stigma attached to the whole issue,” she said. “The stigma is not knowing how you can be protected, how can you prevent the disease and how you can live with HIV successfully for a long time. So much has changed since when people didn’t know how to treat it and people just spread awareness and learn more about it.” Paul said it was important for college students to attend the event in order to put HIV-positive individuals and their experiences into perspective. “You’re meeting so many people in college every single day,” she said. “You don’t know their backgrounds, but having HIV doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with someone or can’t interact with someone. I think that’s something that everyone should understand and accept.”
I was completely shocked and amazed when I saw that we had raised over $4,200.” The Redford Brightmoor Initiative, which organizes the event each year, is a nonprofit sponsored by the Redford Aldersgate United Methodist Church. Additional funding for One Stop Shop comes from Eagles for Children, a nonprofit that partners with area country clubs to raise money for disadvantaged children. Often, the money from Eagles for Children goes specifically toward acquiring toys for One Stop Shop. This year, Plants said she made sure the event also put an emphasis on the collection of children’s coats and boots. “Every time a member shoots an eagle, which is a golf term, every member chips in two dollars,” Plants said. “We had a grant from in the past to buy toys, but this year we expanded it to coats and boots, which I just think is really needed in this neighborhood.” Reverend Jonathan Combs has been with the parish since July, and helped facilitate the event. Though he has only been with the community a short time, he said he has gained an understanding of the unique challenges of a poor urban neighborhood. “We’re a poor neighborhood, but not poor in spirit,” said Combs. The church’s former reverend, Courtney Williams, created the Brightmoor Free Store last year — a program inspired by the One Stop Shop — which offers clothing and food to community members every Saturday from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. “Folks come not only to
get free stuff, but they come for community, to be a part of friends in the neighborhood,” Comb said. “And we’re all neighbors.” Plants said Brightmoor’s church community is one that takes care of its own. “Half the volunteers here today are from the neighborhood, and I have a faithful core of volunteers that are here every week,” Plants said. “Whatever needs to be done, they show up. They feel it’s important to give back for the blessings they’ve received.” Plants added that she was afraid there would not be enough donated items to serve the community’s demands, but said the people who care about this community — University students included — had come through incredibly. She said University students came out to volunteer both the night before and the day of the event. Public Policy senior Kristy Landis is a member of The Detroit Partnership’s executive board. Throughout the year, Landis said, the partnership volunteers with programs for Detroit communities, schools and sports teams. There are eight or nine programs in Brightmoor which run once a week during the school year. “Brightmoor is a pretty small community in Detroit, but it’s one of the most blighted,” Landis said. “It’s a really important way to make sure that so many members of the community have a better holiday.” While community service
is important, Landis said it’s important that volunteers are mindful of the implications of entering a community like Brightmoor for just one day, as opposed to a more long-term immersion in the neighborhood. “The need for that area and the concerns they have are very different than mine living in Ann Arbor,” she said. “I think it’s very important for people to see that firsthand.” Wallick said she was glad
The Detroit Partnership gets to be a part of this event, but cautioned against overstating the University’s involvement. “It’s the community that’s running it, we’re just here to service-learn, which is part of our mission statement,” Wallick said. “ I don’t think that it works as well when outside people come in and try to do their own events and stuff. The community has to take the lead.”
they get to do and learn about engineering,” she said. “For me, I would have just loved to do this, so since I’m in a spot where I can help out, I took that opportunity.” Engineering senior Kathryn Shepherd said volunteering provided an opportunity to expose young students to aerospace engineering. “It’s been really fun,” she said. “It’s really cool to give the kids the hands-on experience working with engineering and kind of push them toward (the) aerospace route because not a lot of kids do that.”
Opinion
4A — Monday, December 7, 2015
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DIVEST AND INVEST | VIEWPOINT
It’s time to divest
It’s been quite the semester for Divest and Invest, the student group campaigning for the divestment of the $1 billion the University endowment has invested in the fossil fuel industry. The fight for divestment extends far beyond campus, and the movement as a whole is building steam. Around the world, over 500 institutions have divested $3.4 trillion, and in the past 10 weeks alone, 100 more pledged to divest, according to Fossil Free. Leonardo DiCaprio, the University of Massachusetts and Allianz, the world’s largest insurance company, are among recent divesters. Just this week, Bill Gates and other philanthropists announced plans to create a groundbreaking renewable energy fund, highlighting the other equally important side of the Divest and Invest equation. People the world over consider divestment worthwhile, but the campaign at the University has met much resistance from the administration. At a meeting with Divest students last August, University President Mark Schlissel said that our $10 billion endowment isn’t a political tool. Not a political tool? We at Divest were a little confused by that logic, and Naomi Klein, an environmental journalist, activist and best-selling author of “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate,” agrees. Klein spoke at Rackham last month, and when we asked her how she would respond to our administration, she said, “Get on the right side of history … Being apolitical in the face of this crisis is not one of the options available to us.” Frankly, the University’s argument is nothing more than an excuse to pursue a path that may seem easier but is morally unacceptable. An investment is an unquestionable show of support; a politically neutral investment is an impossibility. Just two weeks later, the Senate Assembly gave our campaign its stamp of approval, voting to endorse a resolution that calls for the formation of a committee under the University’s Board of Regents committee to investigate divestment. This decision echoes that of CSG from last year, which voted 32-2 to endorse the committee. Taken together, these developments have important implications. Here’s why: For an issue to merit the formation of a committee to consider divestment at the University, a three-pronged precedent must be met. We’ve already covered two prongs, showing that the activities of the fossil fuel industry are antithetical to the University’s core values and that the fossil fuel industry is uniquely responsible for the underlying issue of climate change. All that remained was proving a consensus on campus surrounding the underlying issue — in this case anthropogenic climate change — and the CSG and Senate Assembly resolutions accomplish precisely that. Therefore, we have now used every democratic tool at our disposal to push for the formation of this ad hoc regents committee. How has the administration responded, you may ask? With deafening silence. Silence isn’t particularly conducive to progress, so we showed up to the last regents meeting to remind the administration that ignoring our requests won’t make us, or this issue, disappear. Supporters of Divest packed the meeting room, applauding loudly as campaigners reminded the
JOE IOVINO
regents of their duty to form a committee and asked them to honor a simple request to meet with campaign members, so that Wolverines may share the pride of those who have already chosen to stand on the right side of history. Paralleling our work, 195 countries are currently meeting at the COP21 conference in Paris to discuss the creation of binding climate change legislation. This meeting has the potential to create a global climate change agreement. The beginning of COP21 was met by movements in Paris and other parts of the world. These activists aim to pressure our world leaders to become more sustainable and create legislation to curtail the negative effects of climate change, and some have personal stakes in the issue, such as a poet and climate activist from the Marshall Islands who is calling for fossil fuel divestment in fear of seeing the beautiful country disappear under rising sea levels. Others are simply trying to urge public institutions to create policies that will mitigate climate change. When it comes to climate change activism, the University has not been left out. To show solidarity with those fighting for climate justice in Paris, Divest and Invest is hosting a Pledge to the Planet Climate Action Week. The week coincides with COP21, allowing students an opportunity to engage with our campaign to create a fossil fuel-free future and mitigate climate change. This Action Week kicks off this Monday, so stop by the Diag to learn more about the events this week, and create your own personal pledge to sustainability. Tuesday, we’re hosting a panel discussion at 5:30 p.m. in Room 1040 of the Dana Building, in which climate professionals will discuss the implications of COP21. Wednesday, there will be a free screening of the documentary “Merchants of Doubt” at 5 p.m. in the same location. Thursday and Friday, we ask students to spread knowledge on climate change activism by talking to friends and preparing for Saturday’s Michigan Climate March. The Michigan Climate March creates an opportunity for members of the community to send a message to the state of Michigan. Fossil fuel use must be curtailed in order to create a sustainable society. The dangers of climate change are quite real and affect people, even in our own state. Taking part in climate activism at home allows students to stand in solidarity with activists across the world. Together, we can create a community that pressures world leaders to develop policy that mitigates climate change and protects vulnerable populations. Furthermore, as leaders meet in Paris to discuss a just transition to this clean future, we must push for the state of Michigan to do the same. It is time our community takes a stance in solidarity to pressure our world leaders and our public institutions to stop their negative practices. Students and members of the community have an amazing opportunity to fight for a more sustainable future, and as members of this society and residents of this planet, it is our responsibility to do so. Anna Silver and Max Lubell wrote this piece on behalf of the Divest and Invest campaign.
E-mail joe at jiovino@umich.edu
Student evaluations: Treat with caution
Not too long ago, researchers at a large Midwestern university arranged to have a speaker give the same lecture to 154 undergraduates enrolled in eight sections of a required course. Or almost the same lecture: One small detail was different in half of the sections, so let’s call them lecture A and lecture B. Afterward, the students filled out a “teacher evaluation form.” The first part asked about the teacher’s competence and character, the second one asked how much the students had learned. Part three consisted of four open-ended questions. Most students had good things to say about either lecture: 97 percent of them had some positive comment on lecture A, 96 percent on lecture B, though lecture A received more positive comments than lecture B (412 vs. 339). When it came to negative comments, though, a starkly different picture emerged: Just 30 percent of the students had critical things to say about lecture A, but 79 percent disliked something about lecture B. Lecture A received a total of 52 negative comments. Lecture B, 205 — almost four times as many. So what was the difference? Same lecture, same speaker, same class. But in lecture A, the male teacher referred in passing to “my partner Jennifer.” In lecture B, he casually mentioned “my partner Jason.” The result? Students reported that they had learned much less from the “gay” teacher than from the “straight” teacher: On a 10-point scale, the mean for the purportedly gay teacher was 5.85; for the purportedly straight one, 8.51. And in response to the question of whether the school should hire the instructor, an overwhelming 93 percent of students would have “unquestionably” hired his straight incarnation. But just 30 percent of students said they “might” hire the gay one, with a paltry 8 percent saying “definitely.” Would the same shocking picture emerge at the University now? I sincerely hope not. But we don’t know: The University does not collect data on our faculty’s sexual orientation (thank you, University). And even if it did, it would not tell you very much: Only controlled, randomized studies like the one above can give you any reliable insight into the effect bias has on student evaluations. And we have not done such studies at the University. If we had, we would have looked at gender, race and national origin. Or even (though I shudder to think how) at “attractiveness” — hot teachers (please insert your own scare quotes) get better ratings. There’s a reason Rate My Professors openly (and repugnantly) invites students to comment on their professors’ looks. Of course, none of us believe that we are those people who would judge a teacher on the basis of his or her skin color, ab definition, erotic preference or comic timing. But I know this: If our more than 40,000 students (or our thousands of faculty, staff and administrators) were free of misogyny, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia and whatever other bias you are worried about (if you worry about these things, as I believe we should), an army of social science researchers would descend on our lovely town to study this unicorn population. Last month, the Daily published a well-balanced piece on our current collective discussion about publicizing course evaluations. Here is one paragraph that caught my attention: “(Mika) LaVaque-Manty said based on his research, individual bias due to gender and race is evident in classrooms, both in openended comments and quantitative measurements. However, he also stressed that those biases tend to disappear from the overall quantitative data, except for some instances of gender bias appearing when data is analyzed at the departmental level.” I have the highest respect for my colleague Mika, but I’m not sure
what to make of this. Bias does not “disappear”; it only gets masked. A faculty member who receives lower rankings because she is Black, or gay, or wearing a hijab will not feel any better because a cursory look at aggregate data paints a rosier picture. But unconscious bias and the much rarer instances of open bigotry are not the only reasons we should think very carefully about student evaluations, and even more carefully about making them public. Study after study confirms that the strongest correlation between rankings and teaching is a single measure: “My expected grade is…” This is true at the University, and it is particularly true at the polar ends: On average, the most lenient graders get the highest rankings (which doesn’t mean that leniently graded classes cannot be fantastic for all sorts of reasons), the harshest ones get the lowest rankings (and again, a strictly graded class could of course also be sub-par for any number of unrelated reasons). This is not surprising: Why would you rank highly a professor who just messed up your GPA? Why would you not think kind thoughts about the one who made your life easier? And why would you not want to know in advance which is which? According to the research, the quickest way to improve your student evaluations is to give everybody an A. Or to cynically game the system. One faculty member told me, to my horror, “Oh, I grade the midterms really leniently and then I hit them on the final, after they hand in their evals.” Students have told us that they are particularly interested in the answers to two questions: “expected grade” and “workload.” I get it. It’s perfectly legitimate to try and balance your workload. It’s perfectly legitimate to worry about your GPA. But it is less clear to me whether we, as an institution of higher learning, should assist students in finding the easiest classes. Worst-case scenario: the easier the class, the higher the enrollments, to the detriment of the difficult, challenging and perhaps uncomfortable classes that can lead to real intellectual growth. Conversely, what about faculty who’d prefer to teach smaller classes? Less grading, more time for research, right? Easy fix: Grade on a C-minus curve. If you have a thick skin and don’t care much about your public profile, your own workload just got lighter. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that good grades reflect problematic teaching or that a harsh grader is automatically a more challenging teacher — far from it. Personally, I’d be happy to do away with grades altogether. I’m also not suggesting that evaluations don’t tell you anything worth knowing or that I don’t trust the great majority of students. To be fair, I have gotten a great deal of valuable feedback from my own sets (in particular from the open comments). As a department chair, I do look at evaluations as one way to get a sense of how my colleagues are doing in the classroom. But like all my fellow chairs and like everybody I know who is engaged in hiring or promotion decisions, I treat that information with considerable caution, as data that needs to be read in context. That said, I believe strongly that students should be able to find out more about the classes they are taking. But student evaluations are just a small piece of the puzzle, and not a particularly reliable one. In fact, a task force at the University recently concluded that “in courses (with) fewer than 50 students, regardless of the response rate, the evaluation is close to random.” Since just 18 percent of our classes enroll more than 50 students, that means that in 82 percent of them, the evaluations may tell you next to nothing about the quality of the education you are likely to receive. In my personal and entirely unscientific experience, this rings true. I got one of my highest ratings ever for a class that I know was terrible. Not
because I don’t generally care about teaching, but because my brother had just died, and I was consumed by grief. So this time around, I did not care much about teaching. I didn’t care much about my students. I didn’t care much about anything at all. I graded on auto-pilot. I gave almost everybody an A, not because I wanted good evaluations but because I didn’t want to punish students for what I knew was my problem, not theirs. If my evaluations had been public, you would have learned that most of my students “strongly agreed” that they had attended an “excellent class” by an “excellent teacher.” They did not. They had attended a badly prepared and badly taught class by a very sad teacher whose thoughts were elsewhere. Is there better information out there? Not really — and that’s a significant problem that students should indeed clamor to see addressed. Here is what I believe would help: first, a required link to a detailed syllabus for each course listing; second, a required substantial course description detailing the goals of the class, the material to be investigated, the balance between lecturing, discussion and engaged learning activities and the nature of assessments; and lastly, significantly improved academic advising (my daughter waited three months for an appointment and only got help after I sent a note complaining about the fact that her e-mails went unanswered). All of that would provide information much more important than access to a set of data that is likely quite random, pervaded by bias, tied to grade inflation, measuring nobody-quite-knows-what and likely to create anxiety and even public shame in a good number of perfectly wonderful faculty members, particularly vulnerable ones, such as lecturers or untenured professors. I should stress that I am not opposed to giving students access to these data, in the context of good academic advising, as long as everybody knows what they can and cannot tell you. But don’t kid yourself: Doing so will not improve teaching at the University; it actually might do the opposite. Instead, we should work together to find better ways to assess teaching and better ways to share information about courses, and, perhaps most importantly, to create an atmosphere in which we treat each other with thought, care and respect. Students pay for their education, and it’s not cheap, to put it mildly. But that doesn’t mean that a college class is a consumer good like any other. Teachers are humans, and to grade them on a five-point scale as if they were a microwave oven on Amazon in and of itself runs the risk of devaluing this great shared enterprise that is the University. Teaching and learning go together. The quality of a class depends on the professor; it also depends on the students. Remember Question 3 on our evals: “I learned a great deal from this course”? To be sure, it is the professor’s responsibility to create the conditions under which you can learn a great deal. But if you are a student, whether you actually learn a great deal is also up to you. Did you do all the homework? Did you attend all the lectures? Did you turn off your cellphone during class and close out of Facebook? Were you curious and engaged? Did you treat your teacher — and the very act of learning — with respect? At present, it seems that we will thoroughly revise our current questionnaire and begin to share these new evaluation data with students beginning in Fall 2016. And to repeat, I am fine with that — provided we do so carefully and responsibly, taking into account everything we know and everything we know that we don’t know, with respect for students and teachers alike. Silke-Maria Weineck is chair of the Department of Comparative Literature, chair of the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs and a professor of German studies.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Claire Bryan, Regan Detwiler, Ben Keller, Minsoo Kim, Payton Luokkala, Aarica Marsh, Anna Polumbo-Levy, Jason Rowland, Lauren Schandevel, Melissa Scholke, Rebecca Tarnopol, Ashley Tjhung, Stephanie Trierweiler, Mary Kate Winn, Derek Wolfe
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
TV REVIEW
Monday, December 7, 2015 — 5A
FILM REVIEW
‘Very’ not funny Lacking ‘Krampus’ Guest star-heavy holiday special could use more humor By CHRISTIAN KENNEDY Daily Arts Writer
Netflix? Bill Murray? A slew of impressive guest stars including Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Michael Cera, Chris Rock and Maya Rudolph? BHoliday cheer? Sounds amaz- A Very ing, right? Not Murray quite. The best Christmas decision director Sofia Cop- Netflix pola’s (“Lost In Translation”) “A Very Murray Christmas” made was having its star pass out drunk — literally — after which, Murray awakened, flanked by Miley Cyrus and George Clooney in a newly imagined, timeworthy holiday special. Prior to his unconsciousness, Bill Murray was just getting by: The opening 75 percent of the program, while comprised of an extremely talented cast in regards to comedy, was a bore. Taking place at New York’s Carlyle Hotel, it focused too heavily on serenading the audience with mediocre performances of sometimes recognizable, sometimes daydream-inducing show tunes and Christmas classics. The outliers came unexpectedly
By BEN ROSENSTOCK
from Maya Rudolph’s old-school glamour performance of “Baby, Please Come Home,” complete with a cocktail waitress trio for backup and Jenny Lewis’s (remember Rilo Kiley?) half of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” Murray spoke the other half of the song, opting to focus his banter toward the special’s plot rather than the original lyrics — the only instance in the show’s first act when music would have been the better than comedy. When the music wasn’t good, it was bad, and when it was neither, the dialogue invited the type of laugh where there’s no laughing involved (it’s more of a harsh exhale through the nose accompanied by a quarter of a smile.) Poehler’s best moment was when she walked into Murray’s hotel room in the first scene holding what looked like a Christmas bell, but it was only to be two mini bottles of whiskey. Michael Cera was great in his Michael-Cera-playing-Michael-Cera-playing-acharacter kind of way. But, 45 minutes in, Rudolph, Jones and Rock’s comedic touches went untapped. Just when it was looking like 2015 would be a miracle-free Christmas, Bill Murray fell off the seat of the piano bench during the ensemble’s final carol, and the Christmas special of his (and our) dreams ensued — a winter wonderland featuring a white piano, kick lines of scantily dressed
reindeer and a Bill Murray who doesn’t resemble his “Zombieland” equivalent as closely. As Murray found his musical footing and his fatherly (now bordering on grandfatherly) charm in the first verse of “Sleigh Ride,” Miley Cyrus and George Clooney slid in on a white sled to bring some desperately needed magic. Clooney poured martinis on the piano as Cyrus steps in on vocals and finished out the tune alongside Murray with holiday spirit sparkling from their eyes as they dance. As the song ended, fear sets in that Murray could awaken into the dimly lit, ill-conceived mess back at The Carlyle — but no fear, the snowball kept rolling as Cyrus delivered a solo performance of “Silent Night” that left no questions about her vocal talent. She lulled through lines appropriately while belting others, filling the “sound stage in Queens” as Clooney described it. Next up was the rather creepy “Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin.” Its entertainment didn’t root from Murray’s itching delivery or the performance itself, but rather the comedic value of Clooney creeping among fake firs echoing, “Santa wants some loving.” Finally, the trio that saved Christmas comes together once more for “Let It Snow,” proving their status as the ultimate holiday entertainment once and for all — but we could have already guessed that.
TV REVIEW
‘Wiz’ delights in live special By ALEX INTNER Daily Arts Writer
“The Wiz” follows the wellknown story of “The Wizard of Oz,” and this new production featured the classic score alongside an Aupdated, sharp book by Harvey The Wiz Fierstein (who Live! wrote the book for the Broad- NBC way hit “Kinky Boots”). Zadan and Meron filled the cast with many familiar names, each of whom brought down the house during their ephemeral scenes. From Queen Latifah (“Chicago”) as The Wiz, to Mary J. Blige (“Empire”) as the Wicked Witch of the West, Amber Riley (“Glee”) as the Good Witch of the North and Uzo Aduba (“Orange is the New Black”) as the Good Witch of the South, each had a showstopping number that showcased their powerful voices. However, the standout performance was by newcomer Shanise Williams as Dorothy. She struggled in the beginning to gain momentum in her dialogue, but once she became more comfortable onstage, a star was born. She closed the show with the song “Home,” which she sang with a comparable strength and emotion to some of her more seasoned co-stars.
She sang with strength and emotion. The biggest choice Zadan and Meron made from last year was switching from a more televisionlike set to a proscenium staging — a normal stage. This choice was likely driven by this production’s Broadway aspirations, but it ended up enhancing the show’s theatricality. Instead of rotating between already-built sets, they moved on and off the stage with projections in the background. The sets were physically smaller, but more intricate with little details, especially in the Wiz’s
chamber and the Wicked Witch’s castle. The costumes were more complex, as well, and will likely result in a Tony nomination for designer Paul Tazewell when the production moves to Broadway. The proscenium staging also affected the musical numbers, with stage director Kenny Leon (who won a Tony for the latest revival of “A Raisin in the Sun”) and choreographer Fatima Robinson (“Dreamgirls”), who used the smaller space to create a more theatrical broadcast than in years past. Robinson’s choreography brought each of the numbers to life, painting pictures which looked beautiful from above. This is especially true in the number “Brand New Day,” which had high-energy dancing that couldn’t have been easy that late in the evening. Cirque du Soleil partnered with NBC on the broadcast and upcoming Broadway production, and their acrobats produced a certain dynamicism which made sequences like the tornado impactful.
I loved what I saw. Still, one of “Peter Pan” ’s biggest problems remained prevalent in “The Wiz”: the television direction, this year by Matthew Diamond (“The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure”). The change to the proscenium created grand and expansive staging, but at times, the camera failed to capture them. Instead of pulling back and letting the big dance numbers make the impact with sheer spectacle, they used close-ups and focused too much on smaller aspects of the big picture. It was confusing, especially in scenes like the Tornado. It seemed like the camera focused on Dorothy flying instead of on what the dancers on stage were doing. Despite all of the problems, about halfway through “The Wiz,” I stopped watching out of an obligation to the musical form and started watching because I loved what I saw. “The Wiz” proved to me that Zadan and Meron know what makes a good show, and I can’t wait to see what they do next year.
Daily Arts Writer
“Krampus” wants to be both a comedy and a horror movie, but it can’t quite pull off either. There isn’t much in the way of sustained dread; C+ the movie mostly relies Krampus on a few jump Rave & scares and a Quality 16 couple exciting monster- Universal fighting scenes. Pictures Laughs naturally arise from the ridiculousness of the animated toy enemies, but outside of those sequences, the movie is lacking in comedy. The film starts as a heartwarming family movie. Max (Emjay Anthony, “Chef”), a young boy who misses the way Christmas used to be, runs into trouble when his cruel cousins Stevie (newcomer Lolo Owen) and Jordan (Queenie Samuel, “Nothing Trivial”) read his letter to Santa Claus out loud. The letter expresses Max’s wish that his parents, Tom (Adam Scott, “The Overnight”) and Sarah (Toni Collette, “United States of Tara”), would love each other again. Furious and disenchanted, Max tears apart the letter, triggering a massive supernatural snowstorm focused on their neighborhood. In the early goings, “Krampus” relies on its compelling cast to entertain. Scott is always great as the straight man, and Anthony is a likable child actor, but other characters fall into stereotypical roles. Sarah is the naggy, passiveaggressive wife, rolling her eyes at her sister Linda (Allison Tolman, “Fargo”), brother-in-law How-
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
“My tongue’s thtuck!”
ard (David Koechner, “Another Period”) and aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell, “Two and a Half Men”). Howard resembles the same obnoxious-but-funny character Koechner always plays, like Todd Packer in “The Office,” and Dorothy, the sassy old grandma, gulps down peppermint schnapps. Sarah’s relationship with Linda is sweet in the few scenes when they interact, but it is never developed. The main problem is that, like 2015’s earlier horror movie “The Visit,” “Krampus” takes way too long to get going. Nothing supernatural happens for quite a while, so there’s a sense that we’re all delaying the inevitable with this bland holiday dinner. Eventually, the power goes out and Max’s sister Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen, “The Carrie Diaries”) goes missing in the snowstorm, finally introducing some horror. Still, the movie continues to wait to play its cards, showing us boring, slightly comedic scenes of waiting and coping with the power outage, instead of the exciting horror it seems to foreshadow. Visually, at least, the film is strong. Writer and direc-
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RELEASE DATE– Monday, December 7, 2015
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Supplier of fake tunnels to Wile E. Coyote 5 Dictionary entry 9 Attempt to scam using email 14 Small songbird 15 “Am __ early?” 16 Saul Bellow’s “The Adventures of __ March” 17 *One held above criticism 19 Gossip spreader 20 What push may come to 21 *Magician’s secret exit 23 1953 Alan Ladd Western 24 Subject in which Freud is studied, briefly 25 Boring routine 26 Ballpoint, for one 27 Goose egg 29 Popular thesaurus 31 Most populous continent 33 Sign offering freebies 36 Day ender on Wall Street ... and, literally, what each answer to a starred clue has 39 Hyundai sedan 40 Increase dramatically 43 Bearded spring blooms 46 List shortener, for short 48 Carry a balance 49 Lion’s lair 50 Set one’s sights on 53 Caught with a lasso 55 *Swanson frozen meal 57 Closet pests 58 Made public 59 *Traditional 62 Blinding driving hazard 63 Dam in a stream 64 Giggly Muppet 65 “Night Moves” singer Bob 66 Ginger cookie 67 Rod companion
DOWN 1 Reactions to puppies and kittens 2 Falls asleep from exhaustion, in slang 3 Pit crew worker 4 Scandal-plagued energy company 5 Like EEE shoes 6 Needing no Rx 7 Carrots and turnips 8 Bridal estate 9 Obsolescent streetcorner communication device 10 Tinted 11 Give the cold shoulder to 12 Take a break from 13 Valentine symbols 18 Not odd 22 One in a human pyramid 23 Mud bath site 24 Ordinary 28 “That’s just wrong” 30 Takes shape 32 Tavern orders 34 Round Table VIP: Abbr.
35 “Snowy” bird 37 Poisonous ornamental 38 Contract ambiguity to exploit 41 More than cool 42 VIP carpet color 43 Dog collar attachments 44 Malign 45 Wearing opposite-sex clothing
47 Gator cousin 51 Cat calls 52 “Over the Rainbow” composer Harold 54 Significant __ 56 “Able was __ ...”: palindrome start 57 Dealership sticker fig. 60 Day, in Spain 61 “u r 2 funny!”
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tor Michael Dougherty (“Trick ‘r Treat”) includes a beautiful stop-motion scene as Tom’s German mother Omi (Krista Stadler, “Lena Rais”) tells the story of Krampus, the ancient demon who killed Omi’s own parents after she lost her love of Christmas. The effects, too, are great, perfect for the campy horror vibe Dougherty wants to create. As the action scenes finally begin, the family fights off animated gingerbread men and murderous jack-in-theboxes. None of it is particularly scary, but it’s funny, at least, and fun. Krampus himself, too, is appropriately disturbing, partly because his toy minions take up most of the action and leave him a threatening hidden entity. Still, by the time things do start happening, the emotional investment is low because the movie has lagged to the point of indifference. “Krampus” entertains whenever it releases the monsters and lets chaos take over, but it remains restrained throughout most of its run time, even down to the ambiguous ending. When it comes to the horror-comedy genre, it’s essential not to hold anything back.
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Arts
6A — Monday, December 7, 2015
WEILAND From Page 1A are approaching their mid-40s, desperately trying to cling to a bygone era of stadium fuzz and shredded vocal cords. It wasn’t cool to like STP back then, but it was at least justifiable. No one could deny the big dumb greatness of “Interstate Love Song,” the plow of “Vaseline” or the stadium-sized hook of “Plush.” I have a few STP songs on my iPod, even if it’s roughly equivalent to having a Nickelback song or two (which I may or may not be guilty of — every band, no matter how awful, has one song — (except Creed). That ’90s grunge era produced some of my favorite music, and those aforementioned STP songs naturally belong there. I owe the band at least the acknowledgement that it produced some perfectly acceptable grunge-tinged rock tunes worthy of being belted out in my best ’90s rocker impression as I speed down the freeway. The death of former STP frontman Scott Weiland last week from what was likely a cocaine overdose has probably brought the band its most cultural relevance in 15 or 20 years. I imagine their first two albums, Core and Purple, will experience a brief but modest rise in sales as people pay their respects to a fallen rocker. And next week, they will remember that it isn’t cool to like the Stone Temple Pilots, and the band and
ALBUM REVIEW its legacy will drift back into obscurity and mediocrity. But we should not forget STP, or at the very least we should not forget Weiland. I won’t try to say he’s a great vocalist or try to turn you on to his music, but I would like to remind you that Weiland was a textbook junkie rock star. His death is not the least bit unexpected, and I’m surprised he made it all the way to 48.
Mythic quality of tragic artists. The older Weiland’s death lacks the shock value of the universally loved Kurt Cobain’s suicide. It lacks the prescience of Layne Staley’s demise as he withered away from heroin. He wasn’t dazzling like Amy Winehouse or influential like Buddy Holly. He’s just another rocker that burned out and faded away concurrently. It has become incredibly easy to glamourize the deaths of musicians. Their music expresses their pain and their struggle, and so an early death is the most logical, and in a twisted way, most desirable capstone to their careers — an unlikely demise cements the mythic quality of
these tragic artists. Maybe we’re sick like that, demanding our heroes to tap into emotions too strong for us, the general public, to endure, and the result is selfsacrifice. But Weiland’s death will not be glamourized. He wasn’t popular enough or young enough or tragic enough. We will not remember him for his death, and we will probably remember him only fleetingly for his life and his music. This is what it looks like when we remove the beer goggles: the deaths of rock stars are ugly, minimalist, unsurprising. Take a listen to STP’s song “Creep.” Weiland’s voice sounds like Cobain’s. And the refrain: “I’m half the man I used to be / This feeling as the dawn it fades to gray.” Read that as you will, but it sounds like addiction and heroin. Weiland gave an interview to Esquire in 2005 where he recounts the long struggle with addiction. He ends it by describing how the love of his family got him through it, how he doesn’t think about drugs anymore. Ten years later, he’s found dead of cardiac arrest on a tour bus with cocaine in his room. Addiction is, in many ways, endemic to rock stardom. It’s time we shed the glamour. We owe Scott Weiland at least that much.
STYLE NOTEBOOK
A case for new capes By MARIAM SHEIKH Daily Style Editor
An accessory once associated with the likes of comic book superheroes, the cape is the new trend among every it-person in fashion this season, both men and women alike. While for some it may be a bit too cold to get away with wearing one right now in Ann Arbor, for others brave enough to try, a cape never fails to take an outfit to the next level. Seriously, just Google it, they are amazing. Sleek, comfortable and tailored to perfection, capes are the perfect transition piece from morning to evening, class to dinner, streets to runway. Coming in an array of styles, both long and short, they can also be transitional in season. Personally, I tend to prefer the shorter versions of the cape, they are more clean-cut and don’t completely overwhelm the rest of the outfit. However, if you’re taller than me (which you most definitely are) and feel you can pull it off, the longer, fuller capes may be just for you. Go crazy, even get one with a hood, don’t worry its not as grim reaper/dementor as you would think. Let’s face it: goth is the new haute couture all over the world right now.
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In terms of color, anyone who knows me will immediately call out my bias in saying I tend to favor the darker and more neutral colors. However, a pop of color during the gray winter months could actually go a long way this season, especially in Ann Arbor right now. Now for material and pattern of your soon-to-be new cape, this can either make or break your attempts at this trend, if I am being honest. From leather, to cashmere, stripes to plaid, due to the overwhelming popularity and versatility capes have, they are basically available in any shape or form you desire. But keep in mind: heavier and stiffer materials tend to work best. This ensures the cape in line with the idea of structure and impeccable tailoring I mentioned earlier. Think of a cape as a quick-fix style staple meant to make you look more put-together, the fit is key. Anything too loose and baggy will simply make your cape look like a an oversized poncho, and while I will admit those seem to be making a comeback as well, if you are going for the effect given by a high-fashion cape, it is vastly different than the one created by a frumpy girl-next-door looking poncho. I will say, and don’t say I didn’t
warn you, there seems to be a bit of confusion among retailers and bloggers, alike, on this matter. There is a difference between a wrap and a cape, yet people use them and stores tag them interchangeably. Both accomplish the same job, but wraps tend to be more difficult to play around with since there is no enclosure. Being that you simply wrap it around your body, there’s less functionality with it. Whereas with a cape, that often has armholes, buttons and a collar, it’s akin to wearing a light jacket, but with more arm mobility. For people thinking about trying either of these trends while at Michigan, the cape is much more forgiving to a huge backpack. What I love about the cape trend even further is the fact that it is pretty androgynous. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely styles tailored specifically for women, but there are options that are just as popular with men as well. Giving off less of the classic superhero vibe and more of a Le Marais Parisian shopping district vibe. It’s clearly a very high fashion inspired trend, yet it’s easily accessible for the everyday man, woman, student, you get the gist. So I present to you the cape. It’s 2015; you don’t need to be a superhero to wear one.
ATLANTIC
Consider consciously uncoupling from the music business.
‘Dreams’ will leave you looking for more By MELINA GLUSAC Daily Arts Writer
People love to hate Coldplay. Maybe it’s lead singer Chris Martin’s inimitable voice, which does in fact sound like he has a head cold. Or C+ maybe it’s the profuse radio Head Full time the band’s of Dreams (debatably) worst songs Coldplay are allotted — you couldn’t Atlantic go anywhere in 2008 without hearing Martin weep “I used to rule the world” in the smash “Viva La Vida.” The same goes for those beat-your-head-against-a-wall piano riffs from 2002’s “Clocks.” It’s not Coldplay’s best work, and it leaves us all wondering: Does Britain really have talent? Those that love to hate Coldplay, though, should be encouraged to delve further into the band’s discography. The quartet only started to get “dodgy” when 2011’s Mylo Xyloto rolled around — prior albums (i.e. their debut, Parachutes) supply truly emotional and experimental tunes. Songs like “Yellow” and “Trouble” and “Shiver” took the ballad archetype and spun it around on its head, changing the shape of what a new-millennial slow jam could sound like for good. So whether or not you think Coldplay is abysmally vanilla, it can’t be denied that the band’s history is solid. On their latest release, A Head Full of Dreams, the Brits are reaching with every last limb to pull themselves out of history and into the now. They strive for color, and they aim for flavor, funkiness and relevancy. Sometimes they get there; sometimes they don’t. Regardless, A Head Full of Dreams is a complete thought — capped
off with a certain energetic charm that shows itself marvelously on some ditties, though, lamentably, not on all. The titular track, “A Head Full of Dreams,” opens the quasipsychedelic album with tropical drumbeats and jungle synths. It’s like U2 took a trip to Jamaica — the isolated guitars sound like classic Edge, but the intrinsic bumping rhythm of the song tells its listeners to move their British booties. “Adventure of a Lifetime” rivals “A Head Full of Dreams” on the funkiness scale, but isn’t nearly as sleek. A snicker escaped me as “Adventure” commenced: “Turn your magic on!” OK, Coldplay. I’m on it.
‘Kaleidoscope’ is like an actual kaleidoscope in that it’s a mess. Because the band isn’t groovy by nature, too often the exploratory tunes of the album fall into milquetoast MGMT territory — not a sexy place to be. “Kaleidoscope” is like an actual kaleidoscope in that it’s a mess, an incoherent conglomeration of spoken word lyrics and banal melodic lines wrapped up in a package of “pretty” colors (aka, fancy production). “Fun” with Tove Lo is not fun at all, and Martin overpowers her on the harmonies to the point where Lo is stripped of the smoky vocal zest that makes her, her — it could be anyone singing back-up with the human head cold, Martin, on this one. Beyoncé sashays into the mix
on “Hymn For the Weekend” and emits her undeniable grace — she improves every tune, even this one. It, once again, is sealed with flawless production value and turns out to be really catchy. Though Beyoncé’s super-powers are substantially underutilized (she hums a lot), “Hymn” has the potential to be another radio hit for the band. Equally carefree is “Birds,” which sounds eerily similar to The Cure’s 1985 hit “Close to Me.” But “Birds” is chipper, earthy with an apt amount of restrained psychedelia. Vanilla, in this case, is good. When all is said and done, we get back to the ballads — the songs that made Coldplay what it is. “Everglow” has been the most aggressively promoted of them all, with its nurseryrhyme simplicity and peaceful resolutions. It’s more pleasant on the ears than, say, “Army of One,” which resurrects the ne’er-missed spirit of Mike Posner. (No pseudo-hip hop, please.) “Amazing Day” is a cool waltz that builds on symphonic energy, strings and all. At first listen, it could almost be mistaken for Parachutes-era Martin and the gang. “Up&Up” pulls us out of the Amazonian abyss and into the stadium: a culmination of the album’s consistently inspiring tone, “Up&Up” works. This one’s a wave-your-lighter and kiss-your-lover type of song, the one that plays at the end of the sweaty London concert and hits all the right notes with the audience. If only all of the songs on A Head Full of Dreams emanated these vibes, these calm, imaginative and characteristic waves of sonic fuel. The song’s chorus rings: “I know we’re gonna get it together somehow.” Well, Coldplay, at least you’re hopeful.
FILM NOTEBOOK
Merits of trashy art By LAUREN WOOD Daily Arts Writer
“Dirty Dancing” is my favorite movie. Ever. Last semester, while scrolling through photos of friends’ adventures abroad, working through a fresh breakup, balancing five classes and hiding away from the subzero temperatures, I shamelessly watched it almost every week. I probably have most of it memorized by now, but still get a thrill whenever I see the opening credits start to scroll and hear the music kick in. It doesn’t matter that the plot is cheesy and the acting overdramatic — I love it, and don’t really feel guilty about that. But, I still know it’s seen as a “guilty-pleasure” movie, and I still feel some need to justify myself whenever people ask about my favorite films. The concept of a “guilty pleasure” comes up a lot when deciding what to watch on a Friday night or realizing you actually want to go see the latest rom-com at the theater. Choosing to watch something tacky or simple seems to require a disclaimer, an “I’m not as dumb as this makes me seem” tag. But why should it? What does how we relax and find entertaining have to do with feeling guilty? As a film and English major at a large uni-
versity, there’s an implicit pressure to sound smart and cultured when asked in class icebreakers or discussions to list off favorite movies, TV shows and books. We are meant to impress our professors and classmates with the level of intellectualism we require from our free-time media, and establish ourselves as serious and smart for all to see. But when actually sitting down to watch a movie or TV show, the decision of what we choose to put on versus what we profess is best may not line up exactly. Let’s look at statistics of who watches “The Bachelor/Bachelorette,” one of the seemingly tackiest reality shows on TV — overdramatized and unrealistic but wholly entertaining nonetheless. According to The New York Times, the Monday night special regularly pulls in millions of viewers, the majority of them women 18 to 49 years old. It is especially popular among those from upscale, well-educated homes, ranking 34 percent more popular than other programs put on in these households. I, frankly, love “The Bachelorette.” It is dramatic and hilarious and sad and romantic and weird all at once. I also have never seen a group of people get more heated
than when I bring up the Nick vs. Shawn debate with my housemates, an amalgamation of smart, motivated girls in pre-med, Ross, psych, women’s studies and education. Interning in the newsroom of a major national network this summer, the uber-successful women I worked under were the same, coming in every Tuesday morning ready to hash out the details of last night’s episode. What we choose to watch in our free time has so little to do with our intellect or our potential, so why do we rate it as if it does? So, to be short, I love “Dirty Dancing.” I love it for no other reason than watching it puts me in a good mood, and it’s bright, flashy and entertaining. We watch movies and TV for the spectacle. We watch them to see sex and violence played out in an enormous variety of stories and forms, and if you think that any of your favorite films aren’t revolving around these two themes, then take a closer look at them. No matter how we dress up these desires, they’re the same. We are entranced by the creativity with which these topics are approached. There shouldn’t be implicit guilt in confronting this. We like what we like, no strings attached.
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The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | December 7, 2015
On the
Offensive Michigan wins shootout to end wild game, high-scoring series By JUSTIN MEYER Daily Sports Writer
In the middle of the second period, with Michigan down two goals to an unheralded Wisconsin hockey team, pandemonium broke out at Yost Ice Arena. Four players were in the box, junior defender Michael Downing was being scolded by an official for trash-talking the Badgers players across the scorer’s table and the Wolverines had lost control. Michigan’s upperclassmen mustered a tremendous effort to win in a shootout, 7-6, but it was a frantic game in which neither side kept command for long. The shootout victory will earn the Wolverines an extra point in the Big Ten standings, but will count as a tie in the NCAA Pairwise rankings. “You don’t sing the song after a tie,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. Added Downing: “If you give up 10 goals in a weekend, you should get swept. ... Luckily our offense came up big this weekend.” The game the day after a wild, highscoring affair
is often a tight defensive contest. Saturday night, after a rollercoaster 5-4 win over Wisconsin on Friday, that adage didn’t hold true at all. Instead, momentum swings and a slew of penalties in the first period ensured neither team would leave the arena satisfied. Michigan (1-0-1 Big Ten, 8-2-3 overall) jumped out to an early two-goal lead behind a seasonbest effort from the second line. Senior forwards Justin Selman and Boo Nieves each recorded three points in the first period alone. Nieves opened the scoring less than a minute and a half into the period by shooting a dribbling rebound into See WISCONSIN, Page 3B
consin 4 s i W , 6 n ) Michiga in 6 (SO s n o c s i n 7, W Michiga
BUILDING IT UP
n Michigan looks to reach new heights. SportsMonday Column, Page 2B
UPSET LE-VERTED n Michigan rolled past Houston Baptist. Page 4B
SportsMonday
2B — December 7, 2015
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SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
Not just a pipe dream RITA MORRIS/Daily
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico finally has a roster full of her own players in her fourth season as the Wolverines’ coach. Now, she has a better opportunity to keep building with the new core.
F
ifteen minutes before the Michigan women’s basketball team played Pittsburgh in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Thursday night, a few fans stood up and cheered along with the band as it played “The Victors.” The players warmed up MAX on the floor, COHEN and a guy sitting courtside wearing a maize and blue Incredible Hulk fist held up a highlighter yellow sign that read: “Fight 4 every rebound.” The upper bowl of Crisler Center was curtained off, and empty blue chairs occupied much of the lower bowl. When the fight song ended, you could hear the players encouraging one another from the top rows of the arena. At first, the scene seems bleak, like just another chapter for a program that has historically experienced more failure than success. Michigan has never made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament or won a Big Ten
championship. But then the game begins. The Wolverines punch the Panthers in the mouth from the get-go, taking charges and taking names against a team that defeated them by 21 points last season. Michigan leads by 22 points at the half on its way to an 82-45 victory. Freshmen and sophomores score 59 of the Wolverines’ points, and Michigan improves to 7-0, tying its best start in program history. Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico, in her fourth season in Ann Arbor, is starting to see things take shape. Her first three seasons at the helm of the program saw little roster continuity, but a great deal of overachievement. She coached a senior-laden team in her first season at Michigan in 2012-13 and led it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines returned only one starter the following year, and Barnes Arico led the makeshift group to 20 wins and a WNIT appearance. Last year, the team was led by a trio of seniors in Nicole Elmblad, Shannon Smith and Cyesha Goree, who had higher expectations. But once again, they won 20 games and made the WNIT.
Now, they’re all gone, too, and Michigan must depend on its youngest players. Freshmen and sophomores have scored 72 percent of the Wolverines’ points this season. With this new core, Barnes Arico believes her building process is truly getting started. At this point, none of the players on Michigan’s roster have played for a coach in college other than Barnes Arico, and that prospect excites her. She has been preparing to coach this freshman class since she arrived four years ago. She has watched freshman guard Boogie Brozoski since she was in middle school and freshman guard Nicole Munger since she was 14. Former Michigan coach Kevin Borseth told Barnes Arico she needed to call now-6foot-5 freshman center Hallie Thome soon after Barnes Arico took the job. The three freshmen were rated in the top 100 in their recruiting class by ESPN, and they all decided to take a risk alongside Barnes Arico. She made them want to come to Michigan by telling them they could do things that have never been done before, like putting together a run in the NCAA
Tournament. That’s what she told star sophomore guard Katelynn Flaherty, who was being recruited by top schools all over the country. Barnes Arico’s plan toward this relevance hinges on one motto, and it has for all four of her years at Michigan: that the Wolverines are the hardest-working team in America. It sounds like typical coachspeak at first. What coach doesn’t think his or her team is the hardest-working? But then she keeps going. “So when we say hardestworking team in America, well, how do we judge being the hardestworking team in America?” Barnes Arico said Wednesday. “We can’t just say that. What does that mean? I want proof. We chart practice every day. How many loose balls are you getting in practice? How many charges are you getting in practice? And then we do it in the games.” For those, Barnes Arico has a sticker system. Each player is awarded stickers that are placed on a block ‘M’ for her performance and how many of the “intangible” things she does during games, like diving on the ground for loose balls and taking charges. Those are
frequently the measures Barnes Arico uses to judge her players, not points scored or assists dished out. If a player has only a few stickers, she will hear it from Barnes Arico. How could someone possibly be one of the hardest-working players in America if she has just three stickers? Barnes Arico knows she can’t yet recruit players as talented as the ones perennial powerhouses Connecticut and Notre Dame are getting, but she’s starting to sign players a step below that level. Multiple recruiting sites rank the recruiting class that will arrive next fall as one of the top 25 classes in the nation. The plan is progressing on the court, too. Flaherty is averaging 21.3 points per game. Thome starts in the low post for the Wolverines and is the team’s second-leading scorer. Brozoski and Munger are aren’t far behind, each coming off the bench as freshmen and averaging more than eight points per game. Michigan won its first seven games of this season by at least 17 points, but it knows tougher times are ahead. Sunday, the Wolverines lost to Princeton, a borderline top25 team, by 17. Four Big Ten teams
are currently ranked in the AP Poll, and Iowa is the first team out. Barnes Arico won’t put a timetable on her plan for Michigan to arrive as a major player on the national scene, but she believes it will happen. She wouldn’t have left St. John’s, where she led the Red Storm to the Sweet 16, if she didn’t hold that belief. Her goal is to make things happen for Michigan women’s basketball that haven’t happened before. Now that she has all of her own recruits in place, making a run to the Sweet 16 some day down the road in front of a packed Crisler Center doesn’t seem like such a pipe dream. “And we always talk about that when you get to that point, it’s one game,” Barnes Arico said. “And who knows what could happen?” What could happen is that maybe, just maybe, if the players who are almost talented enough work harder than everybody else, Michigan could be among the best teams in America. Barnes Arico wouldn’t mind adding that to her motto. Cohen can be reached at maxac@umich.edu and on Twitter @MaxACohen.
At Princeton, ‘M’ suffers first defeat of the season By TED JANES Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan women’s basketball team was able to redeem one of its early-season losses from last MICHIGAN 57 year this PRINCETON 74 weekend, but it couldn’t make up for both. After crushing Pittsburgh — a team that beat the Wolverines last season — on Thursday, the team couldn’t produce the same result Sunday against Princeton. Sophomore guard Katelynn Flaherty put up an impressive 33 points against the Tigers, but Michigan didn’t get much help from anyone else and fell on the road, 74-57. The loss is Michigan’s first of the season but second straight to Princeton (6-1). Last year, the Tigers beat the Wolverines (7-1) RITA MORRIS/Daily by 30 in Ann Arbor, the team’s Katelynn Flaherty scored 33 points at Princeton, but it wasn’t enough. worst loss of the season. Matching up with Flaherty for turnovers,” said Michigan coach like ‘I was there. I understand the second time in as many years, Kim Barnes Arico. “It really what you’re going through. Princeton looked fully prepared didn’t happen.” People beat me. People were to isolate the star guard. The The Wolverines turned on the physical.’ ” Tigers, though, didn’t need to press in the second quarter, but Princeton shut down freshman rely on defense, because the getting Princeton to turn the ball center Hallie Thome, usually a Wolverines were doing all the over was far more difficult than it reliable scorer. At 6-foot-5, she led work for them. was against previous opponents the nation in field goal percentage Michigan’s Achilles’ heel was like Oral Roberts and Pittsburgh. with 76.7 percent prior to the a poor shooting performance in Led by guard Michelle weekend. But Thome struggled the first half. Excluding Flaherty, Miller’s 24 points and eight against the Tigers’ physically the Wolverines shot 2-for-19 in rebounds, Princeton’s starting stronger frontcourt, tallying just the half, and until five minutes five outperformed Michigan’s. three points while shooting 25 remained in the second quarter, Three of its starters ended with percent from the floor. Flaherty was the only Wolverine double digits, while Michigan’s Michigan’s other key to make a field goal. second-leading scorer behind freshmen, guards Nicole Munger Playing catch-up all game, Flaherty was junior guard Siera and Boogie Brozoski, combined Michigan managed to bump its Thompson, who had eight. for four points and five turnovers. shooting up to 36 percent by the Michigan has just four Two of the starters — senior end, but it looked nothing like scholarship upperclassmen, and guard Madison Ristovski and the squad that was averaging 87.9 its inexperience finally surfaced. sophomore forward Jillian points per game before heading “We really looked young,” Dunston — failed to score at all. to New Jersey. Barnes Arico said. “For the first It was an ugly loss, but “We couldn’t really get time all year long we were really Princeton was also Michigan’s anything going on the offensive exposed. first actual test, and the end, so I thought maybe if “When I was in the locker Wolverines couldn’t have we changed the defense and room talking about the freshmen, expected another lopsided pressure them a little bit maybe I just see Katelynn Flaherty just win like they had become we’d be able to get anything off of shaking her head the entire time accustomed to.
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Sophomore middle blocker Claire Kieffer-Wright finished with 14 kills in five sets against UCLA on Saturday night.
Michigan’s season ends By ORION SANG Daily Sports Writer
Two sets into its second-round NCAA Tournament matchup, the Michigan volleyball team found itself up 2 2-0, one set MICHIGAN 3 UCLA away from knocking off No. 14 UCLA in Los Angeles. But the Wolverines couldn’t finish the job, losing three straight sets to drop their match 3-2 on Saturday, ending their season. It was the mirror opposite of Michigan’s 3-1 victory against Santa Clara the previous night, when it rallied after losing the first set to win three straight and advance to the second round. The loss ended a season in which the Wolverines (20-13 overall) were able to make history, beating two-time reigning national champions Penn State on the road for the first time in program history, while dealing with a flurry of lineup changes. “One of the important things about this team is that we changed our lineup around almost every match,” said Michigan coach Mark Rosen. “It gave us the opportunity to keep getting better, to keep tweaking things, and the team really responded to that.” Against the Bruins (25-7),
however, the Wolverines were unable to get the job done. Michigan was jittery to open the first set, losing the first four points before righting the ship. The Wolverines fought back to tie the score at nine before falling into another hole down 21-19. Michigan showed resilience, though, winning three straight points to take a set lead it did not relinquish, and sophomore defensive specialist Caroline Knop finished the set with a crucial kill. The Wolverines left the court pumped up after their 25-23 firstset victory, bracing for a second set that was just as tight as the first. The two teams went back and forth throughout the frame, with neither stringing together more than three consecutive points. Tied at 24, though, Knop came through in the clutch again with another kill to give the Wolverines a one-point lead before a UCLA attack error gave Michigan the set, 26-24. The Wolverines ran into the locker room poised to take the match. But when they returned, things began to fall apart. The Bruins quickly staked out to a 7-1 lead in the third set, and Michigan was unable to close the gap, losing 25-22. The fourth set was similar.
Michigan fell behind 18-13 after a series of errors, perhaps reflecting the Wolverines’ fatigue, and lost the set, 25-20. In the winner-take-all fifth set, Michigan was outmatched by a Bruins team that had momentum from the third and fourth sets. UCLA committed just two errors and tallied 12 kills en route to taking the set 15-11, earning a berth to the third round. It was a bitter ending to a season that had many ups and downs. After the loss, junior middle blocker Abby Cole reflected upon her team’s season, which, in addition to the road win over then-No. 4 Penn State, included victories over then-No. 14 Ohio State and then-No. 18 Illinois. “I’m really proud of this team,” Cole said. “We’ve done some pretty special things this season, making history like beating two top-15 teams back-to-back. It’s moments like that we’ll really hold onto, and I’m really proud of this team.” Added Rosen: “Wins and losses are huge, but how much this team has grown individually and collectively is what I’m really going to remember about this group. The hardest part is this team doesn’t get to practice tomorrow and doesn’t get to play another match.”
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December 7, 2015 — 3B
Compher, Motte power ‘M’ By KEVIN SANTO Daily Sports Writer
Six minutes into the third period Saturday, the Michigan hockey team once again found itself trailing Wisconsin on home ice. Junior center JT Compher received the puck at the Wolverines’ offensive blue line and carried it toward goal. He burst to the net from the right side of the ice, beat Wisconsin defender Eddie Wittchow to the crease and dragged the puck to his backhand before lighting the lamp to equalize the game at five. Michigan’s captain made a beeline for the left side of the rink and threw himself into the boards, leaving just a layer of plexiglass between him and the Children of Yost, who had erupted into pandemonium — injecting a newfound energy into everyone that surrounded him. “That’s JT. That’s his DNA,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. “He’s a fiery player. He’s an intense competitor. He’s a leader. He knows that if this team is going to go, he’s got to be a big part of it. He showed that again tonight.” Added Compher: “I think any hockey player wants the puck on your stick when your team is down. But we had some really big performances by a lot of guys.” One of those guys was junior forward Tyler Motte. Motte’s biggest moment came 3:22 into the third period of Friday’s matchup, as the two teams were locked at four after a seven-goal second period. After the Wisconsin defense mishandled a puck in the air, Motte made them pay, finishing the opportunity on the goaltender’s glove-hand side to give Michigan its first lead of the game. “He blocked big shots. He kills penalties,” Berenson said Friday. “He’s playing like an MVP player,
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Junior center JT Compher scored a goal and an assist in each game this weekend, with his assist going to junior forward Tyler Motte.
and he should. He’s a junior, and he knows he’s got a big role on this team. He’s earning it.” Those were just two of the momentum-swinging plays that Compher and Motte made this weekend. The duo willed the Wolverines to a five-point, Big Ten-opening series against the Badgers (0-1-1 Big Ten, 3-6-5 overall). Things were supposed to be easier for Michigan (1-00-1, 8-2-3) in its two-game stint against a Wisconsin team that was struggling to start the season. Instead, the Wolverines found themselves needing two comeback efforts in high-scoring affairs. The Badgers put Michigan on
its heels on Friday, burying three goals into the Wolverines’ net in the game’s first 26 minutes. Wisconsin held a 4-2 advantage halfway through the same frame. Even when Michigan flipped the script Saturday, with two goals in the first five minutes, the Badgers responded and claimed a 5-3 lead entering the third period. At times when the Big Ten opening weekend seemed like it would be a sour one, Compher and Motte snatched hope from the jaws of defeat. Behind their efforts, the Wolverines claimed a 6-4 victory Friday and a 7-6 shootout win Saturday — which
“It was all JT and Tyler, and good for them.”
will go down as a tie in the NCAA Pairwise rankings. Throughout the weekend, goals weren’t the only contribution that Motte and Compher made. The two looked threatening every time they had the puck and were the engines behind a Wolverine squad that looked deflated at times. “(Motte) and JT led the comeback. Let’s face it,” Berenson said. “It was all JT and Tyler, and good for them. Then our team started to catch fire.” And before every fire comes a spark — a role the two upperclassmen were more than willing to play this weekend. After a sluggish start Friday, Compher set the tone from the opening faceoff Saturday. As the two teams lined up for the first puck drop, the junior got into a small scrum at center
ice before the puck even dropped — sending the message that the Wolverines would refuse to suffer the same early fate as they did in the series opener. Motte fought hard all weekend as well, and standing at 12 points this season, already has more than a third of his total from last year’s campaign. The pair combined for six points this weekend: two goals that trimmed the Badgers’ lead to one, a tying goal and a go-ahead goal. Motte and Compher were clearly in sync, as both of their assists went to each other. The results of the weekend weren’t perfect — the Wolverines surrendered 10 goals, yet still managed to earn five points — but Motte and Compher showed that, for now, there is no task too daunting for Michigan to overcome.
WRESTLING
Wolverines take seventh in Vegas By NATHANIEL CLARK Daily Sports Writer
The No. 9 Michigan wrestling team didn’t leave Las Vegas as the big winner, but the Wolverines had a strong showing nonetheless this weekend, pinning three straight wrestlers on their way to a seventh-place finish at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas. Michigan placed four wrestlers during the event. The Wolverines’ first pin came in the 184-pound class, when junior Domenic Abounader used a leg turk to defeat Northern Idaho’s Chase Campbell 2:33 into the match. The win advanced Abounader into the quarterfinals, where he topped Ohio State’s Kenny Courts, 3-0. Abounader notched another victory in the semifinals over Virginia Tech’s Zack Zavatsky, 5-4, before he fell short against Cornell’s Gabriel Dean, 15-6. This year was the first time Abounader placed in the Cliff Keen Invitational. “(Domenic) was right there with some of the best wrestlers in the country,” said Michigan coach Joe McFarland. “He had a great tournament even though I know he was kind of disappointed with his final match. That will stoke your fire a little bit.” Not to be outdone, fifth-year senior Max Huntley got a pin of his own in the 197-pound division when he double-legged Kent State’s Kyle Conel at 4:24. Huntley went on to grab another convincing win against Northern Colorado’s Trent Noon, 7-2, before he fell to Minnesota’s Brett Pfarr, 13-3. Huntley’s loss was his first of the season. Michigan’s third pin came in
the wrestlebacks as heavyweight redshirt sophomore Payne Hayden defeated Gateway Bible Institute’s Damien Davis a mere 0:24 into the match. Hayden’s win came following a loss to San Francisco State’s Sam Alnassiri in which Hayden was pinned at 2:20. “It was good to see three pins in a row, and hopefully we can get better in that area,” McFarland said. “We’ll focus on that a little bit this week.” Sophomore Alec Pantaleo had a strong tournament performance in his own right, beating Oregon State’s Joey Delgado, 5-3, in the round of 16. While Pantaleo came up short against Oklahoma’s Davion Jefferies, 8-1, he rebounded to top Ohio State’s Cody Burcher, Kent State’s Mike Depalma and Arizona State’s Matt Kraus to claim the third-place consolation prize. “This tournament is something to build off of (for Pantaleo),” McFarland said. “It’ll give him a lot of confidence.” Rounding out the Wolverines’ placewinners was redshirt freshman Davonte Mahomes in the 174-pound class. Mahones bounced back from a round of 16 defeat at the hands of Iowa State’s Lelund Weatherspoon to defeat Utah Valley’s Ross Taylor and Binghamton’s Jack McKeever to claim eighth place. The Cliff Keen Invitational was Michigan’s final tune-up before the Big Ten season starts. Michigan will face Michigan State at home Thursday to open conference play. “We need to come out with more of a sense of urgency and more determination,” McFarland said. “We need to make a quick turnaround.”
“This tournament is something to build off of (for Pantaleo).”
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Michigan was up against some of the world’s best in Seattle at the Winter Nationals meet this weekend.
Wolverines dominate By ANNA HARITOS For the Daily
This weekend, the Michigan men’s and women’s swim and dive teams headed to Seattle for the AT&T Winter Nationals. There, the Wolverines swam for NCAA automatic and provisional qualifying times, while also aiming for Olympic trial qualifying times. The midseason meet was a huge success for the Wolverines, as a heightened playing field — which included Olympians Michael Phelps, Matt Grevers, Allison Schmitt and Missy Franklin — and strong team dynamic pushed the Wolverines to rise to the occasion. “It was a great meet for our teams as a whole, as about 70 men and women traveled,” said Michigan coach Mike Bottom. “(It was) a really good teambuilding weekend as well. The athletes were up on their feet cheering for each other and showed a very strong support for each other.” The races took place under different conditions than usual, as the team swam in a 50-meter pool compared to the collegiate standard 25-yard. Those times that qualified for the national meet would be converted to short-course yards for the NCAA. “This meet was a little bit
different because it’s an Olympic year,” Bottom said. “We swam long-course, which is a 50-meter pool, because the Olympic distance is 50 meters. We’ll get better adjusting to this distance as we get closer to American Olympic trials for Rio.” Together, the teams placed first, but when divided, the fifthranked women placed second in the overall collegiate scoring, and the fourth-ranked men took first. The women’s team broke a total of nine program records, and nine individuals met qualifying times for the American Olympic trials. Among those to qualify was freshman Siobhán Haughey. Over the three days, she took three program records and had the sixth-most points of any women’s swimmer at the meet. No other collegiate swimmer had earned more. Haughey was not the only standout, as sophomore Emily Kopas broke the long-standing 200-meter breaststroke record and the 100-meter breaststroke record. Joining her was sophomore Gillian Ryan, who placed third in the 800-meter freestyle, and sophomore Clara Smiddy, who took sixth place in the 200-meter backstroke and broke a record herself. Senior Ali DeLoof finished second to Olympian Missy Franklin by less than a tenth
of a second in the 100-meter backstroke and lowered her personal best, and program record, even further. On the men’s side, Michigan put up a strong front. Five of the top-20 finishers in the 200-meter backstroke were Wolverines. Individually, six men qualified for the Olympic trials. The results showed a strong growth in many athletes. “We saw great performances from all levels.” Bottom said. “Everyone stepped up. It was not just the top levels that performed the best.” Sophomore Evan White and senior Dylan Bosch earned ninth and 10th, respectively, in the 200-meter individual medley. Bosch went on to take sixth in the 200-meter butterfly, finishing three seconds behind Phelps. The meet proved to be a fine marker for where the team stands, and it posed a challenging stage that many Wolverines used to improve their times. The opportunity to swim in Seattle was a valuable experience for swimmers of every tenure. “This was a really long meet,” Bottom said. “But it’s really an exceptional opportunity for us to be here at this year’s nationals all the way out here in Seattle. We’re really fortunate to have Michigan support us to come out this way, and our Olympic effort.”
WISCONSIN From Page 1B the open net. Just minutes later, Nieves broke the puck out on the penalty kill and burned a Badgers defender before taking the puck the length of the ice. He hit Selman, scorching in from the left side, with the pass and just like that, Michigan had its biggest lead of the weekend series. Wisconsin tied things up with a pair of very similar power-play goals from forward Ryan Wagner. The scores came four minutes apart, both on tipped pucks that slid between Zach Nagelvoort’s pads. It was the start of a long night for the junior goaltender, who wouldn’t last two full periods. But Michigan rebounded again. Selman added another goal late in the period when he again found himself alone in front and roofed the puck into the right corner. Things came unraveled in the second for the Wolverines. The Badgers won the period, 3-0, and stole the momentum from Michigan’s hot start. After a slow start to the period, Wisconsin (0-1-1, 3-6-5) scored twice in two minutes. The first, an effort from defenseman Tim Davison, came with an extra attacker after Michigan took its fourth penalty of the game. It was the third goal the Wolverines gave up while down a man — the Badgers had yet to take a penalty. The next goal, credited to forward Matthew Freytag, was more of an own goal by Michigan freshman defender Joe Cecconi, who tipped the puck up and over Nagelvoort’s shoulder. With the collapse already underway, Berenson had to change something. Out came Nagelvoort, who posted a disappointing .800 save percentage on 20 shots, for freshman Chad Catt, who made his first appearance in a close game. “The lights are bright, I remember that ever since I was a little kid,” Catt said. “It’s just nice to finally play a good portion of a game here and feel the energy of the crowd.” To add insult to injury, though, Wisconsin forward Jarod Zirbel finished the period with a pretty behind-the-back pass that left his teammate wide open for the goal. The Badgers entered the second intermission with a two-goal lead. Catt finished with 12 saves on 14 shots. The third period was a fitting finish to the weekend series. Michigan took the ice with speed and determination, egged on again by the upperclassmen. It was junior forward JT Compher, who said Friday in the postgame presser that the team didn’t want to be known as “the comeback kids,” who delivered the rally. Compher assisted on the first goal with a pretty backhand that found Tyler Motte on the far side of the net. Motte, a junior forward, buried the one-timer. Three minutes later, sophomore defenseman Nolan de Jong hit Compher with a perfect cross ice pass. Compher raced into the zone all alone and walked by Jurusik with a toe drag to find the back of the net. “That was a world-class pass from Nolan de Jong,” Compher said. “He put it over three sticks right on my tape in stride. I couldn’t ask for anything more than that. I was lucky to put it in.” Junior defenseman Michael Downing added a blast from the point to Michigan’s tally with under 10 minutes to play, putting the Wolverines ahead with the finish line in sight. Catt played a strong final nine minutes, but conceded Wisconsin’s fourth extraattacker goal on the night. The Badgers took a penalty as the game headed to overtime, and the five minutes of sudden death hockey were punctuated by a roaring intensity from the crowd. Michigan couldn’t capitalize in the extra five minutes and a shootout decided the game. Catt turned away both shots he saw in the shootout, staring intently into the ice with his back turned as his teammates shot. Compher and junior Alex Kile scored to seal the 7-6 shootout win. That result certainly hurts less than a loss, but the Wolverines were disappointed because a victory could have been had. Michigan failed to put the Badgers away on Saturday night, and in the process let the chance at a 2-0 weekend slip away.
SportsMonday
4B — December 7, 2015
Robinson, ‘M’ pull away Sharpshooter’s hot streak builds Wolverines’ lead in second half By LEV FACHER Managing Editor
Duncan Robinson shoots 3-pointers like they’re free throws. Seriously — show up at Crisler 57 HBU Center an MICHIGAN 82 hour and a half before a Michigan men’s basketball game, and you’ll find the sharpshooting transfer guard tossing up straightaway set shots from behind the 3-point line. Set shots. Robinson’s feet never leave the ground, yet from 22 feet away, each warm-up attempt somehow seems to find the bottom of the net. When one doesn’t, Robinson — and anybody watching him — seems surprised. Robinson, a redshirt sophomore, got four open looks from beyond the arc early in the first half against Houston Baptist on Saturday. He missed them all. Down 26-24 in a Big Ten arena with their opponent’s biggest long-range threat seemingly having an off day, the game’s first 15 minutes seemed too good to be true for the Huskies. With 2:58 remaining in the first half, Robinson showed he’d had enough, ending his drought with a 3-pointer that put Michigan up by 10 and forced a Houston Baptist timeout. He attempted four more 3-pointers in Michigan’s 82-57 win. He made them all. The turnaround didn’t surprise many. Senior guard Spike Albrecht acknowledged one questionable shot selection on Robinson’s part, but called the other first-half misses “three of the best misses I’ve ever seen.” Despite the early imperfections,
RUBY WALLAU/Daily
Duncan Robinson hit five straight 3-pointers and scored 19 points Saturday.
Robinson never doubted himself — thanks at least in part to some sage advice from an unlikely source. “It’s funny,” Robinson said. “I drove to the game with (Michigan assistant coach Bacari Alexander), and we ran into the parking lot attendant. He said, ‘If they don’t fall early, keep shooting.’ (Alexander) reminded me of that at halftime.” The game ended, effectively, once Robinson regained his form. Houston Baptist never managed to close out on Robinson, and was outscored by 23 in the game’s final 25 minutes. The Huskies never
threatened after an 8-0 Michigan run late in the first half, and the Wolverines coasted the rest of the way in their first home game since Nov. 20. “He’s got a quick release that he’s worked hard at,” said Michigan coach John Beilein, explaining why Robinson’s 6-foot-8 frame proved impossible for the Huskies’ zone defense to cover around the perimeter. “You can get to a lot of people. … Getting to (Robinson) is a challenge.” As Robinson slumped throughout the first half, senior guard Caris LeVert — as he often
“He’s got a quick release that he’s worked hard at.”
THE MICHIGAN DAILY TOP-10 POLL Each week, Daily sports staffers fill out ballots, with first-place votes receiving 10 points, second-place votes receiving nine and so on.
does — took it upon himself to shoulder the scoring load. He scored 14 points on 5-of7 shooting in the first period, helping Michigan to a 37-28 lead at intermission. LeVert, too, found success in the face of the 2-3 zone look the Huskies intermittently used. He finished with 25 points on seven field goals and 9-for-10 freethrow shooting, Robinson scored 19 points, and sophomore guard Aubrey Dawkins added 16. “When Duncan and Aubrey are out there on the wings, it makes it that much easier to get the basketball to the middle of the floor,” LeVert said. “That’s where you want it in a zone. So when teams play zone and we have Duncan and Aubrey out there, the court’s a lot bigger.” With junior guard Derrick Walton Jr. out of commission with a sprained ankle, sophomore Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman started in the backcourt for Michigan. As he was in the second half Tuesday at North Carolina State, Abdur-Rahkman was quiet on the offensive end, recording just six points on 3-for-8 shooting from the field. With Robinson, LeVert and Dawkins collectively accounting for 73 percent of Michigan’s scoring, there wasn’t much slack for Abdur-Rahkman to pick up, anyway. “It’s always good to know that there’s other people on the team who can score,” Abdur-Rahkman said. “You don’t have to force anything.” The Wolverines punctuated the win with a volleyball-esque play in the game’s final minute. Fighting for a contested defensive rebound, Dawkins set the ball high in the air multiple times, eventually pushing it toward Albrecht, who bumped it up the court to redshirt freshman forward D.J. Wilson. He soared to the rim for an emphatic one-handed slam on the other end, delighting the few fans still in their seats.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FOOTBALL
Harbaugh excited about Citrus Bowl Coach announces Greg Mattison will be defensive coordinator for bowl By ZACH SHAW Daily Sports Editor
After watching three Big Ten rivals find out their bowl fates early Sunday afternoon, the No. 14 Michigan football team didn’t have to wait long for the Citrus Bowl to call. And though the Wolverines won’t play in the Rose Bowl or the College Football Playoff, they feel that their matchup against No. 19 Florida will be a worthwhile one. “We’re very excited for the bowl,” said Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. “It sounds like it’s going to be great, fair, honest, healthy competition. We’re looking forward to it. “We feel like we’re getting the long straw on this one, happy to be there.” The game against the Gators will take place on Jan. 1, and at least one familiar face for both teams won’t be on Michigan’s sideline. Former defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin — who coached at Florida from 2010-14 before coming to Michigan for the 2015 season — announced Tuesday that he would become the next head coach at Maryland. Instead, Harbaugh said Sunday night that defensive line coach Greg Mattison, who was the Wolverines’ defensive coordinator from 1995-96 and again from 2011-14, would take control of one of the nation’s top defenses. “I’m excited to have Greg coordinate the defense. I think he’ll do a fantastic job,” Harbaugh said. “He’s one heck of a good
coach, and he can handle the pressures of calling defenses, and I think he’ll be excellent.” Harbaugh said the promotion is just for the bowl game, but Mattison could be in contention for the gig moving forward if he wanted it. It also appears that Mattison, 66, will have his work cut out for him in the game. Harbaugh confirmed that redshirt junior defensive tackle Ryan Glasgow is highly unlikely to play and that sophomore defensive tackle Bryan Mone is still awaiting medical clearance to return to action. Health is more of a point of optimism on offense, however, as fifth-year senior quarterback Jake Rudock is likely to play after leaving the Wolverines’ 42-13 loss to Ohio State with a shoulder injury. “He hasn’t thrown yet,” Harbaugh said. “He hasn’t thrown yet, but I think he’ll be able to soon.” As for Michigan’s opponent, Harbaugh said he has watched about half of the Gators’ games this season and has been impressed, especially by their defense. Florida shares a number of parallels with the Wolverines. The Gators improved by three wins in their first season under new head coach Jim McElwain, and laid a strong foundation for future years of playoff contention. Harbaugh reflected on a year of improvement but noted that one game remains on the schedule. “I don’t think of it as a foundation, I think of it more as a train — a locomotive building speed and moving forward, not static or in one place,” Harbaugh said. “We have a great opportunity to keep moving at the same pace we have been in this game.”
Michigan avoids NJIT repeat Wolverines cruise past Houston Baptist, avoid nonconference letdown By JACOB GASE Daily Sports Editor
1. CLEMSON: The Tigers don’t seem to have an Achilles’ Heel. And even if they do, it certainly wasn’t the Tar Heel.
2. ALABAMA: That sound you hear is all of Ann Arbor begrudgingly mumbling “Roll Tide.”
3. OKLAHOMA: Boomer? Sooner? Barely know ‘er.
4. MICHIGAN STATE: You know what they call ripping a trophy out of Archie Griffin’s hands? DISRESPECTFUL.
5. STANFORD: David Shaw does get to use the gold-plated toilets in the $70,000 bathroom Jim Harbaugh designed, but even Harbaugh can’t design a berth in the playoff.
6. IOWA: First in war, first in peace, first in the Big Ten (none of these things, actually).
7. OHIO STATE: The Buckeyes’ advice to Nick Saban on how to beat Michigan State: Don’t give the ball to Derrick Henry.
8. NOTRE DAME: Hopefully Notre Dame’s NBC deal is worth an eternity of having to be perfect to make the playoff.
9. NORTH CAROLINA: The Tar Heels may need to lend Baylor a quarterback for their bowl matchup to be competitive.
10. FLORIDA STATE: They said, we said, they said, they strong. And we believed them.
Almost a year to the date after the Wolverines’ upset loss to the New Jersey Institute of Technology following a huge win over Syracuse, Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein was fully aware his team could be set up for another letdown on Saturday. Even after a hard-fought Big Ten/ACC Challenge road win Tuesday at North Carolina State — despite losing junior guard Derrick Walton Jr. to an ankle injury — Beilein no longer believes in “guarantee” games, especially without one of his key players. Luckily for the Wolverines, Houston Baptist was no NJIT. The Huskies turned the ball over 16 times, which led to 23 Michigan points, and shot just 43 percent from the floor. It was a far cry from NJIT’s spirited 59-percent shooting performance (including 11 3-ponters), and Houston Baptist fell well short of an upset in the 82-57 loss. “Last year, we probably weren’t as mentally prepared for that game,” Beilein said. “Coming off (the Syracuse game), we hadn’t learned our lesson. ... But give them credit, (NJIT) had a heck of a year. We lost to a really good team.” Perhaps more importantly, the Wolverines aren’t the team they were a year ago. Some things haven’t changed — senior guard Caris LeVert, who scored a career-high 32 points in the loss to NJIT, led Michigan
RUBY WALLAU/Daily
Senior guard Caris LeVert and Michigan had little trouble with Houston Baptist, almost a year after a disastrous loss to NJIT.
against Houston Baptist with 25 points and eight rebounds. But this time around, LeVert’s teammates provided more than enough support to pick up a comfortable victory. Redshirt sophomore guard Duncan Robinson continued his hot shooting streak, knocking down five of his nine 3-point attempts and finishing the game with 19 points. Sophomore guard Aubrey Dawkins, who has been sharing minutes with Robinson early in the season, had a strong shooting performance of his own with 16 points and three triples, making up for two costly first-half traveling calls. The Wolverines certainly seemed to be playing with a different mindset than they
“We wanted to come out and play like they were a top-25 team.”
were a year ago, jumping out to an 11-0 lead to start the game. In its strongest run of the afternoon, Houston Baptist cut the lead to 26-24 with 4:34 remaining in the first half before a LeVert trey and five straight points from Robinson pushed the lead back to 10. With the NJIT loss still fresh in the minds of the coaching staff and most of the roster, Michigan decided it wasn’t going to make the same mistake in consecutive seasons. “It was stressed from the time we got off the plane after beating N.C. State,” LeVert said. “We knew that this was the game we lost year, and we didn’t want to have the same feeling coming into it (this year). So we came out and played hard for a full 40 (minutes).” Against NJIT, the Wolverines at least had the benefit of Walton’s presence in the starting lineup, though Beilein said he was a “different player” thanks to the toe injury that plagued
him most of last season. Against Houston Baptist, because of his latest injury, Michigan couldn’t use Walton at all. But the Wolverines didn’t miss him much Saturday, thanks to stellar play from LeVert as the lead guard and some quality fill-in minutes from sophomore guard Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman, who scored six points in his 33 minutes, and senior guard Spike Albrecht, who memorably batted a loose ball toward redshirt freshman forward D.J. Wilson for a dunk late in the game. Abdur-Rahkman and Albrecht — the latter still playing limited minutes as he recovers from two hip surgeries — may not have expected to get so much playing time just a week ago, but they were just as focused as anyone on avoiding a repeat of the NJIT disaster. “We didn’t want to sleep on this team,” Abdur-Rahkman said. “We wanted to come out and play like they were a top-25 team.”