Print Edition of The Observer for Tuesday, January 31, 2017

reality star evaluates student proposals

‘Shark Tank’ judge Kevin O’Leary returns to campus to critique Mendoza students’ business ideas

By MEGAN VALLEY

a ssociate news e ditor

u niversity student entrepreneurs pitched their best business ventures to “ s hark Tank’s” Kevin o ’ l eary, following a presentation on his life and tips for success in entrepreneurship in the m endoza c ollege of b usiness on m onday.

The talk, sponsored by the m endoza c ollege of b usiness and the g igot c enter for e ntrepreneurship, filled the 350-seat Jordan a uditorium, as students and faculty came to hear o ’ l eary’s insights on entrepreneurship.

“a fter nine years and thousands of pitches, there’s a lot to be learned about what goes right and what goes wrong, and how you present your ideas to investors,” o ’ l eary said. “ i don’t care

whether you are an entrepreneur, a leader, a politician — these lessons matter in terms of your ability to communicate with people.”

i n his experience judging pitches on “ s hark Tank,” o ’ l eary said all of the successful pitches had three aspects in common: They articulated the opportunity in 90 seconds or less, they convinced their potential investors they’re the right person for the business and they knew their numbers, or found someone who did.

“The whole deal with a small business is to find out what makes your story compelling to your customer and stay in touch,” o ’ l eary said. “ … That actually is the secret to ‘ s hark Tank.’ i f you ever get there and you get to pitch

p irate, slave mutinies anchored in freedom

By AIDAN LEWIS news writer

John d onoghue, associate professor of history at l oyola u niversity c hicago, spoke on m onday evening about the b uccaneers and their role in the slave trade during “ s lave r evolts and p iratical c apitalism in the a ge of c aptain m organ.” d onoghue said in the 17th century the b uccaneers started out as poor French, d utch and b ritish citizens who had been “delivered into bondage across the a tlantic” without their consent, often tricked or manipulated into signing contracts.

“These b uccaneers who become pirates and make their living ultimately by stealing, are themselves stolen,” d onoghue said.

h e said these indentured servants ultimately escaped from their brutal work, and formed communities of

their own, where they lived off looting.

“ w hatever loot that they got, whatever provisions they were traded, the spoils would be divided equally among the brethren,” d onoghue said. “They organized themselves along decidedly anti- c apitalist lines.”

n evertheless, d onoghue said soon the b uccaneers teamed up with the b ritish colonial settlement on Jamaica in order to stifle s pain’s thriving trade.

“The b uccaneers saw an opportunity to increase their wealth, and the e nglish saw an opportunity to acquire the labor they needed to begin robbing the s panish,” d onoghue said. “This produces an innovation in the colonial economy called privateering. This is essentially state-sponsored piracy.”

d onoghue said the b uccaneers, led by c aptain

h enry m organ of w ales, pillaged many s panish settlements, most famously p orto b ello and p anama.

“These were massive forces attacking cities, destroying them and relieving them of their wealth,” d onoghue said. “ s o the b uccaneers provided the key military labor for extracting capital from the s panish empire that will be brought back to Jamaica, and invested for the purposes of sugar planting.”

Through these attacks, d onoghue said the b uccaneers brought back thousands of a frican slaves from s panish settlements to Jamaica.

“ b y turning mercenary for the colonial regime in Jamaica, we see people fleeing from unfree labor becoming instruments of enslavement themselves,” d onoghue said. “ i call this

see piraTes PaGe 3

Self-published

first year explores writing world

By KATHRYN MARSHALL news writer

w hen she was younger, first-year s aint m ary’s student d alanie b each wanted to do everything and be everything when she grew up. a s she grew older, she said she found she could be anything and do everything by becoming a writer.

“ you can step into the shoes of anyone you want to be and just go with it,” she said. “a nd i think that’s my favorite thing about it. i can be anything when i write”.

This mentality led her to self-publish three novels between the ages of 13 and 16 through an online publication site. a s b each gained more writing experience, she said she chose to remove the novels from publication, and followed the advice of a teacher who told her to take her

writing to the m idwest writers c onference.

w hile there, she pitched her contemporary young adult novel “reckless i ntention” to three agents and later signed with bradford l iterary a gency. s he then embarked

Beach first-year student, author

on a lengthy revision process with her agent and is currently working on finding a publisher for the novel.

“ you can publish without an agent, but it is hard to do in today’s world when there

see wriTer PaGe 3

Editor-in-Chief (574) 631-4542 mhynds@nd.edu

Managing Editor (574) 631-4542 kmullen2@nd.edu

Assistant Managing Editors (574) 631-4541 acarson1@nd.edu, zklonsin@nd.edu, ckossler@nd.edu

Business Office (574) 631-5313

News Desk (574) 631-5323 news@ndsmcobserver.com

Viewpoint Desk (574) 631-5303 viewpoint@ndsmcobserver.com

Sports Desk (574) 631-4543 sports@ndsmcobserver.com

Scene Desk (574) 631-4540 scene@ndsmcobserver.com Saint Mary’s Desk ncaratas01@saintmarys.edu

Photo Desk (574) 631-8767 photo@ndsmcobserver.com

Systems & Web Administrators (574) 631-8839

Policies

Question of the Day:

Scott Moore senior alumni hall “rockne

Lucas Unruh senior Zahm house “power

Maria Pope sophomore mcglinn hall

“stinson-remick.

Isabella Simon sophomore mcglinn hall “l egends.”

Esther Lee junior pasquerilla west hall “l aFun, in front of smashburger.”

Julia Oksasoglu senior off campus “old college.”

Men’s basketball head coach Mike Brey anxiously watches Monday night’s game against Duke. The Irish

Notre Dame’s next home game is against Wake Forest on Feb. 7 at Purcell Pavilion.

Today’s Staff

The

Tuesday

Mexico: Dangerous Assignment

Hesburgh Center for International Studies

12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Undergraduate Sustainability Research and Education Expo

LaFortune Student Center 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Wednesday

(How) Can We Go on Together?

Geddes Hall

7 p.m. - 9 p.m. RSVP online.

Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS) present “Romeo and Juliet” Washington Hall

7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Tickets available online.

Thursday

Political Islam and America’s Long War Purcell Pavilion

12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. Open to the public.

Scholars Lounge and Concourse Open House Hesburgh Library

4 p.m. - 6 p.m. Open to ND faculty, students, and staff.

Friday

The Future of Liberalism in the Age of Trump — A Panel Discussion South Dining Hall/ Reckers

12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Men’s Hockey vs. Vermont Compton Family Ice Arena 7:35 p.m.

Saturday

Indoor Cycling — Spring 2017 Freebies Rockne Memorial

11 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Space is limited.

Kroc Institute ScreenPeace Film Festival: “Do Not Resist” DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 9:30 p.m. - 11 p.m.

to the sharks, and they offer you a very aggressive deal, it’s because they’ve figured out how valuable you are.”

s uccessful managers share a number of aspects, o ’ l eary said. i n addition to

“The whole deal with a small business is to find out what makes your story compelling to your customer and stay in touch.”

Kevin O’Leary judge, ‘Shark Tank’

creating a clear line of command, setting achievable goals, maintaining accessibility, delegating tasks efficiently and having superb time management skills, the best managers all use technology as a weapon.

“ i n the case of small companies today, the number one weapon is social media,” o ’ l eary said. “To engage social media properly, you have to have production skills, because just posting stuff with low production value gets you no traction.”

w hen o ’ l eary teaches business, he said he always talks about the “dark side” of business.

“ i n business, there are winners and losers — this is not ‘kumbaya,’” he said. “ w hen you go into a market, you are trying to grow it, but you’re taking someone else’s share. i t is a war. i t’s not a social exercise. you can’t save the world — the dna of a business was never designed to do that.”

Following o ’ l eary’s presentation, two teams and one individual student from n otre d ame were given a few minutes each to pitch their business ideas.

The first — “ e lephant in the r oom” — was pitched by seniors Kiely w ilcox and a lexandra Julian as a social media app for college campuses to ask anonymous questions on mental health.

“ i t’s a great service, i just don’t know that it shouldn’t be provided by the institution,” o ’ l eary said. “ i don’t know if it’s a business — i think it’s a service.”

“Touch b ase,” an online resource to pair undergraduate students and young alumni with older alumni, was pitched by freshmen Katherine b rown and Katie m c g uckin before o ’ l eary criticized it for being too similar to l inked i n.

“ i ’m not sure i ’m loving it,” he said. “ … i ’m trying to figure out how this is different from l inked i n. There’s already a whole group of mendoza grads who are already there. They have a platform and they’ve branded it and they have millions of other people they can look at.” s enior l uis e scobar presented the final pitch for a product, “Takay b lends,” which uses bananas rejected from the market in his native e cuador for their appearance and blends them with “superfood ingredients” to create a meal replacement smoothie.

“ i see what you’re doing and it maybe could work,” o ’ l eary said. “ … This is not a zero — it’s got potential because people want healthy alternatives. m aybe. b ut i think you have a lot of work to do on the packaging.”

Contact Megan Valley mvalley@nd.edu

with simplicity

R.J. Stempak sports writer

a t the top of my Twitter feed sat a tweet that read: “ i ’m figuring it out.”

o ptimism is exhausting. p essimism is toxic.

i didn’t make any n ew year’s resolutions, partly because telling myself that this arbitrary cutoff will mark the beginning of a “new me” just makes me laugh, and partly because i am always making little resolutions or tweaks to my mindset to see what works the best.

i n school, the only conversation topic as ubiquitous as the weather is stress. e veryone’s got it, but if you don’t, you can be sure to find it next week.

i t comes from classes, from friends, from family, from extracurricular activities, from sensory overload. i t’s unavoidable and overwhelming. e ven reading this will probably remind you of your last week of multiple midterms, triggering some stress just thinking about it.

e veryone has a different way of managing, some more successful than others.

Thinking about all you have to get done, analyzing it, planning out your schedule meticulously and making sure you are hitting every deadline you set for yourself is one way to tackle life.

For me, this didn’t work. a t all.

i watched a movie over winter break called “a s erious m an.” a c oen b rothers film, the picture follows the life of a Jewish physics professor, and everything in his life is going wrong for seemingly no reason. h e is a faithful husband and father, but his wife wants to leave him, his son smokes weed instead of paying attention in school and he is dealing with a student who is trying to bribe him, all while he is under review for a tenure position. h e’s a solid dude, but the universe doesn’t care.

w hat stuck with me from this movie was not an existential nihilism, but more of a solitary harmony. The movie opened with white text on a black background that read: “ r eceive with simplicity everything that happens to you.”

The sentence is so passive, so calm. c ontrol is something we don’t have very much of in life. w e don’t do things as much as things happen to us. a nd oftentimes, there is no reason why it happens, no line of karmic retribution that we can trace back to understanding.

i ’m fine with that. i t’s freeing. s o i remain calm when life gets crazy by controlling what i can control, which isn’t much.

Focusing only on what you can control is a common mindset. b ut what clicked for me was the phrase, “with simplicity.” o verthinking everything was a trap i fell into, trying to understand what was going wrong in my life, trying to fix it all. For example, i would do poorly on a test after studying days in advance — why?

l ooking back, i simply just didn’t get the material, and that’s fine, but in the moment i was in a frenzy of confusion, sadness and doubt, because i needed answers. a nswers are overrated. They aren’t around when you need them.

s o like a hermit in the desert, i keep my mind stripped down to the bare necessities. i t’s more comfortable that way. p lus, there’s more room to store fun computer science material.

s o if you ask how i ’m doing, i ’m good, but just one word couldn’t describe it. b ut i ’m figuring it out. a nd i hope you are doing well.

Contact R.J. Stempak at rstempak@nd.edu

The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

it’s a cliche at this point to note that a lot of celebrities died in 2016 (though from a purely numerical perspective, the past year is far from anomalous). since we all know the big names, i’d like to focus on one that many of us, myself included, missed. o n may 1, madeleine l ebeau, the last living credited actor in “c asablanca,” passed away. she was 92. l ebeau was born in a ntony, France, in 1923, and later moved to paris. d uring the g erman invasion in world war ii, she and her Jewish husband fled France. They passed through l isbon, and were headed for c hile when their ship was stopped in mexico and they were stranded, desperately trying to gain passage to the Free world. a rt imitates life (imitates art).

upon arriving in a merica via c anada, l ebeau was cast in “c asablanca” as yvonne, r ick blaine’s mistress. her husband, marcel dalio, also appears in the film as the croupier e mil — he’s the one who gives c apt. l ouis renault his winnings when the latter is “shocked to find that gambling is going on here!” i n fact, much of the cast was made up of european refugees. v ictor l aszlo ( paul henreid), major strasser ( c onrad veidt) and ugarte ( peter l orre) were just a few of the other refugee cast members. The refugee status of the actors lends weight to their performances, especially one pivotal scene at the film’s midpoint.

note: The rest of this v iewpoint will discuss the plot of “c asablanca” in detail. i f you have not seen the film, i have two things to say to you. First, go watch c asablanca. s econd, spoilers!

“it’s d ecember 1941 in c asablanca. ... i bet they’re asleep all over a merica.” r ick blaine is a morose expatriate who has buried his sympathies for revolutionary causes and adopted a facade of neutrality. w hen his friend ugarte is dragged away by the police, blaine proclaims “i stick my neck out for nobody.” The French yvonne is a regular

at blaine’s bar, and has taken to consorting with the nazis, prompting renault to comment, “so yvonne’s gone over to the enemy.”

w hile yvonne is with one such g erman, v ictor l azlo walks in to find strasser’s nazis at the piano singing “The watch on the r hine,” a g erman song proclaiming the defense of the g erman homeland against the French. d isgusted, he approaches the band and commands them to play “l a marseillaise.” uncertain, the band members look to blaine, and receive a subtle nod — his first overt partisan action. a s the national anthem swells, the singing of the bar’s patrons overwhelms that of the nazis. yvonne joins in, and the camera gives her a close-up; madeleine l eb eau’s tears were real. a s the bar erupts in applause, she shouts “ v ive la France! v ive la democratie!” her arc manifests blaine’s journey toward accepting that he is meant to be a revolutionary, and spurs the film towards one of the greatest endings ever.

s o why am i talking about “c asablanca” — beyond the fact that i love the film and will gush about it for six hours if you ask me? well, blaine’s situation at the film’s opening parallels that of many a mericans — burned out and unsympathetic to a refugee crisis, resigned to a comfortable neutrality. heck, we’ve even got the nazis walking through our streets and organizing rallies in d c it’s hard to know if or when the a merican people will have their “marseillaise moment,” but i have faith that we will rise to the occasion, should it occur. i’ve seen this movie, and i like the ending. y name is s amuel c ho and i’m currently one of the two co-chairs of the d iversity c ouncil of notre dame ( dc ). i my motivation. # itsTime to start thinking about yours.

Stephen Raab, an MSM Candidate at the Mendoza College of Business, graduated Notre Dame with a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering in 2016. He enjoys matching wits with all comers at sraab@nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Marriage and the state

in a famous bit, comedian louis c.K. expresses his consternation with gay marriage opponents, noting none are, for example, obligated to attend same-sex matrimonies or buy the newlyweds a gift. “it doesn’t have any effect on your life,” inveighs cK, and i long affirmed his conclusion that opposition to marriage equality was thus simply myopic and mean-spirited. similarly agreeable was louis c.K.’s comment addressing those objecting to gay marriage by saying “what if people start marrying their dogs?” w hat business of mine could others’ sex lives possibly be? The state’s long and oppressive arm obviously has no place in the bedroom. This conviction went unshaken for years until this summer, when, at a far remove from the suburban cloister of my childhood and adolescence, confrontation with the mores of foreign shores made me markedly less certain of, if not necessarily converted from, my old position.

a dear friend of mine resides, during breaks from classes, with his family in bangkok. he graciously invited me to visit this summer, and i, heart aflutter with visions of “The hangover part ii,” jumped at the opportunity. soon into my southeast asian fortnight, i was having lunch with my friend and his mother in a massive bangkok shopping mall when his mother commented, “no matter how long i’ve been here, i can never get used to the sight of men in public with their multiple wives.” shocked, i asked her what she meant. she and her son, smiling at my midwestern naivety, nodded towards

letters to tHe edItor

another table, where a man sat alongside three women covered head-to-toe in billowing black cloth. suddenly it dawned on me: i’d seen such families everywhere in the city, but i’d never realized the exact nature of the relationship. Though i may be just a pearl-clutching resident of flyover country, i couldn’t stop thinking about what i’d seen. i realized my position on marriage — as the state has no right nor duty to govern its peoples’ morality and relationships, it is unfair to define marriage as between one man and woman, as it would be unfair for the state to define it as anything — would allow these polygamous unions. but i knew — just as strongly as i knew homophobia is wrong and stupid — that i do not want this in my country, not ever. i refuse to condone any system or law institutionalizing the subjugation of women, who are conditioned from birth into a system that treats them as subservient chattel insufficiently trustworthy to be allowed outside without a male relative — let alone wearing shorts. i refuse to condone any system or law that views women as unworthy of a monogamous matrimony, only deserving the status of one of a coterie of wives-as-objects for a man.

my visceral emotional reaction to what i saw instigated a succession of new questions. are there never any relationships, arrangements, and social structures so oppressive and undesirable the government should prohibit them? Freedom of choice is a fine principle, but what can it possibly mean when one is instructed in a system from birth, the ostensibly free rejection of which could lead to alienation from ties of family and community? certainly polygamy and shrouding of the female form do not, by necessity, mean patriarchal oppression and

control. however, i hope my conjecture that those institutions are less than perfectly conducive to the realization of women’s self-determination and personal autonomy is not too bold. my motivation is less than entirely altruistic; i’ve had enough brilliant female professors that i’m well aware the denial of freedom to women is not only a crime against the fairer sex, but a strike against the welfare of the state, depriving it of able servants.

i still want to affirm a system of complete government abstention from matters of personal relationships and lifestyles, but i’m now unsettled by doubts. as a people, don’t we have to make choices about what sort of society we want to be? do we really have no say in how our neighbors conduct their lives, if we believe that way of life to be deleterious to both those involved and our nation itself? but if the state proscribes some choices, how can it justify a laissez-faire approach to certain types of relationships, but not to others? i have no idea, but i know there are certain arrangements a just state, one for which i would pay taxes and die, cannot allow. by no means does it follow that the government should prohibit gay marriage. but what this might mean is that one of, if not the primary, ways of justifying its legalization — love is love, who are you to say what other people choose, the state has no place in the bedroom — rests on far less firm ground than i once imagined.

Devon Chenelle is a junior in Keough Hall. He is a history major with an Italian minor. He can be reached at dchenell@nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Inaugurate the resistance

dear Fr. Jenkins,

in light of the new presidential administration, our future is in more peril than ever. The interests of fossil fuel companies are now being represented by the secretary of state, the leaders of both the environmental protection agency (epa) and department of energy, and the president, who continue to cast doubt on the need to act on climate change. a s students, we are concerned by the idle stance of our university, which maintains investments in these companies even as they threaten humanity’s future.

The university of notre dame, as a premier catholic institution and moral leader, holds great influence over fellow universities, the catholic community and people across the world who know and love notre dame. we have shown the extent of support for divestment on this campus through marches, rallies and petitions. we are gathered today to ask you, by Feb. 1, 2017, to make a formal statement about the future of our endowment’s fossil fuel investments. we are asking notre dame to stand with its students, the environment and

our collective future by committing to divestment instead of standing with the denial in washington.

if it is wrong for fossil fuel companies to wreck the climate, then it is wrong for notre dame to profit from that wreckage.

if divestment is political, then investment is also political. by continuing to financially support the fossil fuel industry, notre dame is standing with them, not our collective future.

stand with us as we fight for justice and the preservation of our planet.

stand with us as we fight for what’s right.

Why I’m boycotting the Keenan Revue

i am upset. i woke up one morning over winter break, opened Facebook, and whoomp! there it was: the onslaught of north Quad’s Keenan Knights sharing a promotional video for the Keenan revue. w hile i have no problem with the revue itself, i was unimpressed with their choice for this year’s theme: state of the revuenion. a t a time when political divisiveness is at an all-time high, Keenan chose to highlight our differences instead of bringing us together.

For the first time, i will not make my way to stepan c enter on either Feb. 9, 10 or 11 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. for their “comedy.”

e ven though these Knights have found a way yet again to come up with an unbelievable pun for “revue,” our campus community should not support this event. i implore the thousands of students who set yearly attendance records for a dorm event to send a message this year. The best way to let Keenan know we do not

support them is to avoid the l aFun b allroom at 5 p.m. wednesday, Feb. 1 (definitely no lining up early to get a good spot like we always do).

a fter thinking about it, i will go this year, not to support them but because, as former Keenan Knight s un Tzu said, “i f you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” m aybe after waiting in line for tickets in the l aFun b allroom on Feb. 1 around 5 p.m., and going to stepan

c enter on either Feb. 9, 10 or 11 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., i’ll know exactly how to take them down next year. Fellow reasonable people: Join me in stepan c enter for silent protest and potential laughter. They might call themselves the Keenan revue, but this year, it’s # not m y revue.

David Troyer assistant director, Keenan revue

junior Jan. 30

Coaches

English FA Cup is losing its magic

Daniel O’Boyle sports writer

This past weekend in soccer gave me mixed feelings. between Friday and sunday, the 32 remaining teams in the e nglish Fa cup played their fourth-round games in the sport’s oldest competition. w ith 736 clubs in the tournament this year, the fourth round contained giants like l iverpool and manchester united, mixed with with lesserknown teams such as l incoln c ity and sutton united, who each play below the 92 teams that make up e ngland’s p remier l eague and Football l eague.

The 16 games gave me joy because of the success of some of the smaller teams: sutton and l incoln both beat second-flight sides and advanced. l iverpool was upset by wolverhampton, and Tottenham had to fight from two goals down to earn a late win over fourth-flight w ycombe. There will be either eight or nine teams from outside the p remier l eague in the last sixteen, depending on the result of a replay between derby county and l eicester c ity on Feb. 8. on the other hand, the past magic of the cup is still continuing to slip away. w hile for the likes of sutton and l incoln, the competition may be a great chance to gain prominence, too many teams believe it’s simply not worth the time. a nd worse, they’re probably right. a lthough the Fa cup was once club soccer’s most prestigious trophy, it hasn’t been able to keep pace with the money of the p remier l eague and c hampions l eague. a team near the top of the p remier l eague is best off fighting for a top-four finish that would earn them a place in the next year’s c hampions l eague; a team near the bottom of the p remier l eague or near the top of the c hampionship, e ngland’s second-flight, is better off focusing on playing p remier l eague soccer the next year. but the spirit of this oncegreat competition could be revived. Just not with soccer and not in e ngland. a n unseeded, single-elimination knockout tournament, running during a league’s regular season.

The idea’s exactly what it sounds like, just a second competition for teams to compete in for an extra bit of glory separate from the rest of events. a tournament resembling march madness — minus the seeding — could easily provide a fun extra contest for teams, especially since the regular season could really do with having a few less games. it’s not coming from out of nowhere: adam silver has pitched the idea of bringing a similar competition into the nba before. it would never be a team’s top priority, but with questionable parity at the top of the league, a singleelimination tournament would give all the underdogs a chance of knocking off the league’s better teams. a low playoff seed and an early elimination to a top team wouldn’t be the summit for much of the league anymore, as any team would have a reasonable chance of taking home hardware. For the top teams, there’s the extra challenge, a step above just winning the championship: taking home both trophies. even more interesting would be the idea of such a tournament in baseball. a nything can happen in a single game of baseball, so you can expand the tournament by using teams from both the majors and minors. w ith the chaos caused by an open draw and a single-elimination format, it’s perfectly set up for unlikely teams to go far and draw huge attention to some minor league teams that make it to bigger games. sure, winning a tournament that dependent on luck would never make up for not contending, but it could be a high point in an otherwise uninteresting season for some teams.

it may not work in every sport, and there might be further details to work out about the timing of a tournament like this, but when it gets to the late season and you see teams with nothing to play for — or playoff teams who know they won’t win it all — it could be fun to give teams a chance to win something else.

Contact Daniel O’Boyle at doboyle1@nd.edu

The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

e lko.

“ m ike e lko, one of only two defensive coordinators in the nation ... to have a unit in the top 40 in total defense in the last five years at wake and [ b owling g reen],” Kelly said. “There were three teams that took the ball away as many times, 20-plus times: i t was c lemson, a labama and wake Forest.”

“The biggest thing that we’re going to try to do is we’re going to try to put our kids in positions to be successful at what they do,” e lko said of his scheme. “ i t’s an adjustable scheme that we constantly evaluate what positions are we putting our kids in, what are we going to ask them to be able to do this week and can they do it.”

g reg h udson took over the position on an interim basis last season and was given an interview, Kelly said. u ltimately, the head coach decided to go in another direction, but he said he is still looking into potentially finding a place for h udson on the staff.

e lko brings c lark l ea as his linebacker’s coach, the position l ea held under e lko at wake Forest.

“ h e’s a great coach, and i think he can coach this scheme really well,” e lko said of l ea. “ w ith our ability and our need to get this thing going quickly, he’ll do a great job helping with that.”

Kelly said m ike e lston, n otre d ame’s linebackers coach last season, will move to the defensive line and also retain his position as recruiting coordinator.

a fter former offensive coordinator m ike s anford left to take the head coaching job at western Kentucky in the offseason, Kelly said his priority in the new hire

W tennis

Knezevic in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, while spence did the same against Frey, 7-5, 6-1. senior Jane Fennelly and m iller also contributed to the singles competition with another pair of straight-set wins to close out the competition.

was finding a “play caller.” h e said the name that kept hanging around was m emphis offensive coordinator c hip l ong.

“a s i looked around the country, i was able to compile a very short list of guys that called plays through my eyes. i n other words, the way i like our offense to look,” Kelly said. “a nd the guy that kept coming to the top of the list was c hip l ong.”

“ … [ h e] didn’t rely heavily on a passing game when he was forced to make up ground late in games. u tilized two tight ends, which was going to be a mode that we have to move towards with the great depth that we have at that position.”

Kelly fired former special teams coach s cott b ooker in the days after the loss to usc , but he said he was “able to hit a home run” by hiring former i rish assistant b rian p olian, who agreed to part ways with n evada at the end of last season.

“ i t’s different in every facet,” p olian said of returning to special teams coordinator after spending the last four seasons as head coach at n evada. “ i t’s just something that i have to get adjusted to, and it’s no concern. i t will just take a little bit of time … i want to coach football, and i ’m looking forward to doing that again.”

a familiar face returns with the i rish quarterbacks, who s anford also coached, in former quarterback Tom r ees.

o r, is it Tommy?

“ s ome of you may know him as Tom r ees,” Kelly said. “ you can call him whatever you like. i think he would answer to either Tom or Tommy. b ut what i like to call him is our quarterbacks coach.”

Technically, Kelly added, r ees is only a graduate assistant, but Kelly said he

l ouderback was extremely pleased with his team’s efforts throughout the match, he said. “we played really well,” l ouderback said. “p itt’s tough at home — they’re a bunch of big hitters, and the courts are really fast. we came out with a 4-3 win there two years ago and were really lucky to win that match. it was a lot of the same kids two years ago and

expects r ees to be in full control of the quarterback room.

“ h e is fully empowered to coach them,” Kelly said. “ h e will have the room. h e will coach those quarterbacks on a day-to-day basis.” r ees joked the campus looks a little different than it did when he graduated three years ago, but said he was excited about getting the chance to coach a first-year quarterback after d e s hone Kizer declared for the n F l and m alik Zaire announced his intention to transfer.

“ you start with a fresh slate and a group of kids that are really eager to learn and eager to play,” r ees said of the quarterbacks. “ s o they’re all ears right now.”

Kelly also introduced d el vaughn a lexander as n otre d ame’s new receivers coach, adding he liked a lexander’s organizational skills and experience from a rizona s tate, w isconsin, o regon s tate and unlv “ we’ve got a veteran wide receiver coach, well-established in his profession and in his interview was extremely detailed and organized in laying out what his role will be in developing our fairly young wide receiving core,” Kelly said. a dditionally, Kelly named m att b alis as n otre d ame’s new strength and conditioning coach after p aul l ongo had to step down for health reasons, adding b alis comes recommended from former i rish defensive coordinator b ob d iaco. b alis was on d iaco’s staff at uc onn last season.

d ave b allou (strength and conditioning), Jeff Quinn (senior offensive analyst), Jeff b urris (defensive analyst) and b ryce Tracy (offensive analyst) rounded out the hires Kelly announced m onday.

Contact Zach Klonsinski at zklonsin@nd.edu

this year, so we were thinking this was gonna be really tough, and we just played very well.”

The next competition for notre dame will be Friday against no. 14 m ichigan. The match is set to start at 3:30 p.m. at e ck Tennis pavilion.

Contact Molly Murphy at mmurph40@nd.edu

f or r ent

Home for Rent, avail. 2017-2018. Near corner of Angela and ND Ave. 4 bdrm, 2 bath, $3500/m, utilities incl. Contact Julie: jlafleur@gmail.com

With tuppence for paper and strings/You can have your own set of wings/With your feet on the ground, you’re a bird in flight/With your fist holding tight/To the string of your kite/ Oh, let’s go fly a kite/Up to the highest height/Let’s go fly a kite and send it

soaring/Up through the atmosphere/ Up where the air is clear/Oh, let’s go fly a kite/When you send it flyin’ up there/All at once you’re lighter than air/You can dance on the breeze/Over Alpses and trees/With your fist holdin’ tight/To the string of your kite

from the i rish, as just under 10 minutes into in the game the i rish held a 19-16 lead following a steal and dunk by senior forward and captain v.J. beachem.

but that dunk — with 8:41 remaining before halftime — was the last field goal in the half for the i rish. To go along with the long field goal drought, the i rish did not tally a single point for nearly four of those closing minutes and reached the break down 37-25.

uncharacteristically, notre dame shot under 27 percent in the half, while the blue devils (17-5, 5-4 acc ) converted on over 53 percent of their shots.

a n eight-minute field goal drought is nearly impossible to overcome, but notre dame almost pulled it off. regression to the mean sometimes works in your favor, and the i rish started the second half by making 15 of their first 20 shots.

but the possession after i rish senior guard steve vasturia was called for a questionable blocking foul and d uke converted the bucket and the following free throw, freshman guard T.J. gibbs drove to the lane and laid the ball in while drawing a foul.

much to the chagrin of m ike brey, who let the referees know his displeasure and earned a technical foul as a result, the foul was called on the floor. duke converted its two free throws, which was a common theme for the blue devils on the night, as they finished 23of-24 from the line.

The ball kept falling into the basket for the i rish, and the team forced 15 turnovers on the night, turning the mistakes by the blue devils into points. w ith 9:31 left, the i rish took off on a 12-0 run to cut the

lead to a single point. however, that was as close the game got for the remainder of the contest. notre dame finished the half shooting 2-of-10. brey said his team’s strategy of limiting 3-point shots worked, but it was not enough to dig his team out of the hole it dug for itself after the first half.

“w ith their shooting, you can’t help much,” brey said. “so guys like [blue devil senior forward a mile] Jefferson and [freshman forward Jayson] Tatum inside the arc, you don’t want them kicking out for 3, so you are playing them with just one guy. you hope you can absorb enough 2-point shots and be good enough offensively. That was kind of working, but when they made 3s, the hole was too deep.”

Junior guard grayson a llen, who finished with 21 points and three assists, and Tatum, who tallied 19 points and 14 rebounds, led the blue devils offensively.

The loss marks notre dame’s third in a row and fourth in five games after starting acc play 5-0. one area that has dropped off slightly is the team’s free-throw percentage, as the team went 19-28 from the line monday.

“That’s something we definitely have to focus in on more and practice,” beachem said of the team’s performance from the line. “but something like [free-throw shooting] and a couple mental lapses defensively cost us the win. we gave our team a great chance by cutting it to one, but we were just not able to get the lead.”

i rish senior guard and captain steve vasturia is in the midst of perhaps the worst two-game stretch of his career, converting only two of his 16 field-goal attempts over the last two games. brey praised his defense, but hopes rest will help vasturia regain his rhythm on offense.

“steve tonight did an unbelievable job on [ duke sophomore guard luke] Kennard,” brey said. “a nd i think his legs on the offensive end showed it. he needs some rest for two days, and he’ll get back in practice.”

l ooking ahead, notre dame has no. 12 north carolina and no. 15 Florida state in two of its next three games. beachem said this recent four-of-five skid is just a road bump, and the team will learn who it is if it can bounce back.

“we still think we are fine. This is going to be a test of how together we are,” beachem said. “at the same time we are playing in the acc , so bumps in the road are going to happen like this, and it is all about how we respond.”

notre dame is back in action against north carolina on saturday at 6 p.m. at the smith center in c hapel h ill, north carolina.

Contact R.J. Stempak at rstempak@nd.edu

mazurek

in the ncaa tournament.

but after a third straight loss, notre dame’s dreams of hoisting the acc regular season trophy are fading. The irish have lost four of their last five, including their last two home games. simply put, notre dame is not an elite team.

elite teams don’t lose two straight home games.

elite teams make their free throws. notre dame shot 68 percent from the line monday, which falls quite short of the near 90 percent it was shooting earlier in the year.

elite teams make the tough shots late in games to pull out the victory. The irish made those shots against pittsburgh, louisville and clemson, but duke’s grayson a llen made them monday night.

elite teams don’t have off nights from their best players. but against the blue devils, senior guard steve vasturia went

1-for-9 and scored just two points in 35 minutes. Junior guard matt Farrell also had a tough night, shooting just 3-for-9.

elite teams find ways to get baskets when they hit slumps. The irish did not make a field goal for nearly nine minutes in monday’s game and forced up shots on deep 3’s or out of control drives for most of the first half. so again, the irish aren’t elite. but that’s ok. if you’re an irish fan, take a step back. The view is still pretty good.

mike brey is still at the helm, and he’s led the team to two consecutive elite eights. both of which came in years when the irish weren’t even close to being ranked in the preseason. both of which came in years when the irish turned on the jets at exactly the right time during the big dance.

moreover, both of those elite eight berths came in years when the irish weren’t considered elite. There’s a reason brey and his players have constantly told the media they aren’t panicking: They’re not. and they shouldn’t. brey knows change is necessary and hinted at either sophomore guard rex pflueger or freshman guard T.J. gibbs starting in place of junior forward martinas geben when notre dame takes on north carolina on saturday.

monday night’s loss to duke proved the irish aren’t elite right now, but what matters is if they can be elite in march and april. at 6-4 in conference play, notre dame currently sits in fifth place. That takes a lot of pressure off of brey’s squad, as notre dame can go back to playing the underdog role it has so much experience with.

no one can predict what will happen in a turbulent and hypercompetitive acc, but if history is any guide, a mike brey-coached team of veterans will be just fine.

Contact Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@nd.edu

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.