Tuesday 3/19/13

Page 1

Football springs into practice, looks to fill positions

Jazzing up the Wharton Center with Monterey

ASMSU plans free weekend cab service for students

SPORTS, PAGE 6

CAMPUS+CITY, PAGE 3

STATENEWS.COM

Head coach Mark k Dantonio walks on the field on n April 28, 2012 012 at Spartan Stadium during the annual Spring ing Game.

Weather

JUSTIN WAN/ / THE STATE NEWS EWS

Snow High 34° | Low 19° Michigan State University’s independent voice | statenews.com | East Lansing, Mich. | Tuesday, March 19, 2013

CRIME

Disorderly conduct increases from last St. Paddy’s day By Darcie Moran morandar@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■

Despite colder temperatures this St. Patrick’s Day weekend, twice as many people were arrested for disorderly conduct than last year and almost 30 more were given citations as students took to the streets to celebrate. This year, East Lansing police recorded an increased number of overall calls, citations and arrests compared to St. Patrick’s Day weekend 2012. MSU police said the number of St. Patrick’s Day crimes would not be available until later in the week, and the MSU Clery Crime and Fire Log had no logged activity since Thursday. MSU police could not be reached by press time Monday to verify any issues with the crime log. East Lansing police Sgt. Marc Smith said Sunday that during the day, 20 officers, not including those assisting from other local departments, were on road patrol — four times the typical amount. Accounting senior Tara Stratford said the increased number of crimes recorded could have been because of what she believed was an increase in police presence on St. Patrick’s Day compared to the previous year.

Last year, a traffic post was pulled down by a St. Patrick’s Day celebrator and photos on social media showed bottles and debris in the streets. “I think it was safer for people overall,” Stratford said of this year, adding the colder weather was actually a good thing for students. “People were less likely to walk around aimlessly.” East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy said although officers anticipated larger crowds partying Saturday, extra police officers assigned to work Sunday were kept busy in the afternoon. “We did have extra police officers staffed for that day, so that helped to keep things calm,” Murphy said. “But what really helped was most of the people in town just a had a good time and didn’t get carried away and didn’t get out of hand.” Compared to last year, this St. Patrick’s Day weekend East Lansing police cited 27 more people for disorderly conduct, seven more people each for open intoxication and minor in possession incidents and eight more people for noise violations. Twice as many people as last year were arrested for See PADDY’S on page 2 X

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Three-day forecast, Page 2

Building the beat

Rapper and hip-hop artists seek to foster local scene and positive community

JULIA NAGY/THE STATE NEWS

Marketing freshman Dustyn Frolka raps and records in his dorm room Monday in Emmons Hall. Frolka hopes to pursue a career in rapping.

By Omari Sankofa II sankofao@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■

D

ustyn Frolka doesn’t have a TV in his room. What he does have is music production program FL Studio 10, a sound card to convert his microphone recordings into a digital format, and recording software Mixcraft 5. He’s an aspiring rapper known as “D-Fro,” already has performed five shows across Michigan this month. “I just grew up listening to the radio as a kid,” the marketing freshman said. “So it just grew from there. I started making my own little tracks when I was 13, 14 years old off a little Walmart mic. And it just went from there, building, progressing, getting more equipment, finding more things out.” Instead of watching college basketball,

Frolka sits in front of his computer, creating beats, writing verses and promoting his music — all in his Emmons Hall dorm room. Frolka is a new-age rapper — one who uses at-hand resources to get involved in the hip-hop scene. He’s performed in Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor, Muskegon, even Atlanta. He has plans to perform in New York this summer. But one city is glaringly absent from the list: East Lansing. Frolka said that though he’s aware of many rappers in the area, the overall support from the scene is lacking. However, he knows that the framework for the scene exists. “Don’t say that there’s not a scene,” Frolka said. “It’s not that there’s not one, it just isn’t that unified.” There is a consensus among the rap community that the local scene isn’t unified. But there are people who are working on bringing the hip-hop community closer together. Back to their roots Seattle native and hip-hop artist Ozay Moore would agree the local hip-hop scene

More online … To hear MSU rappers lay down the beats, visit statenews.com.

could be more unified. He began rhyming in 1993 and has released music for a number of labels. His involvement in rap recently has been more local, as he’s lived in Lansing for the past seven years. He described the scene as slowly fluctuating. “It’s breathing, barely,” he said. “But it breathes kinda up and down, up and down. There’s really strong artists here. There’s just no leadership, and the different leaders that have been here in the past got burnt out.” He founded his organization, “All of the Above Hip Hop Academy,” in January 2012. It’s an after-school mentoring program at the Lansing Oak Park YMCA that uses hip-hop and rap culture to stimulate young minds. “We’re giving youth an opportunity to experience hip-hop culture from a very historically accurate perspective,” Moore See RAP on page 2 X

JULIA NAGY/THE STATE NEWS

Head coach Suzy Merchant talks to sophomore guard Kiana Johnson during the Big Ten Tournament championship.

MSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL READY FOR MARCH MADNESS By Stephen Brooks brook198@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■

The MSU women’s basketball team is headed to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth-consecutive postseason. The Spartans — who fell to Purdue in the finals of the Big Ten Tournament on March 10 — were given a No. 5 seed, sending them to College Park, Md., to face No. 12 seed Marist at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. If MSU beats the Red Foxes, it’ll take on the winner of No. 4 seed Maryland and No. 13 seed Quinnipiac in the second round. When the bracket was revealed on ESPN’s selection show Monday evening, it was met with cheers as the Spartans were caught slightly off-guard with their seeding. MSU expected to be either a No. 7, 8 or 9 seed, which reflected the most recent ESPN.com projections. “I felt good about the way we finished,” head coach Suzy Merchant said. “We’re going back to a place we were exactly one year ago, so we’re familiar with where we’re going.” The Spartans lost their opening game in the tournament to Louisville last season in College Park.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

MSU prepares for NCAA tournament

A possible game against MaryBy Dillon Davis land on its home court looms davisdi4@msu.edu if MSU and the Terrapins both THE STATE NEWS win Saturday. Senior forward Courtney The story always reads the Schiffauer said the familiarisame way. ty of Maryland’s arena could When the calendar fl ips to be beneficial for MSU. March, Tom Izzo takes his inten“Whatever little edge you sity to another level as his team can get in the NCAA Tourmakes a run at the title. It’s nament, you’re going a long-celebrated tradito take,” Schiffaution surrounding the er said. MSU men’s basketCoaches and ball team, almost More online … players began as consistent as To watch video scouting Metdeath and taxes looking at both men’s ro Atlantic Ath— or NCAA Tourand women’s teams, letic Conference nament appearancvisit statenews.com/ champion Marist es under Izzo. multimedia. m i nute s a f ter With the Spartans the matchup was (25-8) ramping up for announced. Merchant the program’s 16th consecsaid she’s become very familiar utive appearance in the NCAA with the Red Foxes’ program Tournament this week starting throughout the years, calling Thursday against Valparaiso them, “NCAA slayers.” (12:15 p.m., CBS), it’s become “They are a very, very good only customary to expect a simteam,” Merchant said. “They ilar ascent in the team’s play have four seniors, two of them starting with the head coach. are redshirt seniors. They’re However, sophomore guard extremely well-coached and Travis Trice said through a void they play a style that’s very in player leadership and playing difficult to defend.” a particularly daunting schedMSU has earned a trip to the ule, Izzo hasn’t broke stride from where he started, dating back to the team’s first exhibiSee WOMEN’S on page 2 X ■■

NATALIE KOLB/THE STATE NEWS

Senior center Derrick Nix goes to shoot a free throw as teammate junior guard Keith Appling watches during the first round of the Big Ten Tournament against Iowa on Friday.

tion game in October 2012. “(We) got a lot of freshmen that are playing, and I think that adds in to (Izzo’s intensity),” Trice said. “With us not having

that clear-cut leader like (former Spartan Draymond Green), it’s really added into it.” The Spartans earned a No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region of

the NCAA Tournament and open up with the No. 14-seeded Crusaders at The Palace of Auburn See MEN’S on page 2 X


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Tuesday 3/19/13 by The State News - Issuu