ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Monday, March 26, 2018
Ann Arbor, Michigan
michigandaily.com
St. Paul bound The Michigan hockey team is headed to the Frozen Four after a 6-3 win over Boston University
» Page 4B
CAMPUS LIFE
Healthcare hackathon encourages innovation MAX KUANG/Daily
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, WebMD founder host weekend event
Ann Arbor students and residents walk for gun safety at the March for Our Lives at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Saturday.
Ann Arbor March For Our Lives draws crowd of over four thousand
Politicians, teachers, mass shooting survivor speak to need for gun reform, intersectionality CATHERINE NOUHAN Daily Staff Reporter
Over 4,000 people flocked to Pioneer High School’s campus Saturday to rally in solidarity with the other national March For Our Lives protests against gun violence. Ann Arbor’s march
was one of the hundreds that took place across the country, and one of the 28 Michigan communities that participated. Marchers came from various locations and for a multitude of reasons. Many marchers cited intersectional issues related to gun violence such as Black Lives Matter, women’s rights
MomentUM candidates come in second place with 1,512 fewer votes RIYAH BASHA & SOPHIE SHERRY
Managing News Editors
Public Policy junior Daniel Greene and LSA sophomore Izzy Baer will serve as the 2018-19 University of Michigan Central Student Government president and vice president, respectively, according to election results released late Friday evening. Representatives running on their ticket, MVision, also won a plurality of seats in the assembly. Greene and Baer defeated the second-place MomentUM party executive candidates, Engineering junior A.J. Ashman and LSA junior Charlie Bingham, by a margin of 1,512 votes— more than 77 percent more votes. Business junior Arathi Sabada and LSA sophomore Marianne Drysdale of the True Blue party came in third with 1,464 votes. Reggie Bee, a corgi known around the University campus, finished fourth with 1,403 votes, eMpower — headed by Public Health senior Lloyd Lyons and LSA sophomore Frank Guzman
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Explosive’s policies to increase gun sale tracking efficiency; passing significant legislation on gun sale background checks; and prohibiting high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Daily Staff Reporters
Upon first glance one wouldn’t expect Michigan medical students to participate in a hackathon, but this past weekend, University of Michigan students and faculty of all fields participated in the Healthcare Communication Hackathon to innovate for improved health communication. The event was hosted by CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, a U-M alum, and the Gupta family. Saturday morning, participants heard from keynote speakers Gupta and Jeff Arnold, founder
of WebMD and Sharecare, a smartphone application for health and wellness. Gupta began by discussing his own media and health communications experience, and noted many of the participants likely had ideas for their hackathon projects already. “I think that many of you may come with some problems you want to address,” Gupta said. “They could be things like how to handle communications in the middle of a war zone, transparency of costs in emergency rooms, or could be the stigma of mental health.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Michigan heading to Final Four after 58-54 win
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
MVision’s Greene and Baer new CSG execs
and mental health awareness as reasons for their attendance. Gretchen Ascher, a South Lyon East High School junior and a speaker at the rally, reiterated the five requests for gun reform set out by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, including reforming the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
RACHEL CUNNINGHAM & SONIA LEE
ETHAN WOLFE Daily Sports Editor
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — After too many defensive miscues, too many turnovers and too many misses in the first half against Florida State, all John Beilein could do was take a seat and cover his face. A 27-point whooping of Texas A&M two days earlier didn’t mean a thing. The ninthseeded Seminoles that Beilein hardly had time to scout were bringing everything the Aggies were supposed to have — length, athleticism and self-titled “junkyard defense” that stifled No. 3-seed Michigan. Calling a 27-26 halftime lead marred with carelessness a blessing hardly does it justice. “(Florida State was) exceptional on defense,” Beilein said. “We had that string of plays where Moe (Wagner) was wide open, Charles (Matthews) is wide open, Duncan (Robinson) was wide open. … we might’ve rushed some shots, maybe we were a little bit tired.” But this was game No. 39 this year for Beilein and the Wolverines, in a situation they’ve been in countless times. This was Michigan’s game. You didn’t need a betting line or a look into the history books to figure it out. It wasn’t pretty — the two teams combined to shoot 35 percent with 26 turnovers — but the Wolverines found just enough offense and more than enough defense to turn the ugly into history. Michigan (32-7) outlasted Florida State, 58-54, to notch the most wins in program history and will its way to its second Final Four appearance in six seasons, where they will face this year’s Cinderella in LoyolaChicago. “The really good teams win in different ways,” Robinson said. “Even if our shots don’t fall, we can count on our energy and effort on defense. We were able to bring that tonight. “You’ve gotta be really good, but you’ve also gotta have
some luck. Whatever it is — basketball gods — we’re playing well right now.” Added assistant coach Luke Yaklich: “This is basketball cloud nine. Everyday has been basketball Christmas Eve for me.” In the first half, Michigan seemingly picked up where it left off from Thursday’s offensive onslaught against Texas A&M. A Matthews slam dunk and-one on his first possession ignited the proWolverines crowd that packed Staples Center. Florida State couldn’t hold onto the ball. The Seminoles threw an early fullcourt press, and Michigan didn’t care — the Matthews show continued with an alley-oop and another and-one. But when it seemed that Florida State would be
another victim succumbing to a hostile environment and a suffocating defense, the Wolverines’ luster vanished. The Seminoles swished where the Aggies couldn’t. Free throws off of a flagrant foul by Robinson capped a 7-0 lead that gave Florida State a 17-15 lead — Michigan’s first deficit since before Jordan Poole’s buzzer-beater to beat Houston a week ago. The teams exchanged leads four more times before the Wolverines entered halftime up one. As unpleasant as it was, it was what a backand-forth affair with Final Four
implications should have looked like. “You’re just not satisfied,” AbdurRahkman said. “You know you can play so much better. They’re a great team, so they gave us trouble and threw things that we weren’t accustomed
to. We just kept fighting and fighting for the next 20 minutes.” The second half was a chaser for a first half that would’ve given any viewer a reason to take some Nyquil and sleep it off. Up one with 17:47 remaining in the second half, redshirt sophomore Charles Matthews drained a 3-pointer that put the Wolverines up just four, but he skipped down the sideline on defense brandishing three fingers in the air with the swagger of someone who called game. He might as well have been waving goodbye to the Seminoles. “We felt we were gonna catch fire at some point,” Yaklich said. “It was just the idea of staying with it defensively and grinding it out until we get our offensive run.” Florida State kept hanging in with physicality in the paint and solid free-throw shooting — they finished the day 18-for-20 from the line. Even when it looked down and out, they kept it close. Robinson, after failing to convert a field goal in the first half, drilled a corner 3-pointer to give Michigan its biggest lead of 10 with 2:25 to go. Perhaps then the Wolverines could have said goodbye. “I hadn’t hit one all day, I was struggling,” Robinson said. “Felt like I was a little out of it, timid in the first half. My teammates and coaches got on me about it and I knew I had to respond in a way.” But the Seminoles’ last-ditch effort effectively caused a scare. Free throws, then a trey by P.J. Savoy cut Michigan’s lead to just three, and it looked like the Wolverines’ free throw woes were going to finally catch up to them. Before two clean swishes by Robinson, Abdur-Rahkman and Zavier Simpson went 2-for-5 in the final 1:38 to bring the game to one possession. But when Florida State looked poised to go on the run it needed, it was too little too late and the buzzer blared. Beilein wasn’t covering his face anymore, he was taking a pair of scissors to a net. The nylon grasped firmly in his hands, the typically-stoic head coach yelled out “one more.” It was his last wish for the season — cut down the nets again in San Antonio. SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily Design by Jack Silberman
GOT A NEWS TIP? Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
Check out the Daily’s News podcast, The Daily Weekly
For more stories and coverage, visit
michigandaily.com
INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 98 ©2018 The Michigan Daily
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................1B
News
2A — Monday, March 26, 2018
MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers
TUESDAY: By Design
WEDNESDAY: This Week in History
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THURSDAY: Twitter Talk
FRIDAY: Behind the Story
CASEY TIN/Daily
D A I LY D O G
420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com
ALEXA ST. JOHN
NATHAN GUPTA
Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 alexastj@michigandaily.com
Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 nathankg@michigandaily.com
NEWS TIPS
news@michigandaily.com
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR tothedaily@michigandaily.com
EDITORIAL PAGE
opinion@michigandaily.com
ARTS SECTION
PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION
arts@michigandaily.com
photo@michigandaily.com
SPORTS SECTION
NEWSROOM
sports@michigandaily.com
734-418-4115 opt. 3
ADVERTISING
CORRECTIONS
dailydisplay@gmail.com
corrections@michigandaily.com
Editorial Staff ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily Perry the Dog visits the Michigan Daily to spend time with staffers during production Sunday.
DAYTON HARE Managing Editor
haredayt@michigandaily.com
RIYAH BASHA and SOPHIE SHERRY
Election commission discusses four of ten alleged violations regarding CSG elections of an in-kind contribution on photo evidence of Nwansi from a non-eligible voter. sitting near a student while he Daily Staff Reporter In addition to the various was allegedly beginning the allegations, Grimes said process of voting. The student Four University of Michigan appointing a non-student who reported Nwansi was an election commission cases as the campaign manager MVision party member. were handled Sunday night in is inherently contradictory The commission deliberated the Michigan Union regarding to the nature of student the considerable doubt the recent Central Student government elections and does regarding what the content of Government election, with not embolden students to work the photo actually revealed, allegations of rule violations within the DAAP campaign. but due to a need to continue against various CSG parties. DAAP argued that at a examination of provided More than 10 additional public university, anyone can cases are to be discussed in work as a campaign manager, upcoming days. especially a university The commission first alum who advocates for an conducted a hearing of CSG otherwise underrepresented special prosecutor Reginald party on campus. Grimes vs. the Serfdom USA DAAP presidential party, in which the party candidate Lauren Kay, an pleaded guilty to not filing LSA senior, expressed her Sudoku http://sudokugenerator.com/sudoku/generator/print/ itsGenerator official campaign finance party’s disappointment with report by the March 20 the lack of support shown for the campaign’s objectives and said the commission unfairly targeted DAAP. “They have selectively interpreted the supremacy clause they violated even in MEDIUM issuing demerits. They are obviously not applying it universally, but selectively. The idea that CSG should perfectly mimic what happens at the federal and state level, they themselves evidence, later delayed the violate it within the case until Monday night. election rules and the Whit Froehlich, a Medical compiled code,” Kay said. School representative for “We represent and we’ve MomentUM and assistant in consistently advocated for the defense, explained the certain policies that help overall value of this process people who are not only on despite being unable to this campus right now who disclose specific information are marginalized, but also regarding the case. people who don’t have the “I do think that a lot of us luxury of getting here.” care about the integrity of The commission also Central Student Government discussed MVision’s as an organization, so we feel allegations against Michael that there is some value in Nwansi, the MomentUM ensuring that the elections Engineering representative code is not violated,” he said. candidate who was elected “When it’s appropriate, and © sudokugenerator.com. For personal use only. SWEET 16 :): puzzle by sudokusyndication.com Friday. Nwansi was when we have the opportunity, accused of inf luencing a we set precedent for future student while voting, based elections.” Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku, Godoku, Samurai Sudoku and Killer Sudoku puzzles at sudokugenerator.com! KATHERINA SOURINE
deadline. Later, the commission discussed accusations made by MVision that aMplify had improperly harvested email addresses. CSG party aMplify allegedly sent a campaign email to a Delta Phi Epsilon sorority listserv that was not owned by a candidate or member of the party. MVision claimed the president of the sorority was acting on behalf of the aMplify party, which is prohibited according to the code of conduct. The commission later handled allegations against the Defend Affirmative Action Party that U-M alum Kate Stenvig was involved in the campaign, which Grimes argued constituted acceptance
They have selectively interpreted the supremacy clause they violated even in issuing demerits.
Managing News Editor news@michigandaily.com Senior News Editors: Andrew Hiyama, Carly Ryan, Kaela Theut, Matt Harmon, Maya Goldman Assistant News Editors: Jordyn Baker, Remy Farkas, Riley Langefeld, Elizabeth Lawrence, Rachel Leung, Molly Norris, Maeve O’Brien, Shannon Ors, Amara Shaikh, Katherina Sourine
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY and ASHLEY ZHANG
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com Senior Opinion Editors: Elena Hubbell, Emily Huhman, Jeremy Kaplan, Tara Jayaram, Ellery Rosenzweig
MIKE PERSAK and ORION SANG
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com Senior Sports Editors: Laney Byler, Mark Calcagno, Robert Hefter, Max Marcovitch, Paige Voeffray, Ethan Wolfe Assistant Sports Editors: Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Tien Le, Anna Marcus, Ethan Sears, Jacob Shames
DANIELLE YACOBSON and MADELEINE GAUDIN Managing Arts Editors
arts@michigandaily.com
Senior Arts Editors: Becky Portman, Sam Rosenberg, Arya Naidu, Dominic Polsinelli Arts Beat Editors: Danny Hensel, Erika Shevchek, Matt Gallatin, Naresh Iyengar
ROSEANNE CHAO and CASEY TIN
Managing Design Editors
design@michigandaily.com
ALEXIS RANKIN and KATELYN MULCAHY Managing Photo Editors
photo@michigandaily.com
Senior Photo Editors: Amelia Cacchione, Emma Richter, Evan Aaron Assistant Photo Editors: Claire Meingast, Sam Mousigian, Aaron Baker, Ryan McLoughlin, Alec Cohen
BRIAN KUANG
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com Deputy Editors: Colin Beresford, Jennifer Meer, Rebecca Tarnopol
FINN STORER and ELISE LAARMAN Managing Copy Editors
copydesk@michigandaily.com
Senior Copy Editors: Emily Stillman and Allie Bopp
BOB LESSER and JORDAN WOLFF
Managing Online Editors lesserrc@michigandaily.com Senior Web Developers: Patricia Huang, Abna Panda, Hassaan Ali Wattoo, Rebecca Tung
IAN HARRIS
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Senior Video Editors: Abe Lofy, Robby Weinbaum, Jillian Drzinski, Danielle Kim
JASON ROWLAND and ASHLEY TJHUNG Michigan in Color Editors
michiganincolor@michigandaily.com
Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Zainab Bhindarwala, Christian Paneda, Nisa Khan, Na’kia Channey Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Angelo McKoy, Kareem Shunnar, Maya Mokh, Priya Judge, Efe Osagie
ANNA HARITOS and KAYLA WATERMAN Managing Social Media Editors
Business Staff EMILY RICHNER Sales Manager
DEANA ZHU and JEFFREY ZHANG
CLAIRE BUTZ
Business Development Manager
JULIA SELSKY
Marketing Managers
Local Accounts Manager
CAROLINE GOLD
SANJANA PANDIT
Media Consulting Manager
Production Manager
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Monday, March 26, 2018 — 3A
Combating the monolith: Part II Justice for Professor Emily Lawsin MIRI KIM
MiC Contributor
Dim Mang is a sophomore majoring in History and Political Science. On campus, she is involved in Days for Girls, The Roosevelt Institute, pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta, and A/PIA Heritage Month Planning Committee. She can be contacted at dimm@umich.edu. Q: Tell me a little about yourself. I was born in Mandalay, Myanmar (also known as Burma), but I grew up in Yangon, which is the former capital and largest city in Burma. My family is Chin, which is one of the minority groups in Burma. The unique thing about my family background is that we’re not Buddhist, which the majority of Burmese people are. We’re also Chin—not ethnically Burman. This basically means that we’re still in a minority group in the country that we’re from. When I was seven, my family and I immigrated to the U.S. At the time, it was me and my two brothers and my younger sister. My mom was pregnant with my fifth sibling, who is my little sister. We were able to come here because my parents had put forth their names for the diversity visa lottery system, and my mom won. Their main reasoning for moving was the unstable political climate in Burma. They wanted us to be able to attend university in the U.S. and have a life that was more stable and not marked by political problems. Since coming to the U.S., I haven’t been back to Burma yet. I have five younger siblings, and there’s eight of us, so it becomes really difficult for all of us to go back together. My dad has gone back on three separate occasions because of family deaths and property maintenance, but I haven’t been back to Burma since we moved here. Q: You may have already answered this, but in what
capacity do you identify with this label of “A/PIA”? I don’t think that I identified as A/PIA as extensively as I do now until college. Obviously, when you’re in a country like Burma— which is in Asia—you’re not like “oh, I’m Asian”, because everyone around you is technically Asian. Asian is a label you get when you’re not in Asia. I don’t remember much from before I was seven, but I don’t think I ever would have identified myself as Asian back in Burma. If anything, I would’ve identified myself as Chin—as Zo… because that’s what I was. I was Chin first and Burmese second. Burmese was just a nationality rather than a basis of ethnicity. When I came to the U.S., in intermediate school, people would call me Asian and some of the things people would call me were derogatory. We lived in an environment that was really conservative, so that was when I started to identify more as Asian. I really got exposed to A/ PIA cultures in freshman year of college because of the Asian population at U of M. I started to identify even more strongly the summer after my freshman year, when I interned at an AsianAmerican nonprofit. I really got to learn about the history of our community in America, and what it’s like now. Q: In that vein, how do you view your relationship with the larger A/PIA community on campus? I think I’m slowly trying to insert myself into the larger A/ PIA community now, but I wasn’t really doing it consciously. What happened in the beginning was that one of the earliest friends I made here is Korean-American, and two of my close Asian friends now are Korean-American. Now, I have friends who are more apart of the Asian community than I would consider myself to be. I would still say that my current relationship with the larger A/PIA community is from a bird’s eye view. I’m not not apart of it, but I’m also not within it.
It’s more like I’m looking from the outside and doing things like the A/PIA Heritage Month Committee. But I don’t think that I really try to consciously navigate the community here. It might be because I was really aware of it freshman year, but I think it was also that the activities that I was involved in never had many Asian people. If you’re in a pre-law fraternity or policy organizations—not to generalize—but there aren’t many Asian people in those spaces. I think I’m in the process of trying to build a more tangible relationship with the A/PIA community, but I’m still at a place where I’m trying to figure it out because I don’t really know where my place is right now. I just know that I want to find a place. Q: You talked about not being able to insert yourself into the community. In your time on campus, do you feel like there have been barriers to being able to find an entry-point into the community? I think the barriers are twofold. One is because of the way the community functions, and the other is because of feeling like my interests and who I am didn’t quite align with the majority of the A/PIA community. I think it’s because I grew up in a very Caucasian, southern environment. I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I haven’t really found Asian-Americans with my own interests. I don’t think it’s because they don’t exist, but I think it’s because I either haven’t looked hard enough, or they haven’t presented themselves to me. Like, I’m really into old Hollywood films and British literature and history, and I’ve found that a lot of people who are into those things aren’t always Asian-American. I don’t really know why, and that’s still something I’m trying to figure out.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Yoni Ki Baat: An act of resistance NA’KIA CHANNEY Senior MiC Editor
The copper seats of Rackham Auditorium shone in the yellow stage light, engulfing the room in a warm glow. As the actors ascended the stage in unison, each step with audible purpose and strength, their voices rang out through the auditorium with power and resilience. With the last line spoken and heads held high, complexions of brown flickered in the light — a warm reminder of the unity in the room. This is what resistance looked like March 13 at the Yoni Ki Baat monologue show. Founded in 2006, YKB began as a platform for women of color to boldly share their truth through self-expression. Though initially focused on challenging stereotypes plaguing South Asian women, YKB has since opened to all women of color to highlight experiences ignored in predominantly white feminist spaces. Discussing topics of culture, activism, mental health, sexuality and more, YKB is a dynamic space that aims to address and eliminate oppressive forces on campus and beyond. Resistance is more than the chosen theme of this year; it
is fundamental to the type of social justice that YKB uplifts. Central to the mission of YKB is social justice and activism. Vice President Akanksha Sahay, an LSA senior, who has been involved in YKB for 5 years, credits YKB as a core part of her self-growth and learning in social justice. “It’s given me a lot of patience to listen more, and at the same time be less afraid to be heard or to stand my ground to make sure that I am heard,” she said. Commenting on her own performance, Sahay reflects on “Two truths and a lie,” an anonymous piece that discusses themes of sexual assault, shame and consent. She connects the #MeToo phenomenon, a viral movement focused on providing healing for survivors and bringing conversations about sexual assault, to the forefront. Even though the piece is not her own, it is a narrative that countless survivors can connect to, either through personal experience or empathy. Core to the uniqueness of YKB is how it uses narratives to connect women through shared experiences and social justice. On campus, YKB serves to highlight coalitions of communities of color, their shared plights and their shared
solutions. “It’s a very unique space because I don’t think any other place quite exists to serve that particular set of identities with being a woman and not white. It was cool to see all that we had in common and to see all of the differences and to still relate to the roots of those issues,” Sahay said. An important element of social justice is coalitionbuilding, and YKB highlights the need for deep and meaningful relationships that can only come from storytelling and vulnerability. The space provides support, healing and confidence to women seeking to share their stories. With these pieces, both the audience and the performers hold within them these narratives, keeping them not only for their own reflection, but to share with others. “If any piece connects to even one person, it’s worked,” Sahay said. In addition to their annual monologue show, YKB hosts events such as open mics and dialogues throughout the school year aimed at increasing inclusivity and fellowship amongst women of color. Anyone interested in getting involved with YKB can contact ykb.board@umich.edu.
April 8, 2018
AISA VILLAROSA MiC Contributor
As a College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alum, some of my dearest Michigan memories involve Professor Emily Lawsin shouting out her truth. “Clean out your ears and your skeleton closets, because I cannot take any more moments of silence!” Professor Lawsin declared in a 2006 spoken word performance. As a first generation Filipinx American raised in overlapping bubbles of racial, gender, and identity intolerance, these words – a brazen declaration against keeping quiet and quietly keeping to the “model minority” script – meant the world to me. The commitment to fighting for justice is born out of great need and great passion; Até Emily opened my eyes to both. By far, the most valuable course I took at the University of Michigan was Professor Lawsin’s American Culture 305, an Asian/Pacific Islander American (A/PIA) Studies service-learning initiative where Michigan students volunteered in Detroit’s Asian and Asian American communities. By diving into cross-systems lessons on civil rights and Asian American history, my fellow AC 305 advocates unlocked perspectives and life lessons that continue to guide me today. Professor Lawsin, and her persistence in ensuring that such courses existed, made these opportunities possible. Another A/PIA Studies seminar taught by Professor Lawsin highlighted larger feminist movements within Asian American history while calling on students to look within their own familial and cultural identities. For the class’s oral history assignment, I connected with my mother, a native of the Philippines, to craft an oral history of her life and journey to the United States. The exercise uncovered the hidden struggles and resilience of a bold, brave woman who sacrificed immense joy in her life to increase mine – a hushed trade-off, for generations of immigrants, as common as it is infrequently discussed. In Professor Lawsin’s classes, I first learned of enduring, complex pains within Asian American communities, documented in deceptively simple legal case names: People v. Hall (Chinese immigrants have no rights to testify against white citizens); Korematsu v. U.S. (the executive order interning Japanese Americans is constitutional); U.S. v. Ebens (Sixth Circuit appeal acquitting Vincent Chin’s
killer and finding no racial motivation in Chin’s death). Throughout this history of makibaka(“struggle”) emerged fierce and revolutionary resistance from civil and human rights leaders, including Grace Lee Boggs, Yuri Kochiyama, and Professor Lawsin herself. Theirs was a revolution I longed to join, first as a student activist and later, as a social justice advocate and attorney. I was so moved by Professor Lawsin’s leadership that I pursued and completed an Asian/Pacific Islander American Studies Minor in 2008. Together with Michigan’s A/PIA Studies community, a fierce cohort of students and faculty allies, I organized spaces and campaigns to protest inequities on-campus and off. Through it all, and at numerous gatherings, Professor Lawsin’s
“We will no longer be quietly betrayed by the ‘Michigan Difference’ — the University’s public praise of diversity devalued by the behind-the-scenes retaliation against educators and students of color...”
spoken word, poetry, and prose were a soundtrack to our hopes, laughs, progress, and heartaches. Over ten years after graduation, Professor Lawsin still gives me, and so many others, the tools, strategies, love, and inspiration to make the greatest impact in our communities. From the stage to the classroom, she uses her voice to teach the vibrant, living history of social justice while challenging intolerances across time, systems, and geography. Recently, I learned that the University of Michigan has acted, repeatedly, to silence that voice. In February 2018, the Departments of Women’s Studies and American Culture voted to recommend Professor Lawsin’s termination, citing reasons that flout antidiscrimination laws and policies. In further violation of these professional and legal
protections, the College of LSA also voted to terminate Professor Lawsin in March 2018. Rather than shock, there is a familiar wave of betrayal, disappointment, and anger: The attempts to terminate Professor Lawsin are the latest, and among the most egregious, attacks on A/PIA Studies, a program that the University has systematically failed to support since its inception. In 2013, the University presented me with a Humanitarian Service Award for work with Detroit’s disconnected communities of color. At the time, I believed that such recognition signaled authentic dedication to diversity. After learning that the University is punishing Professor Lawsin and others simply for teaching “the Filipino experience,” however, I fear that this commitment rings hollow. After nearly a decade of fighting within and across numerous movements, Té Emily’s call to challenge systemic and individual moments of silence still resonates. As students, alumni, and supporters of justice, we must answer that call, time and time again: “See, we cannot waste Any more moments of silence. And this ain’t about just taking back the night, I’m talking about taking back the day-to-day, Because I am done with the silence.” We will no longer be quietly betrayed by the “Michigan Difference” – the University’s public praise of diversity, devalued by behind-the-scenes retaliation against educators and students of color; nor will we tolerate the absence of transparency given to a scholar, author, and artist who has, for over 18 years, strengthened Women’s Studies, American Culture, and innumerable intersections that have benefited from her expertise and labor. Join the campaign to ensure equity for Professor Lawsin and A/PIA Studies. Doing so will honor a world-class instructor while championing the educational, historic, and cultural autonomy that students and communities of color have long been denied – and, building the flourishing, multicultural, and welcoming University we deserve. “Our feet can no longer be bound Our eyes cannot be taped… I cannot take any more moments of silence Because silence has already taken too much From me.”
Opinion
4A — Monday, March 26, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
HANK MINOR | COLUMN
The strategic advantage of white nationalists
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com
ALEXA ST. JOHN Editor in Chief
DAYTON HARE
ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND ASHLEY ZHANG
Managing Editor
Editorial Page Editors
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Emma Chang Joel Danilewitz Samantha Goldstein Elena Hubbell Emily Huhman Tara Jayaram
Jeremy Kaplan Sarah Khan Lucas Maiman Magdalena Mihaylova Ellery Rosenzweig
Jason Rowland Anu Roy-Chaudhury Alex Satola Ali Safawi Ashley Zhang Sam Weinberger
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
ANONYMOUS | COLUMN
Surviving in silence
Editor’s note: The name of the author has been omitted to protect their identity. f you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, depression or anxiety, seek help. It might not be easy, but trust me: There are good people out there willing to help. I hope my story can provide hope for those who are struggling. The police arrived at 1:30 a.m. They were responding to a call made by a frantic 21-yearold female claiming her boyfriend was trying to hurt himself. She told them she was worried he might try to commit suicide. She was right, and had she not been there, he probably would have. I know this because it was my girlfriend who called the police and I was planning to kill myself with a mixture of prescription drugs and alcohol. My story is not unique. Many people at the University of Michigan, in this country and around the world can relate to what I am about to discuss. I write this account not in search of pity, but in an attempt to shed light on cultural and societal issues regarding mental illness. My struggle with depression began when I was 15 years old. I had just entered high school and I was starting to get bullied. To be clear, reallife bullying is very different from the sort of bullying depicted in popular culture. I was never physically bullied, it was always emotional — but to be honest, I think physical would have been easier to deal with. At least then I would be able to fight back. I know what some of you are thinking — I must be one of those sensitive generation Z’ers who is afraid of confrontation and needs a participation trophy. I’m not. In fact, many people would consider me to be a physically imposing and verbally-assertive individual. Still, none of that mattered. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like or where you come from, emotional abuse is damaging and, in many cases, more harmful than physical abuse. After the bullying started, I was put on antidepressants and A.D.D. medication because I was finding it difficult to focus in school. With the exception of my doctor and my parents, nobody knew about these newfound issues I was dealing with. They rarely do. As time went on, my mood began to improve. Eventually, I was able to stop taking the antidepressants. While I still experienced low mood and sadness from time to time, nothing too concerning happened until last fall. That fall semester of my junior year had not been going well. As November rolled in, I did not have an internship lined up and my grades were plummeting. I’d been working harder than ever before, yet nothing was paying off. I didn’t know what to do, and that’s when the panic attacks started. I first experienced tightness in my chest, followed by difficulty breathing and uncontrollable shaking. Often times, this would go on for hours and I would lose feeling in parts of
I
my body. Initially, I thought it was a one-time thing and tried ignoring it; however, the problem became unavoidable when I began to experience these attacks three or more times per week. Perhaps the most concerning part about these attacks was my ability to conceal them. I lived with several of my friends at the time and, to the best of my knowledge, none of them had a clue any of this was happening. Eventually, I was prescribed a new medication to deal with my anxiety and depression, but I experienced a number of negative side effects, so I stopped taking it after two days. With anxiety, depression and the overwhelming responsibilities coming from my schoolwork and internship search, I did not feel like I had enough time to notify my doctor of the change. So I didn’t.
After being the most depressed I had ever been in my life, I was called crazy by a social worker.
When the police arrived at 1:30 a.m. that night, they were greeted by an open container of Xanax on the f loor of my room. I was only in my underwear when they told me that I had to come with them. To the best of my knowledge, they treated me with as much kindness as they could, but it still felt as though I was being treated like a criminal. After searching me, they put me in the back of their squad car. I was already feeling worse than I had 10 minutes prior (and that was the worst I had ever felt in my life). They took me to the emergency psychiatric services unit of the hospital where a tether was placed on my wrist to prevent me from escaping. They sat me down in a chair and told me that I would have to speak with a doctor. After waiting for two hours, I went to the front desk to politely ask when I might be able to see a doctor. The receptionist gave me an unkind glare and said, “I don’t know,” as if I was out of line for asking her this question. I was not seen by a doctor until noon the following day. After being in the most depressed I have ever been in my life, I was placed in a psychiatric hospital waiting room for 10 hours with no bed. When I finally met with the doctor, I was not listened to. I would even argue the doctor made subtle attempts to belittle me. He told me I would need to go to a psychiatric hospital in Pontiac, one hour away, for at least one to two weeks. I would be separated from my family, my girlfriend and all of my friends. I would also be unable to work on any schoolwork, one of my main
sources of anxiety. After being the most depressed I had ever been in my life, I was separated from all of my loved ones. When I arrived at the hospital, I was escorted in by a security g uard. All of my possessions were taken from me (including my clothes and underwear), and I was assigned a room with a roommate. To be frank, this hospital was primarily for aggressive, manic and even legally insane patients. After being the most depressed I had ever been in my life, I was taken out of the University community and unwillingly surrounded by individuals who didn’t understand what I was going through. My experience in this hospital was not good. I wanted to leave, my parents wanted me to leave and my girlfriend wanted me to leave. Legally, I could not leave. I participated in a number of “mentally stimulating” activities such as arts and crafts and coloring on blank paper. But here is the real kicker. After being the most depressed I had ever been in my life, I was called crazy by a social worker. I am not crazy. The hospital food was very poor and, even though I had loved ones who were more than willing to bring me food, I was not allowed to have any food that came from outside the hospital. After being the most depressed I had ever been in my life, I was not allowed to eat foods that I enjoyed. After a week in the hospital, I was finally allowed to leave — yet I felt worse than I had when I arrived. I returned to school a few days later and, just as I had feared, was not granted ample time to make up my work — let alone catch up on the new topics that I had missed. I did not feel comfortable sharing my situation with my professors, so I’m sure they assumed I was in the hospital for something generic like the flu. I went on to fail one of my courses. Put yourself in my shoes for a moment. Put yourself in the shoes of the overwhelming number of individuals who share similar experiences. I can assure you when you walk by me on campus, you will not identify me as the individual that wrote this. I can also assure you I hear you when you sarcastically say, “I want to kill myself,” after receiving a B on a paper. Mental health is a major issue at the University, in this country and around the world. I wrote this article prior to the recent statements issued by NBA stars DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love detailing their own respective battles with mental health. Just like the stories of DeMar and Kevin have already done, I hope my story can provide inspiration to those who struggle with mental illness. I think both DeMar and Kevin would both agree with me when I say this: It’s time for a change.
The author is an LSA junior.
A
lot of the arg uments about free speech on campus — at least the ones to which I’ve been priv y — frame the controversy as whether or not it’s legitimate to “debate” white nationalists, given that debate appears to put outdated and (reasonably labeled) dangerous ideas on the same plane as basic intersectionality and values of liberal democracy. I think our inability to make satisfactory progress on this front comes from this assumption that the controversy is a binary decision of whether or not there should be debate. There are some arg uments for — like we’ve seen in other parts of the West — outright censure of hate speech, but I think this is, in the short term, impractical. Court decisions in the past 15 years have trended toward a broad interpretation of the first amendment (Citizens United, Buckley v. Valeo) and support for widely defined free speech is actually up among American college students. A different approach to the same problem requires looking at the strategies of Western white nationalists — how have they managed to revive overt racism as a political orientation, and how have they spread it beyond a handful of fascist websites? I think the answer comes in three parts: irony, liberal strateg y and determination. Engaging with uncomfortable ideas through the filter of irony is something we’re all familiar with — jokes about academic stress, depression and the millennial condition abound online. White nationalists use the same strateg y, focusing specifically on vulnerable populations — overwhelmingly men, especially white men, who are active in close-knit online communities. Most of us have some
immunization against outright fascism, from a basic understanding of history and American government. Slowly wearing down these defenses, wrapped within the plausible deniability of irony, opens the door for later overt radicalization. Until the moment they commit to some extreme ideolog y, there’s never a moment where people being lobbied have to confront, in plain terms, exactly what their new beliefs mean. The strateg y of nonengagement on the part of the left seems to enhance this radicalization via irony. Everyone likes to have their beliefs confirmed, and a political strateg y of explaining in blunt terms why people are wrong seems to me undoubtedly ineffective.
Liberal strategy, at risk of trivializing it, just isn’t cool.
Liberal strateg y, at risk of trivializing it, just isn’t cool. It’s understandable to be angry about injustice, and it’s useful to shore up support among people who are still on board with democracy and basic American values, but it doesn’t win support from people who are already feeling attacked. There’s a reason the majority of rightwing content — with the notable exception of Alex Jones — seems to be about coolly making fun of leftists who are “out of control.” The descent of people who’ve stepped toward white nationalism can quite easily accelerate when our attempts
at mitigation largely take the form of reprimand. People on the left have defensible reasons to refrain from speaking — it’s not the job of marginalized people to prove their humanity, it wastes energ y on a debate settled two generations ago, it recognizes abhorrent beliefs — but from a purely practical perspective, I don’t know if that strateg y is going to win. White nationalists are more than happy to spend their time “educating ” vulnerable populations, and unilateral disarmament by people generally interested in liberal values only expedites this process. When we have a confrontation between one faction that makes a lot of superficially compelling arg uments — “Why is Israel allowed to be an ethnostate?”; “How is it hate to have pride in oneself?”; “Why is the left afraid to answer our questions?” — and one faction that refuses to engage on principle, the latter group loses. It’s not fair, and it can be exhausting, but white nationalist movements with significant momentum have never congratulated their leftist opponents for standing by their principles. Refusing debate can be strategic; refusing to promote a counternarrative is, in the face of rising momentum, unquestionably foolish. It’s important to remember our audience isn’t full of the types of people who march in support of the Confederacy, torch in hand — white nationalists aren’t trying to convert members of Antifa or the DSA. The unengaged moderate — frustratingly, perpetually — decides whose values are realized in legislation, and whose are relegated to history. Hank Minor can be reached at hminor@umich.edu.
MATTHEW FRIEND | COLUMN
A
Wherever you go, Go Blue
s I write this, it’s the evening of St. Patrick’s Day in Ann Arbor, and for perhaps the first time all day, the city is silent. Every television in town is tuned to the same network with the same three numbers lit across the bottom of every screen: 61, 63, 3.6. I look around me to see two friends staring intently at the screen, two other friends with their heads on the table, hands anxiously running through their hair, and the final member of our group still standing at the bar, afraid that any movement he makes might further jinx the game. Isaiah Livers inbounds the ball to Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman, who dribbles down the court and dishes it out to Jordan Poole. Poole rises off the ground, legs jutting out like a cross between the Jumpman logo and a newborn calf, the ball cutting through the net as time expires. The backboard turns bright red, signifying the game is in fact officially over, and the other spectators explode around us. The 22 year old in front of me stands up on top of our table screaming, cheap beer spilling everywhere. I go to high five the man I assume to be a dad behind me, who slaps away my hand and gives me what might be best described as a bearhug, my feet leaving the floor as we embrace. Undergraduates, Ph.D. students and families alike celebrate together in the bar, and as we walk through the door into the oddly warm Ann Arbor evening, I realize this exact scene is consistent in every bar, restaurant and home around us. Strangers are hugging and high fiving, hoots and hollers are coming from every direction and even the occasional glass bottle is being smashed in the typical fashion of an aggressive, testosteronefueled college celebration. So, what’s the point of this
anecdote? Well, I can only speak for myself, but with only five weeks left before I retire from my career at the University of Michigan, shift the tassel on my graduation cap to the other side and officially become alum, I feel like I already have one foot out the door here. I’ve spent much of my free time thinking about the future, looking for apartments in the city I will be moving to next fall and putting together summer plans to enjoy the time between graduation and employment. I’ve felt lethargic at times, unmotivated to invest more in my life and relationships here
My connection, our connection, to this campus is far from over. when I will be moving away from many of my commitments and the people around me so shortly. The many experiences that once brought me great joy and defined my University experience, from walking to class and watching the oversized squirrels eat lunch, to laughing with friends as we all enter the library comically late to cram for midterms, now feel like cathartic lasts. These feelings and experiences over my past semester have made me feel ready to leave Ann Arbor, to hit the refresh button on my life and throw myself into my next chapter. I’m ready to leave the parties that have become stale, peers who I feel disconnected from and classes in which I am simply going through the motions. But when Jordan Poole
hit that three-point shot, I realized something. It wasn’t just the entire bench of Michigan players and the city of Ann Arbor that rose to their feet. U-M students studying abroad all over the world, from Argentina to Spain to Hong Kong, were all watching live-streams on their laptops and cell phones, celebrating. Simultaneously, alumni in cities across the globe were clapping their hands and yelling in public, continuing the traditions they’d each learned during their time in Ann Arbor. I bring this up because, just as many of my peers and I feel like we are leaving the University, it does not mean we can’t take parts of our experience with us, and it certainly does not mean we cannot return hoMe. We do not need to be physically on campus to high five and celebrate with others wearing maize-and-blue attire during March Madness, or any given Saturday for that matter. We do not need to be undergraduates to continue to follow the academic research and developments being pursued on campus, and to take pride in the accomplishments of both current students and alumni. And we certainly do not need to be in Ann Arbor to stay in touch with the friends we have made here over the past four years, or to make new connections based on our shared experiences. My connection, our connection, to this campus is far from over. And while these last five weeks will move fast for all of us, I hope we can continue to treat these lasts not as the end of an era, but as the base for our futures as Wolverines.
Matthew Friend can be reached at mjfri@umich.edu
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Monday, March 26, 2018 — 5A
TV INTERVIEW
‘U’ alum Ned Rice talks late-night TV writing, satire MEGHAN CHOU Daily Arts Writer
University of Michigan alumnus Ned Rice, ’83, has worked at many late-night television shows, including “Real Time with Bill Maher,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” He found his passion for comedy while at the University, writing sketches for Ann Arbor Tonight, a satirical news show which shot material in what is now the Hands On Museum. Since switching to freelance writing, Rice has sought ways to spread satirical television, joining Brooklynbased company Pilot Media Initiatives (PMI) briefly. Kevin Bleyer, a fellow writer for Bill Maher’s shows “Politically Incorrect” and “Real Time,” co-founded PMI with Rice with the goal of setting up programs under the format of “The Daily Show” in developing countries like Nigeria, Macedonia and Kyrgyzstan. In Nigeria, local comic Okechukwu Onyegbule — who goes by the stage name Okey Bakassi — hosts the satirical show “The Other News,” currently in its second season. “The Other News” directs its content towards young people, adopting a conversational tone similar to Trevor Noah’s show. When asked about censorship abroad, Rice responded, “Guess what? Zero. Nobody ever said you can’t say that. I had more censorship in the States. I don’t remember ever having a joke cut.” Despite a limited budget and small crew, “The Other News” has established itself as a popular local staple. The show’s success is impressive given the quick turnover time allowed to launch the series and the fact that none of the writers have previously worked
in television before. Rice served as a consultant for the test, fake pilot and pilot episodes. His time in Nigeria helped him realize his love for teaching and strengthened his faith in satire’s ability to change things for the better. He spoke with The Daily in a phone interview about the international satire initiative. The Michigan Daily: How effectively or realistically do you believe satire can shape politics? Ned Rice: It’s very effective and a good way of keeping elected officials in line. I saw recently that China has just banned certain satirical TV parodies because it’s considered a violation of socialist core values. That gives an indication of how much satire threatens the powers that be. And that’s always been the case with satire. It certainly played a role in the Nixon and Reagan administrations and with lots of other leaders. To tell the truth, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” was a big factor in getting Barack Obama elected because Stewart got a lot more young people involved in the political conversation and more decided to participate and vote. So I think satire can be very helpful in promoting democracy. When I was writing for late night, there were a lot of jokes during the Clinton years. Most of the jokes helped maintain his popularity, though, and keep him in office when he was in trouble. Obviously, we made jokes about him, but they were more targeted at Republicans for being hypocrites. I think it actually helped Clinton. I’m sure he would disagree, but I think it did. TMD: You left late-night before the 2016 election. However, in your opinion, how has Trump changed satire and comedy in America? And did Trump
Classifieds
have any inf luence on the material you produced abroad? NR: Shows used to pretend to be objective and now they don’t anymore: They’re openly partisan. Stephen Colbert, for example, he doesn’t just make Trump jokes, he openly insults the President, as do Jimmy Kimmel and pretty much all of the hosts. It used to be more sly. They used to pretend to be objective and unbiased. It’s openly hostile now to the point where some of it isn’t really satire anymore, it’s just editorializing. This partisanship is new — a new type of comedy in reaction to the current events. I’ve been covering this stuff for 25 years and it’s about the most subjective treatment of news I’ve ever seen. They used to say, not just in satire but journalism too, something like “President Trump said X, Y and Z, which a certain number of people would disagree with that conclusion.” Now they just say, “President Trump said X, Y and Z, which is a lie.” It didn’t used to be that on the nose, but the gloves are off now. I think this an interesting new development. Things weren’t this way under Reagan or Bush, and they were considered pretty extreme. With Trump, though, none of the rules apply anymore. But abroad? Very, very little. I asked the writers in Nigeria, “First of all, how much of your show do you want to be Nigerian content versus global?” And they said, “We want it all Nigerian.” I said, “So you don’t want Trump jokes or any Brexit jokes? You don’t want any Theresa May jokes?” They said, “Nope, we just want it to be Nigerian.” There may have been one reference to Trump the whole time I was there. They really wanted it to be local, so that’s what we did. TMD: Since Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups and several major religions, how
Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
FOR RENT RELEASE DATE– Monday, March 26, 2018
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Norway’s capital 5 Central Florida city 10 Distillery containers 14 Procrastinator’s promise 15 Something in the air 16 Building beam 17 Narrow land formation along the Bering Sea 20 Price hike: Abbr. 21 Bard’s “before” 22 Billionaire Bill 23 Puts on the line 25 Marshy area 26 Most despicable 29 “Citizen Kane” sled 33 Upstate New York Winter Olympics village 36 Acapulco article 37 O. Henry specialty 38 It was thrown into the harbor in a 1773 “party” 39 Ingenious 41 __ long way: help considerably 42 Washington city with a repetitive name 44 Intertwined 47 Not as cold, as weather 48 Hi-tech worker 49 Hindu deity 51 “Nonsense!” 54 Spy org. called “The Company” 55 Hamburg’s river 58 Scottish archipelago 62 Hot under the collar 63 Ball girl 64 Bothers no end 65 Like golf balls at the start of a hole, usually 66 Nuclear trial 67 Weight loss plan DOWN 1 Mama bear, in Mexico 2 Songs sung alone
3 Student aid 4 In the movies 5 Egg cells 6 “RUR” playwright 7 Copycats 8 Word with wolf or Ranger 9 Shapiro of NPR 10 Countenance 11 Adjoin 12 “A __ of Two Cities” 13 Mmes., in Madrid 18 __ Kreme: doughnut brand 19 Private nonprofits: Abbr. 24 Mo. town 25 Physique, informally 26 “Mudbound” actress Mary J. __ 27 Composer Copland 28 Norwegian toast 29 Mideast money 30 Erect a house 31 Parent’s brother 32 Senegal’s capital 34 Barely more than not at all 35 Animation frame
39 Turn like a chair 40 2016 Gosling/Stone film ... and, as shown by circles, what each of four answers is 42 Dripping __: soaked 43 Parisian pal 45 Died down 46 Monastic hood
49 Move furtively 50 Waves for, as a taxi 51 Hissed “Hey!” 52 Loafer or moc 53 “Take this” 54 Tech news site 56 __ B’rith 57 Barely beat 59 Attorneys’ org. 60 Filming site 61 Retired flier, briefly
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
2 & 4 Bedroom Apartments $1400‑$2800 plus utilities. Tenants pay electric to DTE Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3 w/ 24 hour notice required 1015 Packard 734‑996‑1991 5 & 6 Bedroom Apartments 1014 Vaughn $3000 ‑ $3600 plus utilities Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3 w/ 24 hour notice required 734‑996‑1991
ARBOR PROPERTIES Award‑Winning Rentals in KerrytownCentral Campus, Old West Side, Burns Park. Now Renting for 2018. 734‑649‑8637 | www.arborprops.com
03/26/18
FALL 2018 HOUSES # Beds Location Rent 6 1016 S. Forest $4300 4 827 Brookwood $3000 4 852 Brookwood $3000 4 1210 Cambridge $3000 Tenants pay all utilities. Showings scheduled M‑F 10‑3 w/ 24 hr notice required 734‑996‑1991
SUMMER EMPLOYMENT
By Paul Coulter ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/26/18
WORK ON MACKINAC Island This Summer – Make lifelong friends. The Island House Hotel and Ryba’s Fudge Shops are seeking help in all areas: Front Desk, Bell Staff, Wait Staff, Sales Clerks, Kitchen, Baristas. Dorm Housing, bonus, and discount‑ ed meals. (906) 847‑7196. www.theislandhouse.com
did the writers navigate this political landscape? NR: There were quite a few disagreements in the writer’s room about what was OK and what wasn’t. It got quite passionate. It was fascinating because they weren’t all from the same area. It’s like people coming from different states in the U.S., they don’t all think alike so there were a lot of arguments. I remember one time there was this story about these two priests who were fighting and the Pope ordered them to make peace. I made a joke about it, that was a little off-color, and the writers said, “Oh no! We can’t do that. We can’t do a joke about Catholicism.” They were shocked, which really surprised me. But they were generally pretty happy to make fun of the president of Nigeria. He was on this extended medical leave in London and nobody knew why. They were pretty tough about that, but there were certain topics they shied away from. TMD: What challenges did you face making the test and pilot episodes? NR: It had to happen so quickly. We did the whole thing in three weeks, which is unheard of. We started from nothing, from scratch. In the States, they would give you at a lot more time to get everything worked out for a brand new show. We just didn’t have that. Everything needed to happen today or right now. I remember one of the first few days, we were told to make promos. I asked, “When do you need them?” And they said, “This afternoon.” I said, “Well that’s not possible.” But guess what? We did it. We wrote them, shot them and edited them and they had them in their hands the next morning. That would never happen in the States, but we had no choice. And actually, I loved it. I love deadlines because it’s exciting. You feel adrenaline. But there was no time to goof around, absolutely none. You had to get it right the first time. The things we adjusted were mostly technical. When you’re doing jokes with a picture over the anchor’s shoulder, the timing
has to be perfect or else the audience will not laugh. The photo has to appear at the exact right time or the joke, no matter how good it is, does not land. That took a lot of practice with the technical department. And then sometimes they’d shoot a piece that was six to eight minutes long. I said, “Look guys, if I were you, I’d cut this down to about three minutes. There can’t be any gaps. If the audience isn’t laughing, you should probably make some cuts.” So by necessity, the pieces had to be cut right down to the bone. TMD: Field pieces are a big part of “The Daily Show.” What sorts of field pieces did “The Other News” try? NR: We only did a couple. One, we sent a reporter to the equivalent of the Nigerian Academy Awards and she interviewed a bunch of actors. It was pretty funny, actually, because none of them would go on camera, on record, to talk about politics. Every single one of them was all nice and charming. They would say, “Oh, this is such a nice evening.” But as soon as we asked, “What do you think about the President?” They were all like, “No, no, no. We’re not talking about that …” It was really comical. For the other field piece, the President of Nigeria said, “We’re going to start making pencils. We’re going to become the pencil capital of the world. This is going to create millions of jobs.” And the correspondents were like, “Pencils? What?” So they did an investigative piece about that. They went to find out where the wood comes from that makes the pencils. They interviewed government officials. They went to a school and talked to a bunch of kids about pencils. It was kind of like a goofy, “you’re kidding, right?” TMD: How did you navigate cultural differences in the writer’s room, especially when helping make a joke funny that might require knowledge of local customs? NR: If they threw out a name, I’d say, “Who’s that person? And why is he or she famous?” And they would tell me and then
I’d go, “OK, I get it. I get the joke.” Or I would just say, “Do you guys know this expression? Do you guys use this figure of speech?” They would either say yes or no. And then we would just figure it out. The people we worked with watched a lot of American and British TV. They were pretty well versed. One was a huge Bill Maher fan and they all loved Trevor Noah and enjoyed John Oliver. They had seen pretty much all the American shows because they’re all online. We had a lot of common ground that way. There were certain figures of speech that were local they just had to teach me and then I would understand them. Certain things that seemed really funny to Nigerian people was the government, which has been fairly corrupt over the years. They were all very cynical, and yet very hopeful too, about their government. I got the contours pretty quickly. Sometimes I would hear a joke and I wouldn’t get it, but everyone else laughed. Then they would explain it to me after and I would go, yes, that really makes sense to me. And some of the jokes I didn’t think were funny, but the audience laughed their heads off and I’m like, that’s a good one. Some things translate and some things don’t, but it was really fun finding out which things we all had in common. TMD: How did you address the potential problem of this initiative turning into a “white savior” narrative? NR: That’s a good question. We were just hyper-aware of it at all times. I remember saying to them many, many times: “This is your show. You do whatever you want to do. If I were you, this is what I would do.” Sometimes they would take my advice and sometimes they wouldn’t. It never seemed to be about race to me or nationality. It was more like, I’ve done this for many years and you guys haven’t, so here’s what I would suggest. But it was always their show. That was really important to all of this: This is your show. You’re going to find out through trial and error what works, and they did.
BOOKS
‘The Möbius Strip Club of Grief’ is colorful, rich SOPHIA KAUFMAN Daily Arts Writer
“The Möbius Strip Club of Grief,” a new collection of poems by Bianca Stone, isn’t gentle. The introduction is brutally reminiscent of the reprise of “Willkommen” from “Cabaret”: a beckoning hand, straining to reach a smoky sultriness and achieving instead a sour, seedy
“The Möbius Strip Club of Grief” Bianca Stone TinHouse Feb. 27, 2018 starkness. It’s sardonic, the narrator describing the Möbius Strip Club of Grief, where the strippers are alarmingly undead, the dead sit at the back of the club and the men are hanging themselves from the rafters. They leave smells and tears and no notes. Stone has positioned herself as someone who has tasted the fruit of the underworld — she can see beyond the glamours and be a detached observer of everything spinning around her, the life of a stenographer. The majority of the poems construct and take place in a burlesque purgatory in which the dead perform grotesque replicas of living, shuffling their need from murky place to murky place.
Her poems discuss how women temper themselves in order to give — and what happens when temptation strains temperance, when want threatens to overflow. Some of the poems that hold the most heartache are those closely tied to the idea of female erotic dancers, past their prime, in a burlesque setting — “Lap Dance,” for example, which begins with a stripper announcing her belief that everyone is happier with her gone. Others hold clues not only of Stone’s milieu — including unnervingly recent references, like a nod to “Mad Max” — but of her knowledge of elsewheres and other times; boomboxes blare Chopin here. The descriptions of the undead persons are so corporeal — think “Swiss Army Man,” but poetic — and their need to communicate often threatens to spill over. Some lines almost feel more starkly beautiful on their own than woven into their respective poems — which, incidentally, is not a bad problem to have. Several slice up the meanings of things we might often take for granted — what suffering accomplishes, how grieving possesses a body, how the dead leave their mark — offering startling new ways to look at our own mortality and our relationships with family. “The Möbius Strip Club of Grief” is a labyrinthine exploration of loss and mourning, weaving a tapestry of grief with a carefully curated color palette,
a spattering of bold and blunt declarations of truth against a muted backdrop of thoughtful
Stone has positioned herself as someone who has tasted the fruit of the underworld — she can see beyond the glamours and be a detached observer of everything spinning around her, the life of a stenographer
— sometimes droll, sometimes anguished — emotion. The poems question whether it’s the dead with a limerence for the living — or the other way around.
Arts
6A — Monday, March 26, 2018
WORLD MUSIC COLUMN
MUSIC ALBUM REVIEW
Musas, Vol. 2 by Lafourcade SAYAN GHOSH
World Music Columnist
I think I’m in love with Natalia Lafourcade. It’s been a long time coming since I first saw the video of her 2017 hit “Tú sí sabes quererme.” Intrigued, I went on a long dive into her discography, mostly consisting of poppy but excellently produced soft rock whose sheer sweetness called back memories of listening to Belle and Sebastian for the first time. Musas: Volume 1 arrived late last year to make things even worse, and before long, she was breaking my heart on the stage of the 90th Academy Awards as she performed the stunning “Remember Me.” Musas: Volume 2, her latest album, quite simply outdid all of her previous work and melted my soul. Musas is a rare album that manages to be sweet without descending into a state of being cheaply saccharine. Produced in collaboration with a group of musicians known as Los Macorinos, it is a modern reinterpretation of Latin folk that Lafourcade describes as her musical and cultural roots. It is refreshingly intimate and casual while also respecting its influences with tight, meticulously arranged instrumentation. “Danza de Gardenias” begins the album on an upbeat, energetic note. It is one of the fuller cuts on the album, with a variety of percussion and brass solos on top of the traditional acoustic guitar accompaniments. While Lafourcade’s voice isn’t the most technically skilled or one with the highest range, she can still pull off the powerful vocals required in a song such as “Danza de Gardenias.” She truly excels, however, at slightly more subdued yet playful tracks such as “Duerme
Negrito.” A reinterpretation of a popular lullaby, the song features a rhythmic backing of soft, staccato acoustic guitars and Lafourcade at her most entertaining. Even the most stone-faced of listeners will find it difficult to resist busting out a small jig and stupidly grinning while Lafourcade gently admonishes her subject. “La Llorona” continues the theme of Lafourcade revisiting cultural artifacts while taking a break from the slightly more upbeat nature of the rest of the album. She tells the story of the titular character, a ghost of a beautiful woman who drowned her own children and spends the rest of eternity looking for them in lakes and rivers, all while wailing and causing misfortune to those around her. In a beautifully haunting retelling of the famous legend, Lafourcade sings, “No sé qué tienen las flores, Llorona / Las flores de un camposanto” (“I don’t know what’s in the flowers / the flowers in a graveyard”). “Desdeñosa (En Mano de Los Macorinos)” lifts the mood immediately after. It is the only track on the album with guest features, and in this case, two huge figures of Latin music: the Cuban singer Omara Portuondo, a member of the legendary band Buena Vista Social Club, and Eugenia León, a Mexican singer. They trade gorgeous verses addressed to a girl who is “tan linda como desdeñosa” (“as beautiful as disdainful”). Musas is an incredibly creative and masterfully arranged homage to Natalia Lafourcade’s musical roots. From the opening chords of “Danza de Gardenias,” one can tell that it, as Natalia Lafourcade herself describes, is a project of passion. It reminds us why Lafourcade has rightfully cemented herself as one of the most prolific figures in Latin pop today.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THIRD MAN RECORDS
Jack White is as weird, scattered and revelatory as ever in his latest LAURA DZUBAY Daily Arts Writer
Jack White has never been an easy guy to predict. Back in his early days with The White Stripes, he practically made an art out of throwing people for a loop. This has held true ever since, whether he’s deliberately surprising people, by spinning rumors about himself for fun — like the idea that ex-bandmate Meg White was his sister — or simply showcasing his usual, bizarre personality. This strange eccentricity comes out in full color on Boarding House Reach, White’s first album since 2014’s Lazaretto. He was working with a brand new group of session musicians when he went to record the songs, which he’d written by himself in an apartment in Nashville. This was apparently meant as another in a long line of White’s experiments, such as trying out recording with ancient equipment for American Epic or alternating between an allfemale and an all-male backing band during the tour for Blunderbuss. The result is exactly as weird and varied as you would expect — which, in a way, gives us a bit of a paradox. On Boarding House Reach, White brings back
a lot of the crackling guitars, establishment-bashing and raw voltage that has made his work stand out on previous albums like Lazaretto. That being said, the question isn’t whether Boarding House Reach is doing
Boarding House Reach Jack White Third Man Records anything new — the question is whether that newness is amounting to anything substantive. On first listen, the album comes across as a characteristic mishmash of genres, both across the span of its 13 tracks and on a more micro scale. “Humoresque” is a reworking of some old sheet music of Antonín Dvorák, and the delightfully punchy “Over and Over and Over” is a leftover discard from White Stripes years. Beyond that, White falls back on his old appreciations for rock and alternative blues, but also makes use of funk and even something akin to rap. The latter occurs on perhaps the weirdest track of the album, “Ice Station Zebra.” Maneuvering between hushed drums and twangy funk, the song as a whole can best be described as what a
transmission from aliens might sound like, if the aliens were reading a very strained poem as a way of saying their first hello to planet Earth. The album explores sonic and especially vocal territory, from the blaring demands of “Corporation” to the brief, weirdly polemic narration of “Abulia and Akrasia.” Then there’s “Ezmerelda Steals the Show,” a brief, oddly tender recitation that loses a lot of its meaning with the pretentious final line, “You people are totally absurd.” Viewed as separate, individual entities, these songs don’t seem to carry a great deal of meaning, at least not that can be easily discerned. However, strung together into a complete picture — well, that’s the thing, strung together, they still don’t. Boarding House Reach as a whole fits together convincingly but confusingly, blending the lore-laced poetry of folk with bare-bones garage rock, electric guitars, inspired funk and starved vocals. There are songs with a more classic feel, like the pleasantly tragic “What’s Done is Done,” as well as some that are more moody and dark, like “Why Walk a Dog?” with lines like, “These cats seem to blow everyone’s minds but mine.” And he makes a point of, yes, shafting our minds in the
synthy, existential trip, “Get in the Mind Shaft.” White is imitating and absorbing several different styles and genres, but embodying none of them completely, which is part of what makes the music so interesting. It’s uncategorizable. But it has never been Jack White’s M.O. to spoon-feed us his exact intent, or even to deliberately engineer meaning for all of his songs to begin with. One thing that can be said definitively about this album is that, even if it is at times performative, it speaks to a consistent truth about Jack White: He will never lower his own standards. He’s desperate for quality, for appreciation, for newness. As always, he sounds almost like he’s starving for something — whether that’s love, peace, absolution in the face of technology or simply the next rung up on a long creative ladder. Creativity, after all, is what White does best. Boarding House Reach is just that, a reach; you can’t say that it completely achieves what it’s aiming for, but it does manage at least to appear to explore some new heights. It doesn’t accomplish its goal with the same elegant verve of White’s previous solo endeavors, but it is creative and exploratory, and nothing personifies Jack White more than that.
TV
Alan Cumming singlehandedly carries ‘Instinct’ in CBS’s latest MORGAN RUBINO Daily Arts Writer
Crime procedurals have been dominating the television landscape for years now — with new police squads, murderers and interrogation rooms gracing screens every other week. Simply surviving on air among the competition becomes as difficult a task as adding something never-before-seen to the genre. So how does “Instinct,” CBS’s latest attempt at tackling that feat, hold up? Well, it features the first openly gay lead character on a Big Four network crime series, but without Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife”), the aforementioned lead, the show would be nothing. Simply put, I could watch Alan Cumming stare at a wall for 60 minutes and still feel content with it. He is just that captivating and charming of an actor. It’s unfortunate, though, that that’s only a step below what he actually does in “Instinct,” as almost every aspect of the pilot is extraordinarily ordinary. The premise of the series is surely one we’ve seen some variation of before: CIA agentturned-author-turned-psychology professor Dr. Dylan Reinhart (Cumming) finds his way back into law enforcement after detective Lizzie Needham (Bojana Novakovic, “Satisfaction”) pleads for his help. It turns out that
there is a serial killer on the loose who has been basing his crimes off of gambling strategies within Reinhart’s first novel. With every new murder victim found, the duo also finds a playing card that gives a clue as to who the next target will be. Even though the plot of the pilot appears intriguing on paper, when the time comes for Dylan and Lizzie to catch the killer, the whole
“Instinct” Series Premiere Sundays @ 8 PM CBS ordeal is extremely anticlimactic. Given that the first storyline turns out to be a disappointment, it will be interesting to see how the overarching plot, characters and entire show will move forward. If the series wants to go down the route of introducing a new, all too solvable crime each week and wrapping up each episode with a perfect bow, then “Instinct” is on track to be nothing better than an off-brand, somehow even more repetitive version of “Criminal Minds.” In a twist of good fortune, the chemistry between Cumming and Novakovic shows that there is still a chance for “Instinct” to evoke some emotion through the development of their partnership. The two acutely feed off of one
another and have the potential to work their way up the ranks of crowd favorite crime-fighting duos. With more enhanced storylines and revelation into their pasts, I could see this strictly work relationship go somewhere more personal. Hopefully, “Instinct” will shed more light on Reinhart’s sexuality later in the season, because with as big of a deal as it is that we finally see some LGBTQ representation at the forefront of a network crime drama, the pilot grazes right over it. That is, besides the comedically intentioned but lackluster scene where Lizzie assumes she is meeting Dylan’s wife, Andi, and is surprised to actually be introduced to his partner Andy (with a ‘y’). For as much as the series likes to boast how they are revolutionizing history with an openly gay lead, “Instinct” better show that narrative some more love down the road. Perhaps the weakest point of “Instinct” is the name of the series itself. Ironically enough, absolutely no character uses their instincts when solving the first crime case. In fact, the pilot emphasizes how Dr. Reinhart deduces who the serial killer is by calling on his past CIA training and intense problemsolving skills. Overall, the title is just unfitting and only works to muddle the main point of the show even more. We all know the drill: another predictable crime procedural most
likely means low audience counts and a possible limited lifespan. But
It features the first openly gay lead character on a Big Four network crime series, but without Alan Cumming, the aforementioned lead, the show would be nothing
if there’s any actor that I trust to be able to bring a flatlining series such as “Instinct” back to life, it’s Alan Cumming. It’s just a shame that his sly and shrewd talent is, so far, underused.
SPORTSMONDAY
Sam Mousigian / Daily Design by Jack Silberman
CHAMPIONS
B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | March 26, 2018
On to San Antonio The Michigan men’s basketball team gritted out a 58-54 win over Florida State to advance to the Final Four.
» Page 2B
Dance team flourishes The Michigan dance team has always been unnoticed. But that hasn’t stopped it from excelling.
» Page 3B
SportsMonday
2B — Monday, March 26, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘M’ displays grit
A Saturday night at the ol’ Bar and Grille SKEEPS — Sometimes, you find yourself in the right place at the right time. I never really thought the bathroom of a bar on Maynard Street in Ann Arbor would qualify. But hey, I’ll take KEVIN it. SANTO I’ll admit I bowed out of the delirium a little prematurely. I had to pee. They say alcohol does that to you. Sorry Mom and Dad. Luckily, I beat the postgame line to the bathroom and took my place in front of a urinal. The guy standing to my right was staring at the wall in front of him in a stupor. I think he might have been drunk. Then he said something — said it all — to no one in particular. “The Final f***ing Four, baby.” Yeah, that about sums it up. Saturday night, the Michigan men’s basketball team topped Florida State, 58-54, at the Staples Center. The game was as ugly as your high school yearbook photo. Still, the Wolverines are headed to San Antonio. To be clear, I would have gone to Los Angeles if it were an option. Unfortunately, our budget doesn’t have much room for a washed-up, secondsemester senior columnist. So I had to settle for the next best option: Skeeps. My friends and I got there at 7:40 p.m. for an 8:49 tipoff, and there was already a line. The guy in front of me wasn’t keen on being interviewed. He’s graduating in a month. But he did say he came back because Skeeps was as loud as he’d ever seen it when Michigan beat Texas A&M. He seemed to frequent the place.
We got inside at 7:50, thinking we had plenty of time to get a table. We were wrong. And we weren’t the only ones. Caroline Gilhool, a junior in the School of Information, got there at 7:30. She wanted to get there a half hour earlier, but got caught up grabbing dinner at Zingerman’s. She’s also no stranger to the Skeeps watch party — she celebrated her 21st birthday there when Michigan beat Houston. And given that she’s from Florida, I thought it was reasonable to ask her who she was rooting for. She seemed insulted. “Michigan, what the hell?” she said. “Go Gators, I hate the Noles.” So just how late were Caroline and I? Well, I introduced myself to a guy named Matt Safranek, who’s getting his master’s in accounting here. He said his friends got the last table around 7, only because a couple decided to leave. And I thought the earlysemester bar lines were bad. My friends and I decided there was only one thing that would allow us to come to grips with standing for the entire game: beer. About 20 minutes later, we had settled into our standing room, right in front of the huge projector screen. It involved some bargaining, as a bearded man sitting in front of us warned not to bump him once the game started. I don’t think he had been in a bar before. But we did our best to uphold our end of the bargain. If you got there at this point, you might have assumed it was just another college bar night. Loyola-Chicago was nearing its upset over Kansas State,
but people didn’t seem too excited. I asked one group what they thought about Michigan potentially needing to play spoiler to divine conquest. “I’m just here to drink,” one of them told me. I can’t knock him there. Eventually, I tried my luck at another interview. One guy agreed around 8:30, but I didn’t get a chance to actually ask him a question. “If Michigan wins, I’m getting a butt tattoo,” he declared. “Print that.” He said he wasn’t drunk yet, and offered his uniqname. I’m a little suspicious though, and I’m going to keep that information to myself. I don’t want any professors demanding he live up to his word. At long last, the game actually started. You know what happened there, and you can probably gather that there were some profanities exchanged throughout the night. One guy took exception to me asking him to stop pushing me into that bearded guy. Other patrons were friendlier. A stranger asked to give me a hug. He had a pretty cool Hawaiian shirt. One fan really liked to say “Rahkman” repeatedly. Most mockingly chanted the Seminole War Cry. As the game wound down, Duncan Robinson hit a 3 from the corner with just over two minutes left, and Skeeps could have registered on the Richter scale. One of my friends threw a
drink in his girlfriend’s face. She wasn’t even mad. My phone ended up on the ground. Shockingly, it isn’t broken. Finally, the clock hit zero, and the bar descended into pandemonium. Someone sprayed the crowd with liquid. I think it was water. He probably looks up to John Beilein. I went to the bathroom and ran into that guy I mentioned before. Then, I walked to the Diag. I sat there alone for about 10 minutes. People were looking at me funny. One guy stomped on the ‘M’, screaming “Final Four” over and over. I wish him luck on his next exam. Another told his friend that Loyola-Chicago isn’t like Florida State. I mean, yeah, they don’t even have nuns in Tallahassee. I made my final stop at South U Pizza. I’ve heard it’s great drunk food. One guy walked by and slammed on their storefront window. I don’t think the owner was very happy. And finally, I got to my block. I walked past a neighbor’s house, where the resident was sitting on his porch smoking something. I’ve never talked to him before, but I guess he was feeling friendly. “Final Four,” he whispered. “Final Four.” Yeah man, you said it.
Someone sprayed the crowd with liquid.
“I’m just here to drink,” one of them told me.
Santo can be reached by email at kmsanto@umich.edu or on Twitter at @Kevin_M_ Santo. You can also find him at Skeeps next Saturday, where he will be accepting donations in the form of pitchers.
L
OS ANGELES, Calif. — The Michigan men’s basketball team felt slighted two days
ago. In the Wolverines’ annihilation of Texas A&M in the Sweet 16, Michigan’s shots fell so MARK frequently CALCAGNO that even freshman guard Jordan Poole was surprised by the regularity of the Wolverines’ clean looks. “Being able to get the open looks that we had today was kind of like a shocker to us,” Poole said. “We felt a little disrespected.” The opposite was true in Saturday’s Elite Eight. Florida State defenders presented a length and athleticism that peeved the Wolverines’ offensive cohesion, as Seminole bodies flew with so much as a look towards the hoop. Ninety-nine points turned into 58. Sixty-two percent shooting fell to 39. Fourteen triples tumbled to four. Now take a step back. Think of a Michigan basketball team enduring an atrocious shooting night and still beating formidable competition. Memories from years prior are probably not plentiful. In Friday’s press conferences, Florida State players were asked what they thought were the Wolverines’ strengths. Shooting bigs, ball movement and marksmanship from deep were common answers. That’s been the perception around Michigan’s program throughout coach John Beilein’s tenure. In some ways, it’s a viewpoint that carries a slight in itself. But that hasn’t been the reality this year. The Wolverines’ defense, as has been well documented, is vastly improved — a direct correlation to assistant coach Luke Yakich’s arrival in Ann Arbor. What has changed as much as anything, however, is Michigan’s approach. When the offense goes
awry, it becomes about grit over flash. Brawn over beauty. Substance over style. That’s the Wolverines’ fresh mentality. It has been all year. That’s why they’re going to the Final Four, despite a porous shooting performance. “That’s literally when the dog comes out of us,” said freshman forward Isaiah Livers. “Coach (Beilein), coach (Yakich), it’s all about the dog all the time. We love being at wars. Like you said, Texas A&M was pretty, but this was going to be a dog fight. “That’s our slogan and something on our back right now. We’re out to show teams that we aren’t just an offensive team. We’re here to play defense, and we take pride in it.” Fifth-year senior forward Duncan Robinson has seen the days of offensive cohesion being the lone root of Michigan victories. He himself is a sharp-shooter, known for that skill and finesse that so many of his teammates were recruited for. When asked if the Wolverines could’ve won Saturday’s type of game in years prior, his answer was simple: “No.” But on Saturday, with that grit absent in years’ prior, Michigan pulled it out. “We (got) into a fight … we were going to be like that,” Beilein said. One night, they can shoot the lights out. The next, they can scratch and claw the opponents’ eyes away. It’s an adaptable, sustainable model that guards against the game’s ebbs and flows, primed for a run at a national championship. “Shots can’t always fall, but being tough … you can actually control that,” Livers said. “That’s how we approach the game every time.” Eleventh-seeded Loyola-Chicago won’t be of the disrespecting type. The Ramblers will be scrappy and hungry, looking for a once-in-ageneration chance at a title. And if that means the Wolverines’ offense struggles to get in rhythm, Michigan still has its new form of elegance. “We’ve had a lot of grinder games this year,” Yaklich said. “People call them ugly. I call them beautiful.”
Beilein is Michigan’s man John Beilein stood in front of another scrum of reporters after another celebration. This time, his Michigan men’s basketball team had defeated Florida State, 58-54, to earn a spot MIKE in the Final PERSAK Four, Beilein’s second in the last six seasons. The coach fielded questions that were mostly about the game and the crowd and his team’s journey to this point. Then, he got a strange one — one you wouldn’t expect of a coach that’s widely thought to be clean who just clinched a spot in the sport’s final weekend. It was about those FBI reports. Do you see yourselves as a model of doing things the right way? Beilein’s answer started before the question even finished, and it steered away from the topic he didn’t want to talk about. “I see ourselves as just trying to do the right thing,” Beilein said. “And if people want to model us, that’s up to them. There’s no, like, we’re gonna show people. We’re just trying to do the next right thing like any of you guys would do. “What does the University of Michigan do? They do the right things. And we’re just trying to model this great University.” It’s something a lot of coaches might say, because everybody loves their school. Michigan fans, always boastful, might even point to that statement as a rallying cry, calling him a “Michigan Man.” Detractors will roll their eyes. But prideful fist-pumping and chest-thumping and even the FBI reports aside, Beilein built this team the right way, a successful way. All season people have talked about how this is a squad of misfits. They’ve all come together to be a part of the Wolverines, and they were all brought here
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein has taken his team to its first Final Four since 2013 — and he’s done it the right way.
by Beilein, the man who has somehow made all the unwanted puzzle pieces fit together. “We’ve got people from all over the place — different backgrounds, different personalities,” said junior forward Brent Hibbits. “And Coach Beilein’s just really good at figuring out what people are good at and putting all those things together and helping people with their weaknesses.” If that’s Beilein’s forte, then this is his masterpiece. You could see his fingerprints all over the Staples Center, which was mostly maize and blue. Look at Saturday night’s leading scorer, for example. Redshirt sophomore wing Charles Matthews worked tirelessly to get to the point he’s at, peaking in the stretch run. Beilein railed on him daily over the past two years to make sure he reached his potential. Take graduate transfer guard Jaaron Simmons. When he never cracked the starting lineup after transferring to Ann Arbor, who could have blamed him for checking out and even feeling negatively toward his coach? But Beilein kept him on board. He constantly compliments
Simmons’ attitude, and now even Simmons is contributing in a backup role. Then there’s Beilein’s older guys. Senior guard MuhammadAli Abdur-Rahkman, fifth-year senior forward Duncan Robinson and junior forward Moritz Wagner have all been through the wringer with their coach. They’ve reached Sweet Sixteens and Big Ten Tournament championships with him. They came from 2-star ratings and Division III colleges and European countries to be the catalysts of a Final Four team. All three have grown in basketball with him, and they’ve grown relationships with him. Now look at the bench. There are the walk-ons. Beilein sees them grow too, and if you ask about them, he shows frustration that they haven’t quite grasped the potential he sees in them. But he works and harps on them still, because he sees the future that maybe they can’t. He sees what he thinks they can become. “He’s always pushing you,” said redshirt freshman Austin Davis. “He’s never gonna overlook you. I don’t care if you play a minute all season, if
he sees you, you know, doing something wrong in practice or doing something along those lines, he’s always gonna correct you. And he’s always looking to make every single one of us better. That’s just one of the amazing parts about him.” Now look at the assistant coaches sitting next to Beilein. Luke Yaklich and Deandre Haynes came from Illinois State. Saddi Washington has been here two seasons after spending 10 at Oakland. Beilein gave them a chance, and it’s paid off. They’re as much a part of the improvement in this basketball team as any player or even Beilein himself. And they feel Beilein’s influence too. “He’s just the most passionate, caring, attention-to-detail, full of grit every day, but at the same time an unbelievable family man and an unbelievable mentor to not only the players, but our staff,” Yaklich said. “When you become a part of the Michigan program, you become a part of
the Beilein family — Coach, his wife and his grandchildren and his kids. “If we’re in the middle of a meeting talking about beating Michigan State, and my wife or kids walk through the hallway, the meeting stops. ‘How you doing? What’s going on? How’s school?’ That’s what it is. For him to embrace my entire family and then allow me to be myself every day and then to grow within our system, he just challenges you every day to be good, to be prepared.” It’s all a part of the Michigan family that Beilein has built and fostered in his tenure. It shows itself in rare moments, like when the Wolverines took in Jude Stamper — a kid born with Arthrogryposis Multi-Congenita who came to be a part of the team through a program called Team IMPACT. Jude and his family were there for Saturday’s win. It shows itself in Austin Hatch, a former player who has lived through two plane crashes that killed his family members. He’s there too, on the end of the bench, just as big a part of this team as he’s ever been. It’s an atmosphere that allows for individuality despite discipline, and it’s led the team to where it is today. Where it shows itself most is in victory. After the nets were cut, Beilein called all his assistant coaches and their families together for what Haynes called his favorite moment of the night. “The one moment I loved the most is when Coach B brought the families on stage,” Haynes said. “We all sang the fight song, and after all we’ve been through as a family, as a team, we always come together. And just to see us all out there together and just the kids, the players, the wives, it’s a magical moment for all of us.” Now look at athletic director
Beilein is Michigan’s man. And he’s a damn good one.
Warde Manuel, who came from his spot behind the bench to celbrate on the confettifilled court. Manuel can be unabashedly proud of what occured Saturday night, because he can trust his coach. Beilein’s the man who says his best friends in the profession are his assistant coaches, because he talks to them the most. He’s the man who only recruits players who have a “unique interest” in Michigan. Truth be told, he’s an athletic director’s dream. “He’s the stability of what we’ve been doing in basketball for the last decade,” Manuel said. “We didn’t have that kind of success consistently until John came. You would have to go back to the 80s and early 90s to get that kind of consistency. We had lost it there for about a 15-year period, 10-year period. So I’m glad John’s here and bringing it back. I love working with him.” Now look at the Wolverine faithful who flocked to Staples Center. They were at Madison Square Garden for the Big Ten Tournament and even a smattering came to Wichita last weekend. They cheer loudly when Beilein cuts the last net down. He turns to them and tells them “one more,” talking about the one last net he’d like to cut down this season — after a national championship win next weekend. He talks about the fans like they’re part of the family, too, and it’s easy to believe him. They’d follow Michigan anywhere, but they’re only here because Beilein built a team good enough to make it to the Elite Eight. So call Beilein what you want. But thanks to his attentionto-detail and rabid pursuit of perfection, the Wolverines are where they are. Even if you prefer not to use the term “Michigan man,” Beilein is Michigan’s man. And he’s a damn good one. Persak can be reached at mdpers@umich.edu or on Twitter @MikeDPersak
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Monday, March 26, 2018 — 3B
Unnoticed, Michigan dance program flourishes LANEY BYLER
Daily Sports Editor
In observance of Women’s History Month, The Daily launches a series aimed at telling the stories of female athletes, coaches and teams at the University from the perspective of the female sports writers on staff. Daily sports editor Laney Byler continues the series with this story. Rachel McAuliffe waited patiently for her cue. It was a warm afternoon in September of 2015, and when the wait was finally up, McAuliffe ran out of the tunnel at Michigan Stadium in front of 109,651 people. It was so overwhelming, she’s pretty sure she cried. “It was fun. It was scary, though,” said McAuliffe. “It was just so unreal, an indescribable feeling. I don’t want to say you get used to it, but you adjust to the amount of people and can enjoy it a lot more after you’ve done a couple of games. “The first one’s a little scary, but still nothing you could ever imagine doing. It took me probably like three or four games to get comfortable down there and not look scared out of my mind.” Her first game on the field came after a freshman year of preparation. She watched from the sidelines and auditioned to be in each game every week. In dance, only one week is guaranteed. A month of summer conditioning featured learning 60 pre-prepared sideline sets and a lot of hope her hard work would pay off. A year after joining the Michigan dance team, it finally did. Dancers like McAuliffe run out onto that same field six-toeight times per fall, and each time, they’ve put in that same workload. Their motions on the field may look effortless, but that’s only because the work that goes into them goes largely unseen. McAuliffe now serves as one of two captains for the 27-person squad, along with senior Karyn
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
The Michigan dance team began at the club level before being recognized as a team by the athletic department in 1998.
Heissenbuttel. A late-bloomer in the intense world of competitive studio and high school dance, Heissenbuttel joined Michigan’s team as a state champion and aspiring Biopsychology, Cognition and Neuroscience major. For her, the experience has been everything she hoped it would be. “From dancing at the Big House to being in Wichita last week for the (NCAA Tournament) basketball game, and leaving for L.A. today, there are so many cool little perks I get to have from supporting other teams,” Heissenbuttel said. “But also, the thing I’m most proud of is the intense pride I have of this university and the pride I have in wearing the block ‘M’ and representing Michigan. It’s just amazing to say like, ‘Hey, I’m a student athlete and I’m competing for my school and I want to do well for Michigan.’ ” The perks don’t come without a tough schedule. The dance team
practices four or five days per week for two or three hours per practice, with lighter workouts the other days. On top of the intense practice schedule, the team itself has a fairly comprehensive game schedule. When most people think of the Michigan dance team, they think of one of the teams on the sidelines of the Michigan Stadium field. But on top of football, at least eight members of the dance team appear at each of the women’s and men’s home games for basketball — all 36. And on top of that, they have their own competitive schedule. Constant competitors in the Universal Dance Association National Championship, the Wolverines compete in two out of three sections — hip-hop, jazz and poms. And if the past few years have been any indication, Michigan is a frontrunner in the jazz and hip-hop sections.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Matthews gets his Michigan moment MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — A trip to the Final Four hung in the balance. Charles Matthews got the ball. The redshirt sophomore wing drove to his left with a defender draped closely alongside him. The Charles Matthews of December or January or yesteryears might have flung up a listless floater or forced a contested fadeaway midrange jumper. That’s the Charles Matthews that Beilein has described ineffectually all season as “Bambi on ice.” That Charles Matthews? He’s long gone. This Charles Matthews hopped into the lane vigorously, surveyed his options, offered a deceiving pump fake and nailed a composed fadeaway jumper to extend Michigan’s lead to 49-44 with 3:51 left. This Charles Matthews just played the game and the month of his life. This Charles Matthews just led Michigan to the Final Four with 17 points and eight rebounds in a 58-54 win. And with maize and blue confetti falling from the roof, shaking his head repeatedly in disbelief at the bottom of the podium, a radiant smile covering his face, that Charles Matthews could have never imagined this Charles Matthews would be in this position: Hearing his name called as the NCAA Tournament West Region’s Most Outstanding Player. As he let it all soak in, assistant coach Luke Yaklich draped his arm around Matthews. “Charles has talked about where he’s come from and how much he’s been through to get here,” Yaklich said. “There’s not a better kid that deserves it more — we have great kids, they all deserve it — Charles has earned every bit of that moment.” Matthews chuckled when asked about that play, probably because he could still hear the echoes of Michigan coach John Beilein’s voice pestering him in practice for the last two years.
Land on two feet, Charles. Utitlize your pump fake, Charles. Pivot more effectively, Charles. Take smarter shots, Charles. You gotta use your athleticism, Charles. Things never come easy for transfers in college basketball, not even for former five-stars from Kentucky. And Matthews’ transition into Beilein’s complex scheme was certainly no different. Matthews struggled to learn the plays — and more importantly struggled to grasp the nuance of his role within an offense predicated on nuance. Matthews was trying to expand his jumper beyond the 3-point line — he shot just four his entire freshman season and made just one. He’s taken 98 this year. That came with its fair share of trials and not nearly enough payout. He would shoot a more comfortable pull-up 2-pointer in practice and would get scolded for it. Then he’d take the three Beilein so often implored and miss it. “He’d shoot a shot in practice, and Coach would get on him really bad about telling him that’s a bad shot,” said freshman guard Jordan Poole. “Then he’d have an open look and he wouldn’t take it because he felt like it was a bad shot. He’d be thinking too much.” That frustration festered. It often manifested itself in yelling at teammates or long, lonely trips up to section 212 of Crisler Center — the destination of players who Beilein needs to punish in practice. “Last year, all I used to hear in practice was turnover Matthews, turnover Matthews,” he said. “And ‘Go see 212.’ ” But he worked. Hard. “For him to come in and just buy in,” Beilein said. “I’m talking 1000 percent, to the culture, to individual workouts, scouting reports, to all the things that sometimes guys who are
recruited so highly have a hard time buying into.” Added assistant coach Saddi Washington: “That has been a year-long process, and to see him grow and evolve into who he is as a player now is just special. … And in the biggest moment, on the biggest stage, simple drills that we work on every day makes the difference between going home or going to San Antonio for the Final Four.” But it wasn’t a perfectly linear ascent. From Jan. 2 until the end of the regular season, Matthews didn’t score above 15 points in a single game. He averaged 10 points per game in that span, a far cry from the offensive alpha dog that showed its face in Maui earlier in the year. His shot disappeared, and the trepedation that Poole described reared its ugly head in games. Since then, his game has taken a defiant turn. In four NCAA Tournament games, Matthews leads the team at 16.5 points per game. His ability to attack the basket has proven consistent and valuable, especially when the volatile 3-point shot isn’t falling. While his game evolved on the court, his voice grew along with it. One day late in the year, after a practice filled with some ups and plenty of downs, the team broke the huddle as usual and began walking toward the locker room. Matthews wasn’t having it. “Charles said, ‘No, no, no, come back. We’re national champions,’ ” recalled freshman Isaiah Livers. “And he does it again. ‘National champs. National champs.’ It’s just a little chant we’ve been doing since the Big Ten Tournament.” Next weekend, in what once seemed unthinkable, Michigan will get its shot to make that proclamation a reality for the first time since 1989. It has this Charles Matthews to thank for that.
“There’s not a better kid who deserves it more ... ”
This past season, the team placed fourth in jazz — its highest placement in program history. The advancement came after last year’s team set a record with a fifth-place finish in the Division I-A section, and has since moved up in the rankings. For McAuliffe, nothing compares to that improvement. “There’s no feeling like coming off of a national floor, that is for sure,” McAuliffe said. “But there’s also no other feeling like being in front of 110,000 people. Every other sport has a game every week or games all the time, but we get one chance. We get to do the dance one, maybe two times, and then that’s our whole season. That’s it. “Imagine if football all season just relied on one game. Football season is fun, it’s not a lot of high stakes, but when we go to nationals, we’re very focused. That’s all of the time we’ve been working on this dance for five months and this
is it, this is the one time we get to do it. So, there’s definitely a lot of preparation that goes into it.” The commitment process to be on the dance team is complicated — the 27-person roster is selected from around 120 applicants, including high school seniors who have (and have not) been admitted to the university. Students who are deferred or are still weighing options can audition but won’t know their acceptance into the program until they’ve been admitted and have committed to the university. Applicants need both studio and pom experience to succeed in the program. Once in, it’s a balance game of practice and class. McAuliffe — a nursing major — has spent days working 12-hour clinicals before returning for three-hour practices. For Heissenbuttel, she’s balancing a major in BCN with a part-time job on top of those strenuous practices.
In addition to all of that and the football and men’s and women’s basketball schedules and their own competitive schedule, they’ve made a few extra appearances to other programs, including wrestling, volleyball, soccer, swim and dive, field hockey and baseball. Just to name a few. “It is very unique,” said Michigan coach Valerie Stead Potsos. “When you think about other sports, they’ve only got to focus on their own sport and their own competition, whereas we’re not only got our own competition, but we’re focusing also on performing at other sports as well. It’s pretty amazing … you make it work though. There’s mental toughness, being in this program, and having to make those kinds of challenges work — it’s going to make them a much healthier professional someday.” With a budding alumni program for the team, the connection between program graduates and current team members is growing. The coaching staff integrated a setup where current team members in a particular field are matched with team alumni in similar career paths — like a nursing student and a pediatrician — during homecoming weekend in order to help the athletes build their professional resumes and network. For 38 years, the Michigan dance team has existed on campus, and programs like the alumni association are just another step to the ever-evolving history within the program. They made the transition from club level to team recognition by the athletic department in 1998. They became a Michigan football staple starting in 2002. They’ve made program history — two years straight, with more on the way — worthy of every article, video segment or vote of appreciation they get. And although McAuliffe won’t be running through the Michigan tunnel again, she sure has a lot to be proud of.
B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | March 26, 2018
SPORTSMONDAY
Frozen Four bound JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Writer
Design by Jack Silberman Zoey Holmstrom / Daily
HELLO, ST. PAUL! MICHIGAN 6 - BOSTON UNIVERSITY 3
BENJAMIN KATZ Daily Sports Writer
WORCESTER, Mass. — Entering Northeast Regional play of the NCAA Tournament, few eyes were on the Michigan hockey team. There was talk about No. 1 Cornell and its sterling 25-5-2 record. Northeastern’s lethal top line of two Hobey Baker finalists and a senior captain was emphasized all week. The deep roster of Boston University and its 12 players drafted by NHL teams was heavily discussed. Not much was said about the Wolverines. But after the first weekend of the Tournament, Michigan stood above its competitors and claimed a berth no one thought was possible earlier this year. For the 25th time in program history and first since 2011, the Wolverines advanced to the Frozen Four with wins over Northeastern and Boston University on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. “I think it says a lot about our team,” said senior forward Tony Calderone after Sunday’s 6-3 victory. “We’ve been the underdogs all year, no one was expecting us to be here. I don’t think that fazed us too much, I think maybe it gave us a little fuel.” Right as Calderone finished his comment in the postgame press conference, sophomore forward Jake Slaker — sporting a newly-fashioned “2018 NCAA Men’s Regional Champions” hat — interjected a declarative statement about being overlooked heading into Worcester.
“I have one more thing to add: We loved it.” All season long, Michigan wasn’t at the forefront of college hockey. At face value, it was the third-youngest team in college hockey with a new coach and a mix of veterans and newcomers. A meager 8-10-2 start validly kept the Wolverines out of the conversation for the first half of the season. “The expectations weren’t really high,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “And up until Christmas, we didn’t look good. The resiliency to stick with it, the patience with a new coach and they found a way.” Three series sweeps of top-15 teams going into the season’s homestretch pushed the Wolverines into the NCAA Tournament in what Pearson called “a remarkable turnaround.” Saturday’s NCAA Regional Semifinal draw against Northeastern had proverbial odds-makers giving the Michigan, the underdog once again, little chance for victory. After all, they were majorly overshadowed by the Huskies’ star line of Adam Gaudette, Dylan Sikura and Nolan Stevens. Would an upset, and, therefore, recognition ever arrive? All week, Wolverines’ top line of Calderone, senior forward Dexter Dancs and junior forward Cooper Marody bugged Pearson to play against Northeastern’s “Big Three” to silence Huskie admirers — and Michigan critics, too. The “DMC” line went on to score all three of its team’s goals — one from Dancs and two from Marody, including the game-winner — and
held Northeastern’s heavies to a minus-three rating in the 3-2 win. Marody and company outplayed arguably the best forward trio in college hockey and cemented themselves as a force to be reckoned with. But then came the questions of stopping a full arsenal of Boston University weapons. To match the Terriers’ depth, who other than “DMC” would step up to contribute? Before Sunday’s game, Pearson was confident in his secondary scorers, mentioning freshmen and sophomores who have shown signs of improved offensive capabilities. Then it was time to answer the skeptics. And players like junior forward Brendan Warren, junior defenseman Nicholas Boka and Slaker did just that when the stakes were at the highest. Only one goal Sunday came from “DMC,” a wicked snipe from Calderone to reclaim a 2-1 lead late in the first period. The other five came from relatively unheralded players, just as Pearson preached all season. Maybe that was the key to Michigan’s second-half surge. Letting players play through the trials and tribulations, all while flying under the radar. On Selection Sunday last weekend, the Wolverines anxiously waited to see where they were headed for the first two rounds of the Tournament. Almost all the players were convinced they were going to the West Region in Sioux Falls. That was when they were handed the No. 2 seed in a dangerous
Northeast. But Pearson didn’t mind. “We’re playing Northeastern — in Massachusetts. We’re playing BU — in Massachusetts,” he said. “So again, it fit right into our mantra and how we wanted to play. So, I thank the committee for putting us here.” Top line in the nation? Stifled. Depth and weapons up and down the lineup? Quieted. Two teams with de facto home advantage? Knocked out of the Tournament. And all by a team no one expected would amount to more than second to last in the Big Ten as predicted by a preseason coaches’ poll. “All throughout the year, we didn’t get much love in the polls, which is okay,” Pearson said. “We didn’t deserve it at the time. But we knew we had some things within the team, and we had a chance if we could figure them out.” The next stop: a national semifinals showdown against No. 1 seed Notre Dame in St. Paul, Minn. During the regular season, they split the matchups, 2-2, with the upcoming tiebreaker determining which team will move on to the national championship game. Pearson and Slaker know the Wolverines won’t be favored against the powerhouse Fighting Irish, led by goaltender and Hobey Baker finalist Cale Morris. But that’s exactly where they want to be. The underdogs are barking, and their noise is starting to be heard.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
WORCESTER, Mass. — When Mel Pearson was introduced as the coach of the Michigan hockey team on April 24, 2017, he compared it to being given the keys to the prized family car. “The car is in great shape,” Pearson said then. “It’s got a great engine, the body looks fantastic. We might have to make a couple of repairs here this summer — minor, minor repairs. And then we’re going to get that car ready to go on the road. “And come September, that car is headed in one direction. And that direction is St. Paul, Minnesota.” Prior to the 2017-18 season, St. Paul — the location of the 2018 Frozen Four — might as well have been the moon for the Wolverines. They had won just 13 games in Red Berenson’s final year and were preparing to go into the year with the third-youngest roster in the nation. Their predicted finish of sixth, via the Big Ten Preseason Coaches’ Poll, was a product of those factors. Boston University, on the other hand, received a No. 2 ranking in the USCHO preseason poll and possessed a deep, talent-loaded roster with 12 NHL draftees. So you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody at that point who thought that these two teams would be meeting on Sunday in Worcester, Mass., with a spot in the Frozen Four on the line. And yet, with a 6-3 win over the Terriers (22-14-4 overall) at the DCU Center, Michigan clinched its 25th all-time appearance in the national semifinal, and first since 2011. Much of the game was marked by alternating stretches of dominant and embarrassing play for Michigan (22-14-3) — the Wolverines would play to the fullest of their potential before committing just about every gaffe in the book. “We got lucky, we got lucky,” Pearson said. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, but we were good and lucky. We were fortunate, but we’ll take it.” This theme began right after the initial face-off, which junior forward Cooper Marody won from Jordan Greenway. Marody’s “DMC” line with senior forwards Tony Calderone and Dexter Dancs then controlled the puck in the Boston zone for the entirety of the game’s first minute. Five minutes in, however, Michigan had yet to register a shot. Quinn Hughes would change that in a hurry. Taking possession in his defensive zone, he broke across center-ice and dashed through multiple Terriers before being stripped. The Wolverines regained the puck, however, and worked it back around to the freshman defenseman, who caught twine with a laser from the high slot area. But Michigan let the Terriers right back into the game thanks to a turnover at the edge of its defensive zone, which Boston forward Brady Tkachuk grabbed. Tkachuk laid the puck off to Greenway, whose shot snuck just under the bar with 7:43 left in the period. Three minutes later, the Wolverines took advantage of a Terrier interference penalty with a well-worked power play, which culminated in Calderone’s wideopen shot from the right slot beating Jake Oettinger. But just as soon after, Michigan nearly gave it right back. Sophomore forward Jake Slaker took down a Terrier from behind with an arm tackle, but instead, it was Boston’s Logan Cockerill who went to the box for holding. Maybe the Wolverines felt guilty about taking advantage of an apparently obvious missed call, or maybe they felt it wasn’t quite time to pull
away. Whatever it was, the Terriers dominated Michigan with their penalty kill, and nearly scored themselves when Greenway forced a neutral-zone turnover and forced Lavigne into making a save on the breakaway. All in all, though, the Wolverines surely couldn’t complain with a onegoal lead at the first intermission. But they wasted no time in adding to it. Two minutes into the second period, freshman forward Josh Norris fired a cannon from outside the slot, ramming the puck off the back wall. However, the rebound bounced off of Oettinger’s pads and bounced from one side of the net to the other, giving junior forward Brendan Warren a point-blank tapin and Michigan a 3-1 lead. Halfway through the period, the tide began to turn, thanks to both Boston’s supreme talent and the Wolverines’ mistakes. Lavigne was late in moving from his left post to his right, and Patrick Curry snuck a wraparound goal behind him, a rare soft goal for Michigan’s normally solid netminder. A flood of Wolverine turnovers and close shaves followed. If the previous ten minutes displayed a well-oiled, cohesive outfit, what ensued was Michigan at its shakiest — desperate, undisciplined and error-prone. The Wolverines escaped the period up 3-2. But the shakiness that plagued them reared its ugly head once again with 16:30 to play. Greenway intercepted junior defenseman Joseph Cecconi’s absent-minded pass right in front of the crease, and Drew Melanson jumped on the loose puck and deked out Lavigne to the right to tie the game. Michigan was bailed out three minutes later — by a Boston blunder, of all things. Brandon Hickey whiffed on a pass on the edge of the defensive zone and fell backwards. On the forecheck, Slaker picked up the puck, skated into the middle of the zone and zipped one into the nylon to push the Wolverines back in front. “It was at the end of the shift so I was pretty tired, I was kind of looking for a change and I saw the puck squirt free kind of in the slot,” Slaker said. “I saw that (Boston) was kind of out of reach of it, so I just tried to push it past them and shoot cross-body… Coach reiterated, get pucks on net all year and good things happen.” With just under four minutes to play, Dancs carried the puck down the right flank with Nicholas Boka streaking into the slot. Dancs took his time and beat the Terrier defenders with his centering pass. Boka caught the puck on his left, swerved his stick around Oettinger and deposited it into the back of the net. The all-important insurance goal — the junior defenseman’s first of the season — put Michigan up 5-3. Shortly after, sophomore forward Nick Pastujov fired from his own zone toward the recently-emptied Boston net for a three-goal lead. “We’ve seen some crazy stuff happen,” Calderone said. “We’ve come back from four-goal deficits, so I think we just needed to play until we heard that buzzer.” One minute and 40 seconds later, the Wolverines heard that buzzer, and it all set in. “Things went in for us tonight,” Pearson said. “But you have to be ready and you have to play and we were very fortunate and we got some bounces. The hockey gods were looking down on us tonight, no doubt about it.” Michigan needed its share of lucky bounces and fortunate breaks on Sunday. Pearson said it himself. But the prized family car has reached its destination.