Monday 11/25/13

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Soccer wins in NCAA round 2 Junior midfielder Fatai Alashe

statenews.com | 11/25/13 | @thesnews Michigan State University’s independent voice

Shine bright Silver Bells event creates holiday season hype in Lansing Danyelle Morrow/ The State News

Julia Nagy/The State News

SPORTS, PAGE 6

Campus+city, PAGE 3

Comeback Kid

After three ACL tears, Madison Williams now back on court

f oot b a l l

spartans GOING TO INDY AFTER BIG VICTORY By Dillon Davis ddavis@statenews.com THE STATE NEWS nn

For the second time in three seasons, the Spartans are heading to Indianapolis. Following a 30-6 victory over Northwestern on Saturday in Evanston, Ill., the No. 11 MSU football team (10-1 overall, 7-0 Big Ten) clinched the Legends Division title, punching its ticket to the Big Ten Championship Game for a highlyanticipated matchup with Leaders Division champion No. 3 Ohio State (11-0, 7-0), a team that will present its share of challenges. Sophomore quarterback Connor Cook threw for a career-high 293 yards and t wo touc hdow ns wh i le junior running back Jeremy Langford crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the season after rushing for 150 yards — his sixth-consecutive 100-yard game — along with a pair of touchdowns on the day.

Margaux Forster/The State News

Junior center Madison Williams plays defense on Saturday at the Breslin Center. MSU beat Rice, 81-68.

“M

By Derek Blalock and Omari Sankofa II dblalock@statenews.com and osankofa@statenews.com THE STATE NEWS

God is so good to me just that I can get out there and I’m safe. He kept me safe in that game.” Madison Williams, MSU basketball player

To see MSU players talk about Williams’ career at MSU, visit statenews. com/ multimedia.

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adison Williams already has suffered three anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, tears. But something is telling her she isn’t done yet. The redshirt junior center and former McDonald’s All-American only played in three collegiate games prior to this season. On Saturday night, a Breslin Center crowd of nearly 6,000 witnessed her play in her first game since Nov. 15, 2011. To a standing ovation from the crowd, Williams entered the game with about 15 minutes left in the first half. In two stints — one in the first half and one in the second half — Williams played five minutes and showed a glimpse of her potential when she scored six points, and recorded one rebound, one block and one steal. “(It’s) such a huge weight off,” Williams said about playing in her first game in two years. “All I’m thinking right now is I’m so thankful. God is so good to me just that I can get out there and I’m safe. He kept me safe in that game. “Standing up, and I was too scared to look at the crowd, but I heard them and hearing everybody behind me was just such an incredible feeling and I was trying not to cry.” During this year’s Midnight Madness event, head coach Suzy Merchant rode out onto the court in a camouflage Hummer and dressed in camo as a tribute to Williams. Merchant said she truly exemplified the warrior concept. “When you look at Maddie, she’s helped us more than we’ve helped her,” Merchant said. “I don’t know if there’s a stronger, more courageous, more spiritually-faithful person out there on this campus that represents any student-athlete more than Madison does as a character person.”

The Spartans were powered in part by improved play from wide receivers

at MSU as an assistant professor in 1998. Although she has worked her way to the top of the college, she still teaches classes in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies & Media. She said the faculty members she has worked with are top notch, and the students are inspiring, smart and creative. The university leadership also has helped foster her success at MSU. Ji m Dea r i ng, professor and chair of the Department of Communication, said he doesn’t know if MSU can find anyone as good as Whitten. “She’s probably done more than any prior dean in the col-

“Very happy for our program and everybody associated with it,” head coach Mark Dantonio told the media af ter t he game. “Like I said, we got a hat on. Hopefully we want to wear this hat for a couple of weeks and we’ll trade it in, but we will see. “ T h at ’s w h at m a ke s things so special.” After a slow start that saw t he Spa r t a n s f a l l behind 3-0, Langford swung the momentum by capping an 11-play, 80-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. With the Spartans facing third down on their own 8-yard line late in the first half, Cook threw a backshoulder pass to senior wide receiver Bennie Fowler, who briefly bobbled the ball before reeling it in and breaking away from a Wildcat defender for an 87-yard score. Facing heav y criticism after a lackluster 2012 season, Fowler has responded as a consistent target for the Spartans. He’s acc u mu lated 30 receptions for 481 yards and six touchdowns. And with the fiery criticism directed at the team by the media and fans to start the season in mind, Cook said it’s been a point of pride for MSU to outwork the team’s harshest critics. “I’m so happy and so proud of the guys we have on offense for all the criticism we took early on in the year,” Cook said. “We put our heads down and worked so hard the whole year and didn’t let any of the harsh words from the media and the fans get to us, and we just kept working.” Northwestern kicker Jeff Budzien hit a 20-yard field goal to make it a 14-6 game before halftime. In the first drive of the second half, freshman kicker Michael Geiger drained a 37-yard field goal. Geiger now has made 12-of-13

See DEPARTURE on page 2 u

See FOOTBALL on page 2 u

state news file photo

Then-sophomore center Madison Williams celebrates with then-junior guard Camille Glymph after a point is scored on the sidelines of the basketball game against Purdue on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013 at Breslin Center. MSU lost the game in overtime with a final score of 67-62.

It’s been a long path — mentally and physically — and Williams knows the statistics and odds of coming back from three serious knee injuries, but she believes God has a different plan and isn’t done quite yet. Early injuries Williams wasn’t even in East Lansing for more than two months before she tore the ACL in her right knee in

the team’s Green and White game on Oct. 31, 2010. A year later, Williams was back on the court playing with her team. She appeared in three regular season games, but in her third game against IPFW, Williams went down with an injury again, this time it was her left knee. The next year, it was the same story. Williams partially tore the ligament in her left knee and now is in

her fourth year at MSU. The ACL is one of four major ligaments in the knee. It is a band-like structure that connects the femur, or thigh bone, to the tibia, or shin bone. Tim Wakeham, the director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports, said in a previous interview that one in 10 women collegiate athletes will sustain an ACL injury. See BASKETBALL on page 2 u

go v ern m ent

a d m inistration

New policy would focus on attendance

DEAN OF COMMUNICATION ARTS HEADING TO NEW POSITION

By Nolly Dakroury ndakroury@statenews.com THE STATE NEWS nn

MSU’s undergraduate student government, ASMSU, passed a resolution during its academic affairs committee meeting on Thursday that would allow the student government to advocate for a new policy eliminating academic penalties when attending a professional interview. If passed at the next general assembly meeting, the policy would allow students to miss class without being academically harmed if they need to attend a professional interview, whether for employment purposes or for graduate and professional schools. Once the resolution is voted on — and potentially approved — by the general assembly on

Dec. 5, the student government would be able to bring the issue to university officials for discussion. ASMSU Lyman Briggs representative James Conwell said students shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to have a job.

To read an editorial on the policy, see page 4. “We (ASMSU) will go a long way to protect students to go to the next step in their lives and be successful,” Conwell said. Conwell, who introduced the resolution, said the real goal for college students is to be able to move on to the next level in their lives. W hile there currently is

no similar university policy, Conwell said professors are generally understanding when it comes to attending professional interviews. In this case, the policy would come into play in case a professor does not accommodate for it. Panhellenic Council representative and marketing senior Stephanie Rodriguez mentioned that a professor did not allow her to make up the points for attendance and participation she missed, although she had notified him in advance that she had to attend an interview. Rodriguez said she was doing poorly in this class b e c au s e t he s it u at ion occurred more than once. See ASMSU on page 2 u

By Justine McGuire jmcguire@statenews.com THE STATE NEWS nn

Turnover and change in academia is normal, but that doesn’t make losing a Spartan leader after 15 years of excellence any easier. College of Communication Arts & Sciences Dean Pamela Whitten will leave MSU to take a position as senior vice president of academic affairs and provost at the University of Georgia. She officially will become a Bulldog on Feb. 1. “I have such mixed emotions,” W hitten said. “I’m thrilled and honored to go to Georgia, but it’s been a wonderful experience at MSU.” Whitten began her career


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Monday 11/25/13 by The State News - Issuu