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The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper

ISSUE NO. 110

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MONDAY, March 25, 2013

Congressional budget deal only prolonging problem, experts say

By Alex Kirshner Staff writer In an era of perpetual budget fighting, federal lawmakers have reached a com-

promise — although university experts said Thursday’s appropriations agreement only pushes back Washington’s hardest decisions.

Congress passed a continuing reso-

lution to fund the federal government through the end of September. Government appropriations were set to run out on March 27, which would have caused a partial federal shutdown. The resolution is made up of legislation that will fund federal agencies and projects in the absence of a comprehensive budget deal, which the country has lacked for years.

Senate Democrats and House Republicans have each spearheaded drastically different budget blueprints, and they will now have until the new deadline to work See shutdown, Page 3

BY THE NUMBERS

3/27

Day the government was set to run out of money to fund several programs if Congress didn’t pass a budget plan

6

Number of months the Congressional plan will fund the government

1995

Last major government shutdown, which lasted 21 days — the longest one to date

ANNAPOLIS 2012

State forging ahead on bills Lawmakers have two weeks left in session

shaving for a cause

By Jim Bach Senior staff writer With the end of the legislative session just two weeks away, lawmakers are hardly wasting time moving forward on a number of contentious issues they hope to see passed this year.

Although students enjoyed time off last week, legislators in Annapolis once again took up Gov. Martin O’Malley’s gun control proposals, voted on the death penalty repeal, debated an antidiscrimination bill and medical marijuana bill. With Sine Die — the last day of the General Assembly — quickly approaching, legislators are scrambling to prevent bills from being tabled for another year.

Gun control

members of the baseball team, including Jack Cleary (above), shaved their heads after their game against Wake Forest on Saturday to demonstrate support for the Vs. Cancer Foundation, which helps fund cancer research. The team raised more than $7,600 for the foundation. photos courtesy of university of maryland athletics

Both the state and nation are still abuzz over pursuing stricter gun control measures, but with the fate of signature bills like an assault weapons ban uncertain at the federal level, the state may take a more heavy-handed approach to guns.

State legislators are still considering bills that would require purchasers to have a license before obtaining a firearm, implement stricter background checks, limit magazine rounds and ban assault weapons, among other measures.

Although the state’s General Assembly has a much larger liberal constituency than that of Capitol Hill, the legislation See annapolis, Page 2

Masks viable way to City retail prevent flu, experts say vacancy University study found virus is largely airborne

By Savannah Doane-Malotte Staff writer After the nation saw one of its worst flu seasons in years, some researchers are hoping patients and doctors will come around to one of the most effective — and snubbed — methods of preventing its spread: wearing a mask.

This season, about 300 students on the campus alone cashed in after getting sick by participating in a paid flu research study, and the virus continued to spread through late February. While doctors often urge people to wash their hands and cover their mouths when they cough, people should likely act further, according to a recent study by the university’s public health school, which found the virus may be much more concentrated in its airborne form than previously believed.

INDEX

Though the virus has plagued populations for decades, scientists are still not completely certain if the flu spreads primarily through direct or indirect contact with a sick person, through droplets sprayed by coughing and sneezing or merely through breathing the same air as someone with the flu, said professor Don Milton, who led the study recently published in the PLOS Pathogens journal.

However, Milton’s team’s report — authored at this university based on research his team conducted at the University of Massachusetts in 2009 — reveals there is nine times as much influenza virus present in tiny droplets suspended in the air than in large droplets that end up on surfaces, said Milton, director of the Maryland Institute for See flu, Page 3

rates drop Small, independent businesses thriving

By Annika McGinnis Staff writer Smaller, independent businesses are thriving in College Park, as new developments may add thousands of residential units, along with hotels, restaurants and shops to the city, College Park business representatives said at the city’s annual Real Estate Roundtable.

Retail vacancy rates in the city have dropped 0.7 percent over the past year,with about a 5 percent decline just in downtown College Park, city Economic Development Coordinator Michael Stiefvater told about 50 city business stakeholders on Tuesday.

Twenty businesses opened, including

NEWS 2 OPINION 6 FEATURES 7 DIVERSIONS 8 CLASSIFIED 8 SPORTS 10

lime is one of 20 businesses that opened in the past year, leading to a drop in retail vacancy rates. With more residential units, the city is moving toward smaller, independent businesses, city officials said. file photo/the diamondback Aroy Thai, Big Play Sports Grill, Lime Fresh Mexican Grill and ChiDogO’s, while 12 closed, including Boston Market, Capital One Bank and College Park Convenience Store. Eighteen are planned to open, including Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill, Dunkin’ Donuts, Denny’s, Casey’s Coffee and a coffee shop in Berwyn.

As the city urbanizes, the openings reflect a trend toward smaller, often independent establishments rather than larger stores, such as a Best Buy or a

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grocery store, said Eric Smart, owner of Bolan Smart Associates, Inc. But because College Park is neither a completely urban city nor a “gated suburban residential community,” Smart said, residents demand both urban and suburban elements. Based on a recent survey, there is still demand for a grocery store in the city, possibly even two in north College Park, said Christine

For breaking news, alerts and more, follow us on Twitter @thedbk

See city, Page 2

© 2013 THE DIAMONDBACK

2

THE DIAMONDBACK | NEWS | MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013

CITY From PAGE 1 Graziano, a senior associate at AECOM Technology Corporation.

“Everyone around us has grocery stores, but not here,” Graziano said.

The number of restaurants is nearing equilibrium, based on the survey,but retail could still move into the city’s vacant spaces, she said.

Stiefvater asked Smart why everything is “catered to students,” and why there is not a grocery store or more full-service restaurants in the city. In response, Smart said retail is directed toward more of a “mix” of consumers, including employers and university visitors, as well as students.

Compared to the whole of Prince George’s County, College Park has “depth” of retail, he said.

“We do have retail,” he said. “Is it the retail you want? Maybe not.

It’s maybe not in places you want, but there is retail.”

Instead of building vertically, shops should spread out a little more to “fill gaps,” Smart said.

To help small, independent businesses, the city launched a program in February that matches grants up

Big Play Sports Grill was one of 20 businesses to open in the last year. file photo/the diamondback

to $25,000 to help new or expanding independent establishments, Stiefvater said. And in December, a five-year revitalization tax credit was adopted to encourage investment in projects such as Capital Bikeshare or demolishing old buildings. For a $10 million project, for instance, Stiefvater said the tax credit could result in more than $70,000 in savings.

Several hotels will open soon, including a Best Western Plus in mid-April and a TownePlace Suites, on which construction could begin this summer.Another development has proposed a hotel for the space across from University View.

In June, the first tenants will move into Domain at College Park, a mixed-use housing development aside Lot 1. By late summer, the de“We do have retail. Is velopmentwillgainaCasey’sCoffee, it the retail you want?

Gateway Newstands, Subway and Maybe not. It’s maybe not Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt.

In the next decade, several largein places you want, but scale development projects are in the there is retail.” works,Stiefvater said.These include ERIC SMART the Cafritz property, which will add Bolan Smart Associates, Inc. owner a Whole Foods, 100,000 square feet

of retail, 22,000 square feet of office space, 981 residential units and a 120-room hotel to Riverdale Park.

The plan for M Square Research Park, near the College Park Metro Station, includes proposed office buildings to develop a business community of science and technology. At the Metro station, early development plans include two hotels and about 300 multifamily units.

As College Park revitalizes, its new slogan, “A smart place to live,” represents the city’s increasing affordability and convenience, as well as its “highly educated population” and “diverse, charming neighborhoods,” Stiefvater said.

“Route 1 is not always the most beautiful place, but if you take a drive a few blocks away, there’s some beautiful places,” he said.

The city will step up its marketing efforts through ads in The Diamondback and on Google and Pandora, he said.

“You may be hearing ‘College Park’ in your music,” he said.

ANNAPOLIS

make it through the General Assembly, but they are content with starting a dialogue.

“Sometimes, even though you realize that something is probably politically not doable in a given session, it’s good to start the conversation,” said Del. Cheryl Glenn (D-Baltimore City), who cosponsored the legalization effort and served as a sponsor on two bills that address its medical uses.

the General Assembly required that offenders facing capital punishment be linked to a murder with DNA eviFrom PAGE 1 dence, a video confession or a video has been met with fierce opposi- linking the murder to the offender.

“I believe we have currently the tion. Del. Michael Hough (R-Frederick and Washington County) said most demanding and restrictive the discussions focus too heavily on death penalty in the country,” Scott measures that would punish gun Shellenberger, state attorney for Baltimore County, told The Diaowners following the law.

“The main portion of the bill mondback weeks before the repeal. deals with law-abiding citizens He added some crimes fit the punwho are using their guns safely ishment, and some people “don’t practicing their Second Amend- deserve to live in any society, inment rights,”Hough said.“There’s a cluding a prison society.” strong contingent of us that support Transgender anti-discrimination the Second Amendment.”

A bill to prohibit discrimination “It gives the governor of Mary- in lending practices, employment land the ability to go out and say, and housing for transgender in‘Look how tough I am on people’s dividuals passed the House two right to keep and bear arms,’” added years ago, but it never made it to Del. Michael Smigiel (R-Caroline, the Senate floor for a vote.

Cecil, Kent & Queen Anne’s).

To overcome that hurdle, the bill The debate should instead was introduced in the Senate this center on mental health, Smigiel year.However,an unfavorable comsaid. He also noted automatic fire- mittee vote once again kept it from arms are already illegal, and that the Senate floor. But many student an assault weapons ban targets leaders and advocacy groups threw accessories of legal guns, rather their support behind the measure. than the functionality.

“People’s misconceptions have “You add these small pieces that kept it from going forward,” Joseline do nothing to the function of the Peña-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel firearm,” Smigiel said. “I think a lot and Prince George’s), the House of people who know nothing what- bill’s primary sponsor in 2011, told soever about firearms are trying to The Diamondback in January. write laws to prohibit things that “It’s an anti-discrimination bill, are already prohibited.” very simply put,”Peña-Melnyk said.

Death penalty repeal

Marijuana

Lawmakers and advocacy groups have long been gunning for a repeal of the death penalty — and on March 15, their years of lobbying finally paid off as the General Assembly eliminated the 35-year-old capital punishment.

The bill has a long history of stalling in the committee process.

Without a majority vote in the 11member Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee — which it struggled to garner — the bill couldn’t go to the Senate floor for a vote.

This year, Sen. Bobby Zirkin (DBaltimore County) voted in favor of moving it to the floor, a shift from his “nay” vote in committee last year, which gave the measure the 6-5 support it needed. From there, it passed on a 27-20 vote in the Senate, following an 82-56 vote in the House earlier this year.

“The General Assembly is eliminating a policy that is proven not to work,” O’Malley wrote in a news release shortly after the vote. “Evidence shows that the death penalty is not a deterrent, it cannot be administered without racial bias, and it costs three times as much as life in prison without parole. What’s more, there is no way to reverse a mistake if an innocent person is put to death.”

However, opponents of repeal point to the state’s already “too restrictive” evidentiary requirements to even consider administering the death penalty in the state. In 2009,

Although a medical marijuana bill failed to make it out of a House committee, the cannabis lobby did score a small victory last week when a bill aimed at lessening the penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana passed the Senate.

The measure would make possession of less than 10 grams of the drug a civil offense and carry a $100 fine, as opposed to current state law that levies a $500 fine with the possibility of 90 days behind bars.

However, a much broader measure that would make all possession of marijuana a civil, instead of criminal, penalty stalled in committee.

Most offenders don’t receive a prison sentence, but they are still likely to face time in jail before their cases get to trial, said public policy professor Peter Reuter. This has led to racial disparities, he said, because black people are more likely to face heavier penalties than white people.

“You have a large number of people who are arrested for possession of a small amount of marijuana and then have to deal with criminal court,”Reuter said.“Almost nobody gets sentenced to jail time; a lot of people spend time in jail pre-trial.”

This session features a number of bills that range from small tweaks to state law regarding possession of marijuana to legalizing the drug in the same way Washington and Colorado did in November. Lawmakers have little confidence that full-fledged decriminalization will

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MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013 | THE DIAMONDBACK

FLU From PAGE 1 Applied Environmental Health.

“The flu kills lots of people worldwide, with tens to hundreds of thousands of deaths occurring everywhere yearly,” Milton said. “With the results of this research, there may be things we can do to effectively prevent so many deaths. We can really work out practical methods to prevent the flu now that we know what may cause its transmission.”

The next step of this research is to decipher how it can help rein in flu out-

shutdown From PAGE 1 out their differences.

“Working across the aisle and across the dome, the Senate has come together to prevent a government shutdown,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said in a statement after the House also signed off on the deal. Mikulski, the Senate Appropriations Committee’s chairwoman, was closely involved with drafting the legislation.

The bill, a six-month appropriations extension, will fund the government until the close of fiscal 2013, but it does not address budgetary matters for the following year — at that point, the outlook becomes more complicated, university experts said.

“I think there’s three options,” said Tony McCann, an adjunct lecturer with budget experience in the executive and legislative branches. “One is the grand bargain. One is a series of relatively small bargains that solve a few problems but don’t deal with the big one, and one is a complete breakdown. I think the

3

breaks on the campus, said Dushanka Kleinman, public health school research and academic affairs associate dean. The university, along with Health Center officials, is planning to look at the implications of this study and see how it can help improve student health.

The study may indicate doctors should urge sick people to wear flu masks, Milton said. He and his research team came to that conclusion after having flu patients sit in a machine that collects exhaled breath for one hour; For the first 30 minutes, the subjects wore surgical masks and for the remaining 30 minutes, they went without.

This research method is the first that has

displayed there was more than a threefold reduction in the amount of exhaled particles containing the flu virus by putting a surgical mask on a patient, Milton said.

“This research will most likely increase the use of surgical masks,” he said. “The [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] already recommends and reinforces that message, but this is really the first time that it has been proven that surgical masks can prevent flu transmission.”

Milton said he anticipates the study could influence how the national health care realm treats flu patients. The research could result in officials requesting all people diagnosed with the flu wear sur-

gical masks when interacting with others to decrease infections, he said, which could also be implemented on the campus.

Becausestudentsareconstantlyinteracting with each other,even when sick,it’s easy to contract airborne illnesses, said Natalia Aguirre, a freshman enrolled in letters and sciences. While a hassle, masks could prevent a campuswide epidemic, she said.

“When you are so close to other students in the classroom, the dorms or the dining halls, you may not be touching others, but you are still in the proximity of another person’s ‘bubble,’ ” she said. “If students are going to these types of places where they are surrounded by others and

may infect them, then yes, they should wear surgical masks.”

Supporting this type of research opportunity for professors and students supplies them with the latest scientific developments but also gives them hands-on experience with conducting studies, said Pat O’Shea, university research vice president and chief officer.

“A researcher is kind of like an explorer — they are always helping to find new ways to do things,” O’Shea said.“As a university, we need to make sure that we are educating explorers and not just teaching tourists.”

middle one is the most likely.”

However, Don Kettl, public policy school dean, said either of the more extreme options is more likely but also agreed some middle ground could exist.

“There is a real chance for a fundamental deal here. There’s also the possibility that they’ll postpone it one more time” through a similar stopgap measure, he said. “This is our last best chance to try to resolve this, perhaps until the next presidential election.”

The years since 2011 have seen tense negotiations between President Obama and congressional Republicans end without agreements. Their quest for a comprehensive deal has been stymied by electoral politics and ideological differences.

There could be smaller compromises that mix revenue increases with spending reductions, shrinking the federal deficit but not solving it long term, McCann said.

But for the widest-ranging, most effective deal, he said, lawmakers would need to enter “uncharted territory.”

“The two parties are seemingly ideologically and politically locked into a set of positions, the Republicans on taxes and the Democrats on entitlements,”

McCann said. “To reach an agreement is going to be very, very difficult.”

Although a bigger deal would mount an immense political challenge, Kettl said a number of political and economic factors could force lawmakers to find one, even after years of failure.

“The safe bet for a very long time has been that both sides will simply kick the can further down the road,” he said. “But at some point, there’s also a sense that the can just can’t be kicked much further without, at some point, the bigger issues coming to resolution.”

The Republican-controlled House is unlikely to sign off on a deal that does not significantly lessen spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare, but McCann said even that could be futile if the cost of health care increases and pulls up federal spending with it.

The continuing resolution generally locks into place cuts dealt by sequestration at the beginning of the month. That means the government will spend less over time, regardless of what sort of deal is reached by the new deadline, Kettl said.

“Which areas get less spending is the critical question, and nobody really knows

how that’s going to work,” he added.

Paul Ryan, Wisconsin congressman and former Republican vice presidential nominee, released a budget blueprint earlier this month that calls for balanced federal books within a decade.

In an interview with ABC News, Obama said, “We’re not going to balance the budget in 10 years.”

To do so, he said, would require tax hikes on the middle class or cuts to critical entitlement programs, ideas that have been anathema to Democrats.

After Republicans ceded several tax increases at the beginning of the year to avert the fiscal cliff, Democrats could be left with tough decisions of their own.

“The ultimate question for the Democrats is doing something about entitlements. We know that there’s no long-term fix without trying to deal with long-term costs of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid,” Kettl said.

The government is also on course to reach its debt ceiling at some point in the next few months, which itself could cause more battles, he added.

Few members of either party think the debt can keep growing at its current

rate without creating trouble, but it remains contentious how steep — and how sudden — a drop is necessary.

“I don’t think you need to necessarily balance, because obviously, like any other institution,we spend money for both capital and operating expenses,” McCann said.“I don’t know what the right number is, but I think we need to get it down.”

Specific time and monetary figures are less important than collective trends, Kettl said.

“The timescale is ultimately arbitrary.

Thirty years is too long. Five years is too short. Ten years would be very tough,” he said. “But what’s most important is bending the curve so we’re sure we’re going to get there.”

The chief goal of any agreement reached

by September’s end must be to make the country less vulnerable to domestic and international fiscal threats, McCann said.

“We need to get it down to a level where we have a cushion, so that when the next financial crisis or other kind of economic crisis comes, we’ve got the headroom to stand and fight it.”

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SPORTS

BOBCATS From PAGE 10 rebounding,” center Alicia DeVaughn said. “Our defense was there. It was great. But our rebounding was a little short.”

The Terps, though, responded quickly with power and precision. Thomas and forward Tianna Hawkins (23 points, 16 rebounds) took over and the Terps closed the half on a 15-2 run to take a 27-23 lead into the intermission.

“We felt really good about what was going to happen in the second half,” Quinnipiac coach Tricia Fabbri said. “It was anybody’s game still at that point.”

The Terps’ (25-7) momentum into halftime carried through the break. They scored the first six points of the second half and would ultimately stretch their run to 19-5, turning their nine-point deficit into a 15-point lead with 13:30 remaining. Quinnipiac (30-3), which shot just 8-of-42 from the field in the second half, would never seriously challenge again.

The Terps’ rebounding returned in the second half as well. The Terps would finish with a 59-41 advantage, with help from Thomas’ and Hawkins’ double-digit totals, and career highs from DeVaughn (17) and guard Katie Rutan (11).

“Just in general, I don’t think they’d seen a team like us,” Thomas said.“I feel like they found it hard to match up with all of us that were out there on the court.”

Tonight, though, the Terps will face what coach

HEELS From PAGE 10 going to have the magic.”

The Terps (6-1, 1-1 ACC) couldn’t recapture the magic that helped them win their first six games. And the Tar Heels (5-3, 1-1) took advantage.

They found a variety of ways to score against a usually stout Terps defense early, rattling off three straight goals to end the first frame with a 5-2 lead.

On the other side of the field, North Carolina’s defense congested the middle of the field to stymie the Terps’ talented offensive midfielders.

It worked, too. After attackman Owen Blye scored two goals in the game’s first six minutes, the Terps’ offense stalled. They didn’t score

FAUST From PAGE 10 conference titles — in the NIT’s first two rounds last week.

The Terps are “peaking,” forward Dez Wells said. And much of the late-season revival coincides with Turgeon moving Faust back to his natural position on the wing.

After inconsistent play

Brenda Frese called a “mirror image.” Michigan State was also hit hard by injuries and lost three players expected to start or play major minutes by mid-December. Another reserve suffered an orbital fracture two weeks ago and is done for the year. The future conference foe played just seven players in Saturday’s 55-47 win over No. 12-seed Marist, and three players played all 40 minutes.

But while the challenges of the season may seem similar, the Spartans (25-8) are opposites on the court. While the Terps run with Thomas or guard Chloe Pavlech pushing the tempo, Michigan State slows the game down, turning it into a half-court battle. The Spartans averaged 62.1 points per game this year, more than 13 fewer than the Terps.

“It still comes down to executing your game plan in terms of the sets that they run versus the sets that we run,” Frese said yesterday. “You still have to be able to execute and be able to defend in terms of the plays that you’re going to see.”

Only two Spartans are averaging double figures in points, but five are posting at least nine a night, including forward Annalise Pickrel, who came off the bench to score 14 points against Marist.

Michigan State’s top three-point shooter, Pickrel shot 4-of-8 from behind the arc and helped the Spartans respond to a Marist rally.

The Terps, while facing a team with some of the same issues they’ve had to overcome, still aren’t fazed.

It comes down to the players on the court, not who could or who might be playing. For a second straight

again for the rest of the first half.

“We really wanted to cover the crease,” North Carolina coach Joe Breschi said. “We felt like if we could force perimeter shots, we like our chances with our goalie. And I thought it was a great effort.”

North Carolina effectively kept the Terps from earning easy scoring opportunities and Tar Heels freshman goaltender Kieran Burke saved 15 of 23 shots on goal.

The Terps went more than 33 minutes without scoring before attackman Kevin Cooper finally found the back of the net midway through the third quarter. The drought was easily the Terps’ longest of the season and typified their deficiencies Saturday afternoon.

“We just never really got into a

earned Howard a spot on the bench, Faust struggled to fill the void up top. He averaged 7.2 points per game on 33.3 percent shooting and owned a 1.2 assistto-turnover ratio in 13 games as the team’s primary floor general. The Terps, meanwhile, posted a 6-7 record and effectively cemented their status as an NIT participant.

But Faust has flourished since Howard regained the

NCAA From PAGE 10

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Forward Tianna Hawkins dominated the undersized Bobcats inside, totaling 23 points and 16 rebounds in the win. charlie deboyace/the diamondback trip to the Sweet 16, the difference comes tonight.

“With all the things we’ve been through this season with not many people talking about us,” Hawkins said Saturday, “we just have a lot to prove out on the court.” sportsdbk@gmail.com

rhythm,” midfielder Jake Bernhardt said. “Their goalie played really well.

He made the saves he needed to make and kept them in the game.”

The Terps gained a bit of momentum after Cooper’s goal. Jake Bernhardt added consecutive scores and the team capitalized on a pair of man-up opportunities in the fourth quarter.

But it was too late. The Terps — who came into the game leading the nation with a .413 shot percentage — posted a paltry .216 mark Saturday, which kept them from overcoming an early three-goal deficit.

“When you dig yourself that big of a hole,” Tillman said, “it’s really tough to dig yourself out of it.”

The Terps’ inability to claw back into the game cost them their unblemished record in a crucial ACC contest.

Terps’ starting point guard gig during the March 2 win over the Demon Deacons. He has reached double-digit points in seven straight contests, and has tallied six or more rebounds three times.

“I definitely think me doing what I need to do has helped him out,” Howard said. “He’s been huge for us. You know, just being aggressive out there and doing all the little things to

Yet Amato strolled into a makeshift news conference after the game with the same determined facial expression he sported after each of the team’s wins. The Terps’ goals haven’t changed, the All-ACC netminder said.

Saturday’s performance was just a sobering reminder that they still have work to do if they want to reach them.

“It was a little bit of a gut check.

Our coach said it best — that we made a lot of progress since the beginning of the year, and I think we started to lose our edge,” Amato said. “We’re not perfect. We haven’t played a perfect game this year, which is good for us because it means we have room to get better.”

Minnesota’s No. 10-seed Scott Schiller, the junior won four consecutive matches to reach the All-American round before losing a major decision to Oklahoma State’s No. 11-seed Blake Rosholt.

The Terps’ other two wrestlers — 133pound Geoffrey Alexander and 141-pound Frank Goodwin — had mixed results. After losing both his matches in his first NCAA tournament appearance last year, Alexander won three matches this weekend. And while Goodwin lost both his matches, McCoy praised his efforts after returning two weeks ago from a torn LCL and sprained ACL. “We lost a couple close matches that would have made a difference,” McCoy said.

“It was pretty good where we ended up, although it wasn’t where we wanted to be.”

Sheptock, though, was satisfied with his showing. Though he said he would have liked to finish higher — he could have finished as high as third place — the junior grappler wrestled his way to a sixth-place finish despite losing his final two matches of the weekend.

“I’m pretty happy with my performance,” Sheptock said. “I’ve sacrificed a lot for the past eight months, and I put in a lot of hard work, coming in extra, doing a lot of things that a lot of guys on the team weren’t doing. Hard work does pay off.”

Finishing outside the top 25 wasn’t exactly what the Terps had in mind entering the weekend’s competition, but Sheptock said it’s a sign of good things to come. Asper won’t be around next season, but Sheptock, Boley, Alexander and Goodwin will all be back for another campaign in College Park, and 157-pound Ben Dorsay and heavyweight Spencer Myers will be back in the lineup after redshirting this season.

This year, the Terps got the experience.

Next year, they hope, they’ll have the talent.

“Having guys that have been there before definitely helps out the team.

Because once you’ve been to nationals before, you’re not blinded by the lights,” Sheptock said. “We got a lot of good guys coming back next year. We’re going to try to get in the top-15, top-10 range.”

help us win ballgames.”

Though the turnovers are still mounting, the old-school Tu rge o n ca n h a rd ly s to p gushing over Faust’s renewed commitment to defense. Faust is finally starting to use his lengthy frame to his advantage, Turgeon says. He’s disrupting opposing offenses and crashing the boards with authority.

“He’s defending now. That’s what I like,” Turgeon said after

the win over Niagara. “I’ve been begging him all year and he refused. … You guys might not see that change but I see tremendous change in him.”

After enduring months of criticism, Faust has emerged confident and comfortable.

The former All-ACC Freshman Team member is not the go-to player he envisioned when he entered the season as the Terps’ top returning scorer, but he has

settled into a nice complementary role.

And though he’s not playing in his preferred postseason tournament, he can’t help but appreciate how far he’s come.

“I guess things are just going my way right now,” Faust said with a smile last week. “I feel like I’m finally getting into a groove.” sportsdbk@gmail.com

4

THE DIAMONDBACK | MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013

MARCH 21-22 1 Louisville 16 N. Carolina A&T 8 Colorado St. 9 Missouri 5 Oklahoma St. 12 Oregon 4 Saint Louis 13 New Mexico St. 6 Memphis 11 St. Mary’s 3 Michigan St. 14 Valparaiso 7 Creighton 10 Cincinnati 2 Duke 15 Albany 1 Gonzaga 16 Southern 8 Pittsburgh 9 Wichita St. 5 Wisconsin 12 Mississippi 4 Kansas State 13 La Salle 6 Arizona 11 Belmont 3 New Mexico 14 Harvard 7 Notre Dame 10 Iowa State 2 Ohio State 15 Iona

MARCH 23-24

MARCH 28-29

MARCH 30-31

1 Louisville

APRIL 6

APRIL 8

APRIL 6

5

MARCH 30-31

8 Colorado St.

MARCH 23-24 1 Kansas

THE DIAMONDBACK

1 Louisville

MARCH 28-29

1 Kansas 8 North Carolina 5 VCU

12 Oregon 4 Michigan

12 Oregon 4 Saint Louis

4 Michigan

MIDWEST

SOUTH

6 Memphis

11 Minnesota 3 Florida

3 Michigan St. 3 Michigan St.

3 Florida

CHAMPION

7 Creighton

7 San Diego St. 15 Florida G.C.

7 Creighton 2 Duke

15 Florida G.C.

1 Gonzaga

1 Indiana 1 Indiana

9 Wichita St. 9 Wichita St.

9 Temple

12 Mississippi

12 California 4 Syracuse

13 La Salle 13 La Salle

4 Syracuse

WEST

EAST 6 Butler

6 Arizona 6 Arizona 14 Harvard

3 Marquette

TOURNAMENT GRID

10 Iowa State 2 Ohio State 2 Ohio State

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7 Illinois 2 Miami (FL.) 2 Miami (FL.)

MARCH 21-22 1 Kansas 16 W. Kentucky 8 North Carolina 9 Villanova 5 VCU 12 Akron 4 Michigan 13 S. Dakota St. 6 UCLA 11 Minnesota 3 Florida 14 Northwestern St. 7 San Diego St. 10 Oklahoma 2 Georgetown 15 Florida G.C. 1 Indiana 16 James Madison 8 N.C. State 9 Temple 5 UNLV 12 California 4 Syracuse 13 Montana 6 Butler 11 Bucknell 3 Marquette 14 Davidson 7 Illinois 10 Colorado 2 Miami (FL.) 15 Pacific

6

THE DIAMONDBACK | MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013

Opinion

YASMEEN ABUTALEB Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL BOARD

Mike King

Managing Editor

Tyler Weyant

Managing Editor

maria romas Opinion Editor

nadav karasov Opinion Editor

CONTACT US 3150 South Campus Dining Hall | College Park, MD 20742 | newsumdbk@gmail.com OR opinionumdbk@gmail.com PHONE (301) 314-8200

EDITORIAL CARTOON

MENTAL HEALTH SERIES

The need for a better solution An anonymous student responds to the three-day series that ran March 12 to 14 on the state of mental health services offered on the campus EDITOR’S NOTE: The author’s name has been withheld due to the sensitive nature of the subject and to protect his or her privacy.

I’ve suffered from bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder for much of my time at this university. I’ve dealt with Disability Support Service and the University Health Center.

Sometimes I find helpful, caring people, who often can’t help me because of policies that fail to provide proper accommodation.

The nature of a mood disorder makes it difficult to ask for help, yet the university expects us to always be the ones taking the initiative.

At our university, if it’s not in the job description, it’s not the employee’s responsibility.

Professors are particularly guilty of this, and it hurts the mentally

ill. Even with treatment, attending class or completing assignments is incredibly difficult.

I scored fours and fives on the hardest AP science exams, but now merely making it to a class is a victory. I am faced with skepticism, not empathy — as if all I want is a shortcut.

Do I need to show them the mood stabilizers and antipsychotics I take every night to avoid hospitalization?

Or the scars on my arm? What will it take for them to understand and maybe try to help?

Sometimes I wonder if they’re right: I’m just lazy and stupid; it’s my fault.

But then I look at what I’ve done in the past, or the knowledge I’ve gained from my own mania-driven deliberations, and I can’t help but feel I’m more than just a bad student or a lost cause. I don’t know the exact solution for this university, but there must be a better one.

I am not alone, and we can’t tolerate being swept under the rug anymore.

Morality is a fickle concept. It’s essentially impalpable and can often become subject to random feelings that dissipate over time. Nonetheless, it has sparked some of the most contentious debates among the greatest philosophical minds.

While we generally believe the marketplace of morality is beneficial to humankind — and that meaningful transactions occur there — it seems as though faith-based morality has no place alongside ideas embedded in logic.

Within morality, actions and principles are either “good” or “bad.”

Faith-based morality is a set of ethics in which the most basic ideas of good and bad are determined by a deity.

There are numerous reasons why using morality derived from religion is problematic. The first: Given that morality does not inherently exist, religious morals attempt to create an arbitrary, universal standard for all people.

Se e , m o ra l i ty i s n o n ex i s te n t without humans. Morals are products of the cognitive thought process, which can only occur in the minds of complex life. No action is good or bad by nature, unless the necessary actors can intellectually dissect it.

This is why inanimate objects and animals don’t have morals.

Given morals do not exist in the physical sense, it is best if we view our moral tenets through a normative lens: based on intuitive preferences of what humans generally enjoy and loathe. That view, coupled with decisions that maximize societal utility, helps us reason our way to sufficient ethical standards.

Religion, however, is not normative. The justification for what is good or bad in the eyes of a religion is subject to positive statements made

by God, which are often proclaimed in religious texts.

This is bad for a number of reasons.

There is no logical reasoning behind it — it just sort of “is.” If God approves, as stated by a text, it is simply tautologically true. The debate is focused on deferring interpretation of reli-

The case for a new kind of citizenship test ’Murica the ignorant, for spacious skies and amber waves

LAUREN NURSE

opinionumdbk@gmail.com

The irrelevancy of faith-based morality MARC PRIESTER

ASHLEY ZACHERY/the diamondback

gion, instead of what the best morality sensibly is.

This is intrinsically illogical. There are several instances where religious texts make really flawed moralities based on the notion that God wills it.

For example, let’s examine chastity, which has generally consistent attitudes across major religions. God deems unmarried men and women to be chaste, based on the arbitrary impression that sex should be reserved for marriage. This makes no sense. As humans, we enjoy sexual intercourse and can interact in a consensual and responsible manner — therefore we ought to feel as though sex is beneficial to individuals and society.

However, most religions demonize sex, especially with regard to women.

When this arbitrary, faith-based logic is applied, at worst, we create a scenario in which people are subjected to considerable damage. This can range from the slut-shaming that leads to rape culture, to controversy over necessary access to birth control or Plan B because of religious objections by pharmacists, to LGBT individuals’ inability to marry. People can even be fired simply for their sexual orientations or gender identities.

At best, faith-based morality supplements morality that we can already logically conceive. For instance, civilization never needed the presence of religion to discern that stealing, murder and lying are bad or that altruism is good.

I n s tea d , we c a n d i s c e r n t h e damage done to society by these actions outweighs any of the perceived benefits they may have; thus we denounce them.

Rationality is the cornerstone of modern civilization, and faithbased logic contradicts all notion of reason. Nothing should command absolute observance, for any and all ideas include follies to some extent and can always be improved upon through further pondering and argument. However, inflexible religious dogmas do not follow this maxim, thus they have no place in the marketplace of morals.

M a rc P r i e s t e r i s a s o p h o m o re economics and government and politics major. He can be reached at marcpriester@gmail.com.

AIR YOUR VIEWS Address your letters or guest columns to Maria Romas and Nadav Karasov at opinionumdbk@gmail.com. All submissions must be signed. Include your full name, year, major and phone number. Please limit letters to 300 words and guest columns to between 500 and 600 words. Submission of a letter or guest column constitutes an exclusive, worldwide, transferable license to The Diamondback of the copyright of the material in any media. The Diamondback retains the right to edit submissions for content and length.

Recently, a Tunisian-born classmate of mine from high school was sworn in as a citizen of the United States. On his Twitter, he posted heartfelt thank-you’s to all the friends and family who helped him study for his citizenship test. This got me thinking about which questions have been deemed crucial for one to fully understand American society.

Let’s temporarily forget that I am a government and politics major as I tell you at first, I knew close to nothing about the kind of test immigrants had to pass in order to become a citizen of this fine nation — I imagined it would be relatively straightforward. As I researched sample test questions, a scenario dawned on me — one in which the same civics test administered to immigrants was given to our freespeechin’, gun-totin’, loud and proud ’Muricans whose natural birthrights have entitled them to boundless opinions regarding the complex inner workings of American democracy.

It turns out there’s been a great deal of research studying how much Americans know about their own

government, with terrifying results.

One such example occurred in 2011 when Newsweek administered the U.S. citizenship exam to 1,000 Americans and observed the results in hilarity, horror or some combination of both. To be fair, the exam contained a fair share of tricky, roundabout questions such as “Who is the vice president of the United States?” and “What is the capital of your state?”

While 62 percent of test takers managed to pass, a shocking 70 percent failed to identify the Constitution as the law of the land, and 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president.

Surely we need a solution. These results are upsetting, and Americans are anything but prideful! In this column, I have suggested some new test questions — ones that more accurately capture what it means to be an American nowadays and would surely yield higher results.

1. Who is Honey Boo Boo? (A) Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (B) Current Supreme Court justice (C) Reality-TV sensation and pageant queen (D) Sloth 2. Which iconic duos are members of the Kardashian family? (A) Kim and Khloe (B) Kim and Kanye (C) John Boehner and Barack Obama (D) Dick and Jane 3. Name at least one celebrity who

has appeared on a season of Dancing with the Stars.

4. Free Response: Use the words/ phrases “YOLO,” “swag” or “epic fail” correctly in a sentence, and provide an example of each.

There you have it! Newsweek wasn’t wrong in administering a test on general “American” knowledge — just asked the wrong kind of questions.

As a nation, we can now stop any more Canadians or Western Europeans from laughing at embarrassing reports of American ignorance. The United States is truly a wondrous land of freedom, equality and equal opportunity. As citizens of this great nation, we are entitled to certain unalienable rights, equal protection under the law blah, blah, blah. Hey man, down with government! Impeach Obama! Tea party 2016!

Oh, but as for the immigrants wanting to become citizens, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services should just keep their test questions — requiring a basic understanding of the historical and political foundations of this government that we all seem to have an opinion about — to themselves. ’Cause we were here first.

Lauren Nurse is a freshman government and politics major. She can be reached at laurennurse93@hotmail.com.

OPINION EDITOR WANTED Applicants must be enrolled at the university. Ideal candidates have an understanding of university, state and national issues, a familiarity with journalistic writing, strong managerial skills and the ability to meet deadlines. Opinion editors typically work 30 to 35 hours per week. The position is paid. For more information on the position or how to apply, please contact opinion editors Maria Romas and Nadav Karasov at opinionumdbk@gmail.com.

GUEST COLUMN

The process of healing from a grueling battle with cancer One junior’s fight, and the reason she Relays to give back

W

hen I came to this university for what would be my first official semester of college, my outlook on life was anything but positive. The previous fall, after spending the entirety of my senior year of high school battling bone cancer, I had attempted to make a fresh start and begin school here.

However, that hope for a fresh start was short-lived, as a week after moving into my dorm, I was taken to the emergency room with what would be discovered as heart failure — an extremely rare and potentially deadly side effect of my chemotherapy regimen.

After living in the ICU for a month and a half, undergoing numerous surgeries and submitting to a treatment plan that involved an infusion pump — a tube constantly in my arm — as well as nurse visits multiple times a week, I found the optimism that had carried me through the past year and a half had all but faded.

The unending discussions of mortality rates and the need for a heart transplant dragged me further and

further away from the only motivation I had to keep fighting: the idea that things would eventually go back to normal.

After a few months, my health stabilized to the point where I could give school another shot. I returned to this university, joined a sorority and, with the support of my new sisters, registered for Relay For Life, a major walkathon fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Despite the looming uncertainties of my health, the one thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to do something against the disease that derailed my life for the past two years. At the time, I didn’t know what to expect from Relay. But looking back, I can say that signing up that year was the best decision I have ever made in college.

At Relay, I met hundreds of people who had experienced cancer in one way or another. Their stories, though each unique, all echoed the same theme: Cancer had derailed their lives, too. And, in many cases, they had pulled through. They gave me hope — the hope I had been missing for many months, the hope I needed to continue my fight and the hope that

led me to a full recovery from both cancer and heart failure.

Relay For Life is about more than the music, entertainment and games. It’s not just an event; it’s an experience.

It’s an opportunity to celebrate those who have defeated cancer, remember those who have lost their fight and fight back against this disease that takes so much from so many. I can guarantee that you know someone who has been affected by cancer, whether it’s a parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin or friend.

They don’t choose this battle. But you can make a choice. You can choose to fight for them by fighting for a cure. By registering for Relay For Life, you can make a difference in the lives of the 4,000 people who will be diagnosed with cancer today.

So on April 20, what will your choice be? Who will you Relay for?

Register for Relay For Life by going to relayumd.org.

Kelsey Dimka is a junior English major and the event director for this university’s Relay For Life. She can be reached at relayumd@gmail.com.

MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013 | THE DIAMONDBACK

7

Features ACROSS 1 Marsupial pocket 4 Lightly moisten 9 Actor -- Everett 13 Jupiter’s wife 14 Fine violin 15 Not prompt 16 Et -- (and others) 17 Familiar episode 18 Limerick locale 19 Relief pitchers 21 Formed thoughts 23 Loses hair 25 Multiplex offerings 26 Truth 29 Add one’s 2 cents 31 Boadicea’s people 32 Knot on a tree 33 Forum site 37 Electrical unit 38 Having luck (3 wds.)

41 Decorative scallop 42 Tower over 44 Retired 45 Buddhist king of India (var.)

47 Rap sheet info 49 Looked hard 50 Kind of year 53 Connection (hyph.)

55 Cattleyas 57 Having a lease

61 Steakhouse order 62 -- and aahed 64 Maintain 65 Future MD’s course 66 Complain 67 Misgivings 68 “Holy cow!”

69 Snooped 70 Sixth sense

CROSSWORD

34 Hound’s track 35 Construct 36 “Oh my!”

39 Finalize (2 wds.)

40 Forum speech

43 Sugarcane harvester 46 Historic trail (2 wds.)

48 Zhou En- - 49 Ranked in tennis

50 Quick raid 51 From Tabriz 52 Toss out 54 Sherlock’s lady friend

56 Carnaby Street locale 58 Currier and - 59 Lowest high tide 60 Canine warning 63 That man’s

DOWN 1 Kirk’s helmsman 2 Indigo plant 3 Fuel container 4 By a whisker 5 Revise 6 -- es Salaam 7 Needle case 8 Quixote’s foe 9 Butcher’s knife 10 Cuba neighbor 11 Up -- -- (stumped) 12 Acts 13 Punch 20 Grill locale 22 Immeasurable time 24 Most vinegary 26 String instr.

27 Yodeler’s answer 28 The San -- (NYC bldg.)

30 Nudge forward 32 Rum-soaked cake

© 2013 United Features Syndicate

PREVIOUS DAY’s puzzle solved:

Today’s crossword sponsored by:

B

HOROSCOPE STELLA WILDER

orn today, you are the kind of person to fret over the details until you are nearly in a state of panic -- but the flip side, of course, is that you insist on coming to know a situation inside and out, better than anyone else, before you embark upon a course of action. You enjoy hard work and being recognized for that hard work; there is nothing that enrages you more, in fact, than not being recognized for doing your part in a winning effort.

You hold your reputation to be unassailable -- and you behave in a manner that protects it no matter what. You are not the kind to go back on your word, to fail to repay a debt, or to give up on a project you have sworn to see to completion. Your word is your bond, and your every action proves it.

Also born on this date are: Danica Patrick, auto racer; Sheryl Swoopes, basketball player; Sarah Jessica Parker, actress and producer; Elton John, singer and musician; Bonnie Bedelia, actress.

To see what is in store for you tomorrow, find your birthday and read the corresponding paragraph. Let your birthday star be your daily guide.

TUESDAY, MARCH 26 ARIES (March 21-April 19) -You may be told that your attitude requires adjustment, but in fact you are responding reasonably to what comes your way.

COLLEGE INTUITION RICHIE BATES ROGER DOES COLLEGE

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) -Now is no time to give up prematurely; you may be going through something of a slump, but things should pick up very soon.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) -You have not been thinking about your image too much lately, but today you’ll have reason to present yourself in the best possible light.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) -You’ll encounter a situation that raises the stakes considerably, and you know just how you must adjust your own strategy.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) -- Jump to conclusions today and you’re sure to find yourself operating according to a few errors in thinking -- and you cannot afford such errors.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) -- Do you really want to keep guessing, when having the right answers is so important at this time? Facts and figures count for much.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) -- Accuracy in planning and execution is all-important today; you cannot afford any sort of error or misapplication of resources.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) -- Much is likely to depend upon allocation of funds -- and remember, you may not have quite as much to work with as you had anticipated.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) -- Unusual events will require a bit more attention as they are likely to affect you and yours rather significantly.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) -- You’ll encounter two or three surprises today that seem to be quite separate from each other, but which in fact are closely linked.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) -You may want to get the opinion of someone who is recognized as an expert in a given field today, and not merely offer your own just yet.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) -- You can solve a mystery once and for all today, but getting that last clue may prove tricky -- and require more of you than mere tact.

COPYRIGHT 2013 UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.

Today’s HOROSCOPE sponsored by:

Max Siskind

su | do | ku © Puzzles by Pappocom

Fill in the grid so that every row, column, and 3x3 grid contains the digits 1 through 9.

PREVIOUS DAY’s puzzle solved:

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY:

EASY

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8

THE DIAMONDBACK | MONDAY, march 25, 2013

Diversions

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

1. The Croods

Rounded studio estimates courtesy of boxofficemojo.com.

$44.7 Million

2. Olympus Has Fallen

3. Oz The Great and Powerful

4. The Call

Million

Million

Million

$30.5

$22.03 $8.7

5. Admission

$6.45 Million

REVIEW | ADMISSION

giving it the old college try

A solid cast, including Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and Nat Wolff, redeems the mild Admission, which could have been nothing more than a forgettable romantic comedy

By Robert Gifford Senior staff writer Imagine you’re Tina Fey. The acclaimed sitcom you created, produced, wrote for and starred in has just ended.

You’re a beloved personality with a well-received memoir to your name and enough natural charisma that you can even succeed at a fool’s errand like hosting the Golden Globes.

So what do you do next?

Starring in Admission, an exceedingly mild romantic comedy about a college admissions officer from director Paul Weitz (Being Flynn), would not seem an obvious next step. It’s akin to nervously dipping your toe in the water after you’ve already performed a cannonball.

But if Admission lacks the spark of wit Saturday Night Live, Mean Girls and 30 Rock have led us to expect from Fey, it’s also a testament to the fact that her charm shines even when she’s put through the motions of an uninspired script. After seven seasons of working as a showrunner — one of the most demanding jobs in entertainment — perhaps playing a minor but respectable character piece is a welcome break, both from the demanding workload and the emotions of a goodbye season.

“Ending was OK; it was such a bittersweet feeling,” Fey said. “But everyone got to say goodbye in the most thorough way. We’re sti l l moving our junk out of our offices,

and Girls is moving in.”

In the film, Fey plays a Princeton admissions officer who’s contacted by an old college friend (Paul Rudd, Prince Avalanche) who wants her to accept one of the students at the alternative high school he runs, a prodigy (Nat Wolff, Stuck in Love) too bored by traditional education to apply himself and build a resume.

Most films would focus on the inevitable budding romance between Fey and Rudd, and Admission is no exception, but it unexpectedly and wisely spends as much time on Wolff’s application process as it does on a generic will-they-won’t-they subplot.

The light-as-a-feather romance is as forgettable as they come, despite starring two of the most likable movie stars on the planet, but the film distinguishes itself by delving into the maddening world of college admissions, which it documents with precision and just the slightest edge of satire. There’s a certain devious glee to the way the dean of admissions (Wallace Shawn, A Late Quartet, one of the film’s handful of ace supporting players) rejects even the most overachieving of overachievers.

Many of the details will feel nauseatingly familiar to anyone who has known the stresses of SATs, APs, ACTs, essays and all the other implements of torture inherent to the application process.

Perhaps some of that sense of accuracy comes from the fact that Wolff, a current

admission stars Fey as a Princeton admissions officer who ends up unexpectedly pulling a few strings to help Wolff’s character get into college. photo courtesy of collider.com high school senior, was shooting the film as he was applying to college himself. Fey announced his SAT score on set, and he even went to a college fair in character.

“I really hit it off with the MIT guy,” Wolff said. “They still call me twice a week.”

At its worst, Admission has the airtight, bloodless feel of a work beholden to formula and focus testing, but there’s a quiet, workmanlike conviction to it that keeps it on the right side of the thin line between competency and mediocrity.

Weitz isn’t trying to set the world on fire with Admission, but the characters

90 minutes, the film drags in the second act.

In the film, teenage cave girl Eep (Emma Stone, Gangster Squad) is desperate to Despite its potential, the animated Croods is too simplistic and doesn’t deliver on its premise escape the boring everyday struggle of the caveman, in which death is yet another successful animated chilBy Zachary Berman dren’s movie. The premise alone — a around every corner and, according to Senior staff writer family of “cavemen” (neither Cro- her overprotective father Grug (Nicolas W hen fa m i ly-f r iend ly f i l m s Magnon nor Neanderthal) must Cage, Stolen), the only way to survive a re rea l ly go o d , t hey work for conceive new ideas as they attempt is to hide in the cave most of the time the whole family. Take a look at to escape the oncoming apocalypse and never be curious about anything.

(Yes, the movie has a message about DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek or — sounds quite refreshing.

Alas, The Croods never quite attains taking chances on new things.) any Pixar movie (except Cars), and When a slow-moving apocalypse you find films that work on both the universal appeal of How to Train emotional and humorous levels for Your Dragon or the original Madagas- of lava, earthquakes and black smoke car. It’s an entertaining film kids are arrives and destroys the family cave, parent and child alike.

The Croods — DreamWorks’ newest sure to love, but for the most part, the Eep and family set out on an adcreation — held a lot of promise to be humor is played too safe and, even at venture to find a new place to live,

REVIEW | THE CROODS

under a rock

and situations are more real than not, which is a compliment that can be paid to far too few films. It’s a deliberately small film, but its modest scope allows it to take the time to invest in its characters with that much more life and detail — it’s consistently just a little bit smarter than you expect it to be.

T he f i l m i s b u i lt on a broad , bl a nd rom-com s t r u ct u re, b ut it’s delicate enough with the small details that the building ends up stronger than the foundation. It doesn’t end with a kiss or a grand declaration of love but with an unexpected and morally ambiguous

guided by the more highly evolved Guy (Ryan Reynolds, Ted), a human with a wealth of new ideas (e.g., fire) and a crush on Eep. T he re i s a pa lpable se n se of doom t h rou g hout T he Crood s, wh ich is set n icely aga i nst the visually stunning computer-animated world. Even at the happiest of times, the horizon beyond is a bleak wasteland of death encroaching on the family road trip.

But this is still a family movie, and as such, The Croods never goes too far with its jokes about death and natural selection. At times, the film’s reluctance to joke about its premise can be infuriating, as it refuses to throw in a few jokes that might go over kids’ heads.

For instance, the Croods’ discovery of Guy’s fire starts out quite f u n ny but ends w ith them a lso

act that upends the narrative and redefines the characters.

Weitz, Fey and Rudd are united in their focus on characters as the film’s driving force, and it’s this ethos that elevates the film. The narrative is driven by personalities, not by the necessities of genre, as is so often the case.

“The characters in a comedy don’t know they’re being funny,” Weitz said.

“You don’t want to go back and add people falling down the stairs,” Fey added. “You just play the tone that’s on the page.” diversionsdbk@gmail.com

discovering popcorn in the most contrived, annoying way possible.

It’s strange to complain about these kinds of things in regard to a kid-friendly film, but with audiences having been spoiled by the likes of Up, adults, at least, should expect something a little less juvenile.

Near the end, when Grug’s family has to leave him behind (evolution jokes to follow), the movie finally begins to generate some worthy emotional appeal.

After it’s all over, however, the best that can be said about The Croods is that it is at least an adequate adventure, if underdeveloped.

The difference is clear — while I might tell a peer without children to run out and see Brave, I wouldn’t give the same recommendation for The Croods. diversionsdbk@gmail.com

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HOUSES FOR RENT

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Call or text Paul at 301-704-7810.

HOUSES FOR RENT. Close to campus. cphouse4rent.com BIKE TO CAMPUS. 5718 Vassar Drive. 5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 2 kitchens, ac, 2 dishwashers, washer/dryer. 1.58 miles to campus. Shuttle stop .12 from house. Bike path end of street. Free parking spaces available on College Ave. $1895. 301-6991863 or email dunnrentals@aol.com.

Available August. Rooms in new house.

Walking distance to campus. Washer, dryer, internet, cable, free parking, common area furnished. Call Rich, 240-423-1626.

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MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2013 | the diamondback

9

TWEET OF THE DAY Patrick Mullins @p_mullins_7 Terps men’s soccer forward

“FLGC is too fun to watch! Just in my room yelling to myself about a team I’ve never seen play before tonight. #lobcity”

Sports

JUST SHORT OF ITS GOAL

The Terps gymnastics team finished a close second to N.C. State in the EAGL Championships. For more, visit diamondbackonline.com.

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ON THE WEB

MONDAY, March 25, 2013

MEN’S BASKETBALL | NIT

Faust casts season’s struggles aside during recent hot streak Guard averaging 13.2 points on 50 percent shooting since Feb. 19

By Connor Letourneau Senior staff writer The criticisms have stayed the same much of the Terrapins men’s basketball season. Nick Faust is too triggerhappy, too passive defensively and too turnover prone.

And those critiques haven’t just appeared on blog posts or Internet forums. They’ve become a staple of Terps practices. Coach Mark Turgeon believes the sophomore guard has plenty of deficiencies, and he’s not shy about pointing them out.

But as the No. 2-seed Terps prepare to face top-seeded Alabama tomorrow in an NIT third-round matchup — they defeated No. 3-seed Denver,

62-52, on Thursday — Turgeon has traded the nitpicking sessions for moments of public praise. He regularly references Faust when discussing his young squad’s “growth” and has lauded the Baltimore native’s improvements in each of the Terps’ past four news conferences.

After all, no player — outside of perhaps guard Pe’Shon Howard — so clearly exemplifies the inexperienced bunch’s recent strides. Faust is averaging 13.2 points per game on 50 percent shooting since a Feb. 19 loss at Boston College, and his stats only tell part of the story.

Gone are the head-scratching plays that made Turgeon livid on the sideline. Gone is the me-first attitude that

seemed to plague much of the team during conference play.

Faust has not only upped his scoring average more than a point per game in little more than a month; he has helped an erratic group find a semblance of stability in an up-and-down campaign.

Since slogging through a disappointing loss at Georgia Tech on Feb. 27, the Terps have played some of their best basketball of the season.

They beat Wake Forest on the road March 2. They upended then-No. 2 Duke in the ACC tournament in North Carolina on March 15. And they ousted Niagara and Denver — two teams that won regular-season See FAUST, Page 3

Guard Nick Faust has improved his play since moving back to his natural position. christian jenkins/the diamondback

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL | NCAA TOURNAMENT

Not in their house

WRESTLING NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Visiting Quinnipiac overmatched as Terps cruise to 72-52 win in NCAA Tournament first round

By Daniel Gallen Senior staff writer With the Terrapins women’s basketball team struggling to pull away from Quinnipiac early in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament first round contest, it turned to its stalwart contributor to set the tone for a comeback victory.

Quinnipiac forward Brittany McQuain drove to the basket early in the second half, where she was met by Terps forward Alyssa Thomas.

Thomas leapt and smacked McQuain’s floater to the court. As Terps and Bobcats alike dove to the floor in pursuit of the loose ball, Thomas stood rigid, her mouth wide open in a yell.

“Just letting them know it’s not going to be anything easy in our house,” Thomas said.

“I think that just gave us the energy to carry out the game.”

From then on, No. 13-seed Quinnipiac had no answer for the No. 4-seed Terps. Led by a 29-point, 13-rebound, five-assist outing from Thomas, the Terps were able to clinch a spot in the tournament’s second round with a 72-52 victory. The Terps take on No. 5-seed Michigan State in Comcast Center tonight with the Sweet 16 on the line.

A sluggish Terps start allowed Quinnipiac to jump out to a 21-12 lead with 6:56 left in the first half, thanks to three 3-pointers from reserve guard Ellen Cannon. Cannon was part of Quinnipiac’s “Gold Rush,” a substitution pattern of switching out all five players on the court at once. The Bobcats’ fresh legs led to a boost on the boards, where the teams were even at 22 at halftime.

“In the first half, we were a little short on Forward Alyssa Thomas overpowered Quinnipiac with 29 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in a 72-52 win Saturday. charlie deboyace/the diamondback

See BOBCATS, Page 3

MEN’S LACROSSE

Little goes right in Terps’ first loss of year Team falls to North Carolina, 10-8, on Saturday

By Aaron Kasinitz Staff writer All-American long pole Jesse Bernhardt and reigning ACC Freshman of the Year Goran Murray led a group of Terrapins men’s lacrosse players rushing across Capital One Field Saturday, chasing a loose ball near their own net.

The Terps outnumbered North Carolina in the ensuing scrum, and they had some of their top talent battling for possession, too. But after several seconds of urgent struggle, Tar Heels attackman Jimmy Bitter emerged with the ball.

He then shoveled a pass to wideopen teammate Marcus Holman, who easily fired the ball past Terps goalkeeper Niko Amato, giving North Car-

olina a four-goal advantage midway through the second quarter.

It was the type of opportunistic play the Terps usually make. But Saturday, everything seemed to unfold a bit differently for the nation’s topranked team.

The Terps’ second-ranked offense struggled mightily, the squad failed to jump out to its typical fast start and the nation’s last unbeaten team fell to No. 14 North Carolina, 10-8, in front of a crowd of 3,053 at Byrd Stadium.

“The season is a grind. You go through a lot of ups and downs. You know you’re not going to play your ‘A’ game every single week,” coach John Tillman said. “Sometimes you’re not See HEELS, Page 3

Midfielder Jake Bernhardt and the Terps finally stumbled in a 10-8 loss to North Carolina on Saturday. The team’s second-ranked offense struggled to get going as it suffered its first defeat. charlie deboyace/the diamondback

Jimmy Sheptock earned All-American status for the first time in his career this weekend. file photo/the diamondback

Terps place 27th at nat’l tournament Sheptock finishes 6th, named All-American

By Josh Vitale Senior staff writer This season has been far from typical for Kerry McCoy. His Terrapins wrestling team struggled all year at the middleweight classes, spent multiple weeks outside the nation’s top 25 and failed to claim the ACC Championship for the first time since 2010.

Despite those deficiencies, the fifthyear coach traveled to this weekend’s NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, with lofty aspirations. He had five guys competing in the 330-person field, and he was hoping to see at least a few of them stand atop the eightwrestler podium Saturday afternoon.

His vision didn’t quite become reality, though. Unfortunately for McCoy, 184-pound Jimmy Sheptock was the only Terp who earned AllAmerican status and a spot on the podium as the team stumbled to a 27th-place finish with 16.5 team points.

“We came out here with high expectations, and any time you have high expectations and don’t reach them, you got to go back and look at why,” McCoy said. “When you look at the overall gauge and compare, we did better than we did last year. So that’s an improvement. But obviously we had higher expectations than what we did. So it’s mixed feelings.”

The Terps finished four spots ahead of where they placed in 2012, so they did make some notable strides. Ask McCoy, though, and he’ll say they left too many points on the mat.

Josh Asper fell one match short of becoming the second Terp to earn AllAmerica honors three times, reaching the quarterfinals at 174 pounds before dropping consecutive matches to Nebraska’s Robert Kokesh and Illinois’ Jordan Blanton.

And 197-pound Christian Boley suffered the same fate. After dropping his first match of the tournament to See NCAA, Page 3