11-19-19

The Pitt News

Read more of today’s stories at pittnews.com

T h e i n d e p e n d e n t s t ude nt ne w spap e r of t he U niversity of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | November 19, 2019 ­| Volume 110 | Issue 87

PANTHERS BEAT SHADOWS, 63-50 PG. 5

HEATHER TOMKO

FIGHTS FOR ACCESSIBILITY IN PITTSBURGH Ashton Crawley Staff Writer

as close as possible to the menu we’re serving everywhere else,” Courtney said.

The preparations for such a large-scale event begin weeks in advance, according to Courtney.

This planning requires finding distributors who can provide enough food for the dinner — 2,000 pounds of turkey, 40 cases of sweet potatoes and 30 cases of mashed potatoes to be exact.

This quantity of food might seem extensive, but Michael Zanie, resident district manager at Sodexo, said the dining staff estimates that the average student will consume around 2.2 pounds of food. He attributes this large amount to the importance of the holiday season.

“Thanksgiving has always been a special meal,” Zanie said. “This is a community event for people to get together before they have to buckle

Heather Tomko wants accessibility to be a priority in daily conversations.

Tomko, a graduate student and research assistant at Pitt’s School of Public Health, has a neuromuscular disease called spinal muscular atrophy, and has used a wheelchair since she was three years old. Throughout her life, Tomko said she has been an activist because the accessibility issues that affect her are often pushed to the side by others. “[Advocating] is just something that you have to do because there aren’t necessarily always others advocating for you,” Tomko said.

Tomko advocates for accessibility rights in Pittsburgh through Accessible YOUniverse — the organization she founded in 2018 — and her blog, titled The Heather Report. Her efforts have earned her multiple awards in recent years, including the 2018 title of Ms. Wheelchair USA — a pageant which highlights women in wheelchairs who’ve made great achievements.

In her year as Ms. Wheelchair USA, Tomko enjoyed some fun perks, like meeting Leslie Odom Jr. from the original cast of “Hamilton.” But she also was able to use her national platform to develop Accessible YOUniverse, a foundation aimed at making sure the needs of people with disabilities are thought of from the outset of city and architectural planning, rather than becoming an afterthought.

“Things like no curb cuts or cracks or

See Market on page 2

See Tomko on page 2

Sophomore guard Trey McGowens (2) goes up for a dunk during Pitt’s 63-50 victory over Monmouth.

Carolyn Pallof staff photographer

THE MAKING OF MARKET THANKSGIVING Rebecca Johnson Staff Writer

For Madison Frank, a senior biology major, Market Thanksgiving brings a piece of home to Towers and a welcome reprieve from a hectic course load.

“It’s really like a taste of home throughout the whole semester when I’m eating the same things every day,” Frank said. “It gives me the motivation to get through the rest of the semester to get to go home and spend time with my family.”

Market Thanksgiving and Perchgiving are annual Pitt traditions in which an estimated 6,000 students combined feast on Thanksgiving staples including roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin pie, according to Sean Minahan, director of culinary for Pitt Dining.

Perchgiving took place on Thursday, and Market

Thanksgiving is scheduled for Wednesday.

Minahan said the meal’s contents are decided based on the chefs’ personal recipes they decide to share with students.

“They all have their recipes and we go through the traditional classics. We don’t want to recreate the wheel when it comes to doing Thanksgiving dinner,” Minahan said.

Market Thanksgiving also includes a vegan menu as well as Kosher and Halal options. The vegan menu will feature tofurkey and gravy, vegan mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, vegan brownies and cranberry sauce. Caitlin Courtney, the production manager for Market Central, said Market Thanksgiving tries to accommodate religious and dietary restrictions to the best of their ability.

“We still offer a Simple Servings menu that is

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Tomko, pg. 1

potholes in the sidewalk affect our lives,” Tomko said. “And those are the things that people aren’t necessarily thinking about when they’re implementing changes.”

She held the first official kickoff event for Accessible YOUniverse a few weeks after passing the crown to the next Miss Wheelchair USA. Tomko described the event as a “state of the union” of accessibility in Pittsburgh, as City officials and other advocates gathered to discuss what could be done better within the City.

As a lifelong City resident, Tomko said it’s important to enact change in Pittsburgh — a pursuit that her childhood friend Katie Koenig can attest to.

Koenig met Tomko in the fourth grade at Whitehall Elementary School, and the two have remained close ever since.

“She’s unstoppable,” Koenig said. “She has such a clear idea of her goals, and she goes for it.”

Koenig has witnessed Tomko’s struggles with accessibility firsthand in various ill-equipped buildings.

“We need to be mindful of the world we live in and make sure that the entire public has access,” Koenig said.

In addition to being a graduate student, being an activist and working as a research coordinator at Pitt, Tomko writes her blog, The Heather Report, where she shares about her life and what

Market, pg. 1 down and worry about being a student.”

Beyond the food, there is another tradition associated with Market Thanksgiving and Perchgiving — long lines. These lines persist, despite the 1,000 available seats in Market and 265 at the Perch. Dana Bernhard, a first-year neuroscience major, who attended her first Perchgiving last week, advises other students to come early if they want to avoid the crowd, something she said she luckily did herself unintentionally.

“I didn’t even know it was Perchgiving. I was

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it’s like to live with spinal muscular atrophy. Tomko writes about everything from lifestyle and beauty to travel and personal experiences.

“Representation of people with disabilities is still very limited. So I feel like anything that can kind of break down that stigma, little by little, is worth it,” Tomko said.

The Heather Report has connected Tomko to many other people with SMA and other disabilities, who may have trouble getting out and about and making those connections in person.

“Growing up having SMA, I knew my sister and one other person who had it.

But now I have met so many amazing people. Having that community is so important,” Tomko said.

Tomko’s community is right here in the City. She completed her undergraduate degree in mechanical and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 2010, then started working in Pitt’s public health department as a research assistant when she was fresh out of college.

Working in Pittsburgh allows Tomko to stay close to her family as well. Both Tomko and her sister, Jess, a senior admissions coordinator at CMU’s College of Engineering, have SMA. Tomko said her family has always been very supportive and advocated for her and her sister.

“My parents are great at advocating

for us and I think I kind of learned how to be an advocate from seeing it all my life,” Tomko said.

Although she had a supportive family, Tomko wanted to take her advocacy to the next level and make sure that the accessibility issues she faced were discussed.

“I realized that if I didn’t start advocating in a larger way, things other than my own personal circumstances, I couldn’t expect to see change happen,” Tomko said.

Tomko participated in the Jewish Healthcare Foundation’s Jonas Salk Health Activist Fellowship, where she learned how to create a campaign to grab the public’s attention on a major health issue and work with community activists to strengthen their cause.

Through this program, her own personal experiences and her education in Pitt Public Health, Tomko was able to concentrate on important areas of accessibility.

“There’s a big public health focus right now on social determinants of health and how housing and your income and job opportunities affect your quality of life and your health long term,” Tomko said.

“To me, I see accessibility, or the lack of accessibility, present in so many of those things.”

For Tomko, even things like getting a cup of coffee can be difficult if accessibility is not a priority. She often goes to the Starbucks on Fifth Avenue, but since there is no button to push to open the

front door automatically, Tomko must wait for someone to open the door for her.

“Adding a button isn’t a huge, expensive installation, but it would make a huge difference in my everyday life. I think people traditionally think of disability issues as you know, access to employment, access to a house and health care,” Tomko said. “And that’s kind of where their mind stops. The day-to-day activities affect you more than the other things.”

Tomko’s activist efforts with Accessible YOUniverse reached Christina Abernethy, a North Hills native, who is another accessibility advocate. Abernethy met Tomko a little over a year ago at an event called City of Tomorrow Challenge for Pittsburgh.

“I was drawn to her,” Abernethy said.

“She inspires me to do more and look for more when I’m out in the community. I love seeing the world through her eyes.”

Through Accessible YOUniverse and The Heather Report, Tomko has tried to ensure that accessibility is “not an afterthought in Pittsburgh.” She has big hopes for the future, but for now, she wants to see the proliferation of more simple improvements like push buttons and accessible entrances.

“Change is harder than the status quo, but I would love to see more efforts towards inclusion,” Tomko said.

“I would like to see people reach out to people with disabilities and not just wait for them to show up.”

by myself, and it was like God sent me a gift. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen,” Bernhard said. “There was no line because I went right at 4 o’clock. At 6, it wrapped around the door. I 100% recommend Perchgiving, but go at 4 o’clock.”

Zanie said his staff views long lines as a testament to the success of its dinner, but will try to speed up the lines as quickly as possible.

“With this number of students there’s always going to be a line. We look at that as a good thing,” Zanie said. “We use every inch of the space that we possibly can. For example, the 360 station will be capable of serving 1,000 people an hour. But, we want to make sure that the product is fresh,

hot and safe.”

Bernard said she recommends Perchgiving and Market Thanksgiving because of the high caliber of the food.

“The food was amazing, and I was so happy that I went,” Bernard said. “It is almost better than the Thanksgiving food I get at home.”

Christine Durmis, a first-year nursing major, also attended Perchgiving and said she was impressed by the food and actually enjoyed the crowd.

“I thought that it was really enjoyable and it was cool to see how many people were there and how crowded it was,” Durmis said. “The food was really good and the quality was much higher

than the normal stuff.”

While Zanie said he is pleased that Market Thanksgiving is so popular among students, he disagrees that the quality is greater than the average day at Market.

“I think it’s expectations and perspectives,” Zanie said. “Everyone knows what Thanksgiving is supposed to look like. It’s less obvious what everything else is supposed to look like.”

But, Zanie added that this dinner is a particularly festive occasion for his staff.

“For us, we want to make it a fun experience for everybody. It’s really a time for this family to get together,” Zanie said.

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Opinions

column

Thanksgiving is not a rite of passage into Christmas Anne-Marie Yurik

Promiti Debi staff illustrator

Staff Columnist

To everyone currently listening to Christmas music — whether loud and proud or secretly under your bed for fear of the “Thanksgiving matters” spiel from that one judgy friend — you have nothing to be ashamed of.

Thanksgiving as a “you can now listen to holiday music” rite of passage is pointless, and considering how few people in the world actually celebrate Thanksgiving, it doesn’t make sense, either.

One thing many Americans might forget is that other countries do not celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a feast that represents Pilgrims’ first harvest feast in the “New World” — also known as America — that occurred in 1621. Since no other country was once incorrectly dubbed the New World, it is a holiday born in the United States of America. I know, I was shocked after I landed in Spain for the semester and came to the realization that I would not get a Thursday in late November off to overeat with family and then go shopping merely four hours later on Friday morning.

A day dedicated to eating to the point of having to unbutton my pants is not something I take lightly. However, the harsh reality that I can’t do that here without prompting Spaniards to wonder what has me in my feels forces me to look at the problem in the eyes — Thanksgiving can no longer be a day of transition.

No Pitt pre-departure meeting could prepare me for the reality that I would have to determine for myself what day is acceptable to non-ironically say “’tis the season.” While this dilemma is my cross to bear, I genuinely cannot bring myself to press play on my favorite Christmas song, “Last Christmas,” or even the more

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general “Happy Holidays” genre on Spotify. I would never wrong Thanksgiving like that.

Only American universities give students a day off to be grateful for their family and friends while the entire U.S. population awkwardly glosses over the reality of what happened when America was “discovered.” But Turkey Day politics aside, some would argue that Thanksgiving serves the larger purpose of allowing women, men and children everywhere to crank up Mariah Carey’s Christmas album and transform into a Starbucks peppermint latte without fear of social persecution. And as fun as it is to have the “why don’t we have Thanksgiving music?” debate each year, we have forgotten a much larger truth. Thanksgiving’s lack of existence in literally any other country reflects the frivolity of its larger purpose.

So as much as we’d love to think that

the rest of the world celebrates a day when people overeat and then run over strangers with shopping carts at their friendly neighborhood Walmart, that’s just us. And since the holiday season belongs to no country in particular, we cannot hold everyone else to our standards, namely shading them if they don’t wait to hear “Holly Jolly Christmas” until we’ve bought our flat-screen for a sweet deal.

As a student abroad this semester, I am forced to decide for myself when I want to experience my first voice crack while attempting to sing Mariah Carey’s high notes. My mom will not turn on Delilah’s Christmas radio station after Thanksgiving dinner, and I will not then experience the collective epiphany that we will now invest our precious time to watch Vanessa Hudgens’ questionable British accent in the “Christmas Switch.”

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For those lucky enough to continue to blindly scold those who proudly decorate their Christmas tree between handing out Halloween candy to people dressed as princesses, vampires or the Port Authority sinkhole bus, know your privilege.

We can’t all be lucky enough to throw groundless claims at people who just wanna watch Hallmark in peace and get away with it. Nor do we have the opportunity to funnel our cuffing season energy at an all-day feast.

Some of us must face the chilling reality of Christmas time — it is a selectively permeable boundary left completely to the discretion of its participants.

The exclusively American Thanksgiving holiday cannot be used to enforce a rule about a completely different holiday season, even though we truly exude that red-white-and-blue energy when we try to use it as such.

We don’t need to be the Gandalfs of the holiday season, especially since we don’t own it. Before you go all “bah humbug” on me, know that you can use Thanksgiving as an indicator of holiday spirit for yourself, but you can’t make someone else.

So when you lean back in your seat at the dinner table, discreetly trying to pop open the button of your jeans, just know that Thanksgiving only indicates one thing — Thanksgiving. Alas, your basement decorated with lumpy gourds and pumpkin everything speaks nothing of Christmas spirit, nor can it be used as a global determinant for the beginning of the holiday season.

As much as it pains me to say this, we all must come together and admit that it is okay to listen to Christmas music when you want — even though listening to it in the summer months is a little questionable, right?

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Culture

Sonia Sanchez and Marilyn Nelson talk black poetry

Charlie Taylor Staff Writer

Sonia Sanchez read a few of her poems at an event Thursday — not only that, but she also hummed, sang and chanted along with the various voices of her work.

Her poems are titled after the voices of her family members, who overtake Sanchez’s own voice and become speakers in the poems — which was reflected in her performance of the poem “Family Voices/Ancestors’ Voices.”

Sanchez and fellow poet Marilyn Nelson visited the Carnegie Lecture Hall for a reading, which was followed by a conversation about their work, in an event hosted by Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures and the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics.

Dawn Lundy Martin, director and cofounder of the CAAPP, kicked off the event by introducing the poets. According to Martin, this was the first lecture in the CAAPP’s new Legacy Series, which aims to refute the idea that African American literature is somehow separate from the wider scope of American literature. She pointed to both women as living testament to the impact of African American voices in poetry and asked the audience to challenge their preconceived ideas of what constitutes American literature.

“Our American literature,” Martin said, “and the vantage points from which we see this literature, may be just as constructed as race itself.”

First to read her work was Nelson, who draws largely on history for poetic inspiration. Nelson read her poem “Thus Far by Faith,” which she wrote after a visit to the Thomas Chapel Methodist Church in Hickman, Kentucky.

The church’s namesake, Warren Thomas, was an African American

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Poets Marilyn Nelson (left) and Sonia Sanchez (right) spoke about their works as a part of the first installment of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics Legacy Series. Image via University of Pittsburgh preacher known to deliver sermons to mules. The poem imagines several hypothetical sermons, including humorous addresses to mules and somber reminders of slavery’s legacy in the South.

“Beloved, stop your grumbling,” Nelson read. “Be the stars / what give a twisted generation light. / That’s what the book say. / But old Satan roars / louder, sometimes, than master.”

Sanchez’s poetry, on the other hand, tends to focus on her relationships with friends, family and even strangers around her. She followed Nelson with a reading from her book “Does Your House Have Lions?” which explores her relationship with her family and her brother’s death from AIDS. Sanchez is also a prominent activist, having pioneered the black studies program at San Francisco State University, where she taught during the late ’60s.

Between poem readings, Sanchez told the story of two black students whom she took under her wing. The two young

women and their struggle to feel accepted in higher education led Sanchez to create a course on black womanhood, the first of its kind.

Yona Harvey, a CAAPP faculty affiliate who led the post-reading conversation, said she was left with the impression that both poets cared deeply about this kind of social change. She saw their passion for progress as a reason for their impact on American literature.

“They’re nurturing and powerful, and they take mentoring very seriously,” she said. “They don’t take themselves seriously. They care about politics and the social climate and the world. And they’re very invested in leaving the literary world and the world at large as a better place than the one they came into.”

In their conversation with Harvey, Nelson and Sanchez discussed their early lives and influences. Inspired by history and her father’s experience as a Tuskegee Airman, Nelson discussed the way that speaking with veterans left marks on her

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and her work.

She recalled one conversation she had with a former Airman about a game he played with one of his friends. He had a leaky air mattress and he frequently stole his friend’s mattress, replacing it with his own. When the friend died in combat and he inherited his mattress, he was haunted by the memory of “sleeping on [his late friend’s] breath.” Nelson said she felt that upon hearing this story, she was receiving a gift.

Similarly, Sanchez became emotional onstage while describing the legacy of her late friend and mentor, Gene Hudson, a librarian at the Schomburg Library in New York. Hudson introduced Sanchez to works by prominent African American thinkers such as Zora Neale Hurston, whose writing deeply impacted the way Sanchez thought about literature.

These influences on the writer’s work were of particular interest to members of the audience. Rosa Williamson-Rae, an English literature, English writing and Russian triple major, said they were not familiar with the poets’ work, but still found value in the reading.

“I thought the readings were incredible.

And I thought the after-reading discussion was just really moving,” Williamson-Rae said.

Philippa Zang, a junior English Writing and Africana Studies major, had read their poetry before, and walked away from the reading with new insight to use in their own writing.

“I had also just been talking in one of my writing classes about how the voices of other people inform the voices in our work,” Zang said, “and I thought that was really beautifully demonstrated by Sonia Sanchez and Marilyn Nelson and the way that they took other people’s stories and shared them.”

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Sports

AFTER SEVERAL SEASONS SIDELINED,

BUGG RETURNS TO STARRING ROLE Dominic Campbell Senior Staff Writer

Being a student athlete at the Division I level is a tall order for anyone. Add in a myriad of injuries and a life-threatening illness, and it becomes an almost impossible challenge — but not for redshirt senior guard Aysia Bugg.

Bugg is in her sixth year at Pitt and hasn’t played a full season since 2017. She missed the entirety of the 2017-18 season with a torn ACL she suffered before the season began.

Then, five games into the 2018-19 season, she was diagnosed with blood clots in her lungs, forcing her to take another medical redshirt year.

Through all the health adversity and upheaval to her playing environment, basketball has always remained a constant in Bugg’s life.

Sports, in general, have buoyed Bugg since it became apparent in her youth that she had an athletic advantage over her peers. “[My parents] had us involved in anything from T-ball to soccer, indoor and outdoor sports until we found out what we really enjoyed, and then basketball was a clear difference in my ability so I just went with that,” Bugg said.

Bugg described herself as a “late bloomer” and said she didn’t find out about AAU basketball until her first year of high school. After she played more AAU ball, college programs began to take notice. That’s when Bugg received her first letter of interest, giving her the idea that she could continue her career on the hardwood beyond high school.

When she transferred to Bolingbrook High School, about an hour outside Chicago, entering her junior year, she started playing in more high-profile tournaments. It wasn’t long after that Pitt sent her a letter of interest, followed by a scholarship offer.

Bugg came to Pitt for two reasons — she had an interest in studying health care and

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PANTHERS TOP MONMOUTH SHADOWS, 63-50 Stephen Thompson Assistant Sports Editor

Redshirt senior guard Aysia Bugg (2) leads Pitt’s offensive with an average of 20 points per game. Carolyn Pallof staff photographer noticed the women’s basketball program’s resurgence under head coach Suzie McConnellSerio during the program’s second year in the arduous ACC. She entered her first year at Pitt in the shadow of a roster stacked with great talent and was joined by a pair of ESPN 100 recruits — forwards Yacine Diop and Stasha Carey.

The trio appeared in every game that season, starting in almost all of them. They led Pitt to a 20-win season and an NCAA Tournament berth where Pitt won its first-round matchup against Chattanooga before losing to Tennessee in the Round of 32.

The following seasons were harder for Bugg and the Panthers, with key players transferring after her first season and in the seasons that followed. Carey left after the 2015-16 season and Diop the season after. The result was a dip in performance on the court, as the Panthers finished the next three seasons with a record below .500.

And the hardships didn’t end there. Bugg suffered a torn ACL before her senior year in 2017, requiring her to sit out the upcoming season. She was granted a medical redshirt that allowed her to play the next season, but the Panthers struggled badly without her, winning just two of 16 ACC games and finishing with a 10-20 overall record.

McConnell-Serio was fired following that season and replaced by former Florida State assistant coach Lance White. It was a lot of change to go through over the course of one collegiate career, but Bugg said White made her and the other players quickly feel at ease with the decision.

“I thought he was great,” Bugg said. “I’ve never had anyone like him. He’s just so upbeat and positive and knows when it’s time to have fun and time not to, but also really cares about us, loves us and he’s just genuine in everything he does.”

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See Bugg on page 6

The air inside the media suite of the Petersen Events Center was oddly fresher than what occupied its court and stands Monday night.

After his Panthers turned in what many would consider their poorest performance to date, head coach Jeff Capel offered a shocking take.

“I’m excited,” Capel said. “I hope people are excited. I hope our guys are excited.”

Pitt men’s basketball (3-2 overall, 1-0 ACC) opened its Monday night game against Monmouth (1-4 overall, 0-0 MAAC) about as flatly as a team can. The Panthers shot 19% from the field and committed 12 turnovers in the opening period. They overcame these struggles to secure a 63-50 win, but not without 20 minutes of ugly.

As they have been all season, Pitt’s star sophomore guards were the main culprits of its brutally inefficient and sloppy first half. Xavier Johnson and Trey McGowens shot a combined 2-9 from the field and turned the ball over four times. As a team, the Panthers did not score a field goal until almost four minutes had burned off the game clock.

It got so bad that head coach Jeff Capel called for walk-on sophomore Onyebuchi Ezeakudo to replace Johnson with 14:11 left in the first half.

The Panthers trailed by as many as six in the opening period, which elicited scattered boos from the home crowd and only grew louder as the deficit persisted.

But Pitt was kept afloat by the energy and intensity of sophomore Au’Diese Toney and firstyear Justin Champagnie. The duo of forwards scored six points each on 4-4 shooting from the free-throw line and combined for 11 rebounds See Basketball on page 6

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Bugg, pg. 5 Entering her first season under White, Bugg said she was ecstatic to be back on the court and play in the up-tempo style that White implemented. After a long rehab that “took entirely way too long,” Bugg lived up to her superstar billing through the first five games of the 2018-19 season, leading the team with 14 points per game.

But following the season’s fifth game — a blowout loss at Georgetown — she began to feel pain in her shoulder that escalated into difficulty breathing. Once tests were completed, it was discovered that she had blood clots in both of her lungs.

With the diagnosis, Bugg again had to sit out the remainder of the season and was put on blood thinners for six months to prevent further blood clots. It was her second straight season spent on the bench and the Panthers again struggled. They won only two games in conference play and finished with an overall record of 11-20.

In her two years sitting on the sidelines, watching her teammates get to play the sport she loves, Bugg said she learned to see the game from a new perspective despite the disappointment she felt.

“I just feel as though it gave me a different perspective on the game, being able to understand things more,” Bugg said. “You can learn about basketball for the rest of your life … I just feel like I’m continuing to grow and that process will never stop, but me being able to see it from the sideline … allows me to help my teammates more and be the coach on the court.”

Bugg had to wait until May, when her blood thinner regimen had been completed, to start working out again. Due to the damage blood clots do to the lungs, Bugg’s physician cautioned her not to exert too

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much energy early on after being cleared.

That meant yet another two months of reduced workouts before she could get back into true basketball shape.

After finally participating in the full team workouts, Bugg got back into her current playing shape. And through those workouts, she said she has been able to bond better with her teammates, describing them as the “most open, excited group of energetic girls.”

Among the Panthers’ underclassmen is first-year guard, and likely heir to Bugg’s point guard spot, Dayshanette Harris. Harris said going on visits and meeting people can be nerve-racking as a recruit, but when she met Bugg those feelings dissipated.

“It’s been great,” Harris said. “There’s no better person that could lead me as a point guard and us as a team. She’s in her sixth year, she has the experience down and I don’t think I would want anyone else to lead me.”

Off the court, Bugg already finished her undergraduate degree in health sciences last year and is in the second year of her master’s program. She spends her spare time with her one-year-old Yorkie, Charlie, watching basketball film and movies.

Between her master’s program and a potential career in professional basketball, Bugg has plenty of options for life after Pitt.

For now, though, her job is to lead the team in her final season — a role that White said she’s excelled in so far, averaging 20 points per game.

“She’s a sixth year and we have five freshmen,” White said. “I told her this isn’t for the faint of heart. You’re going to have to dive in with that group of kids and build their trust and be a big part of their evolution as basketball players. She said, ‘Whatever you need, coach I’m willing to do,’ and she’s done that.”

Basketball, pg. 5 in the first half. Toney was frustrated during the first half, and he let his play reflect that.

“I felt like we needed some kind of energy, so I was attacking the glass hard to get the team pumped up,” Toney said.

In the second half, Toney continued to crash the boards like a man possessed — he finished with seven rebounds, four of them offensive — but the period belonged to Johnson.

After an All-ACC season a year ago, Johnson failed to live up to expectations through the first four games of his sophomore campaign.

Those struggles continued well into Monday night, but at halftime, Johnson refocused, and showed shades of his first-year self.

He tallied 13 points on an efficient 5-9 mark from the field in the second half. But his playmaking and efficient long-range shooting were the most impressive, as he shot 2-4 on 3-pointers and dished out seven assists without committing a turnover.

Johnson made some personal changes since he and his teammates suffered an embarrassing defeat to rival West Virginia last Friday. He deactivated his social media accounts in an attempt to shut out the noise and criticism surrounding his play.

“I cut off Twitter because I was reading what other people were saying about me,” he said. “It was bad. I was getting really upset about it. I was thinking too much about it. But my teammates and my coaching staff were all in my corner telling me not to worry about it.”

This move came after a discussion Capel and Johnson had following the West Virginia game. In that conversation, Capel used a Philadelphia icon to illustrate how the previously “unknown kid from northern Virginia,” as Capel put it, can regain the edge that made him great.

November 19, 2019

“With [Johnson] I equated it to Rocky III,” Capel said. “In Rocky I and II, he hasn’t done anything. He’s just a hungry dude from Philly, and then he wins the title. And that’s who he was … There were no expectations for him and then all of a sudden you have a good year individually … And success can make you soft sometimes.”

Expectations have weighed heavily on the Panthers throughout their first few games.

They triumphed over an ACC foe in the opener, suffered a setback to a mid-major, rebounded with a win and were smothered by a rival in front of a sold-out home crowd.

But in the second half on Monday, Pitt played in front of a crowd half the size of Friday’s. And while it might be disorienting to leave a capacity crowd one night and return to one significantly less peopled, it was just what they needed.

Pitt removed the hype, removed the noise and focused not on the attention last year brought, but as Toney succinctly put it, came back with “that ‘dog’ mentality.”

Fueled by Johnson, the Panthers pulled away in the second half. They shot 64% from the field and 60% from 3-point range and outscored the Hawks by 11 in the second half.

Four Panthers scored in double figures, including Champagnie, who finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and a block in 24 minutes of action. McGowens also rebounded from his poor first half to record a game-high 16 points on 40% 3-point shooting.

Pitt now has a chance to do something it hasn’t done in more than nine months — win consecutive games. And if not for their last pair of home performances, that would seem likely. But on a quick turnaround, the Panthers will try to complete the hardest task of program building — winning, not just once, but again.

University of Arkansas Pine Bluff visits the Pete on Thursday for a 7 p.m. tip-off.

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November 19, 2019

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I N D E X

Rentals & Sublet • NORTH OAKLAND • SOUTH OAKLAND • SHADYSIDE • SQUIRREL HILL • SOUTHSIDE • NORTHSIDE • BLOOMFIELD • ROOMMATES • OTHER

For Rent South Oakland ** 3 Bedroom Town­house, fire‑ place, LAUNDRY, DISH­WASHER, off street parking, patio, yard, clean. Partially Fur­nished. Located on Blvd of Allies & Dawson Street. PITT Shuttle stop, only 15 minute to PITT CMU. $1995+. Avail­able 8/1/2020. NO PETS. Coolapart­ments@ gmail.com video tour at tinyurl.­com/blvdo‑ fallies ** 5 Bedroom/2 full bath; HUGE HOME‑ duplex style, three sto‑ ries. COM­PLETELY REMOD­ELED, 2 living rooms, 2 kitchens, 2 dining rooms, LAUN­DRY, DISH­WASHER and a huge yard to enjoy!

Huge Bedrooms!

Located on Dawson Street. PITT Shuttle stops di­rectly in front of house, only 15 minute level walk to PITT/CMU. $3,595­+.

Available 8/1/2020.

NO PETS. Call Jason at 412‑922‑2141. Pic‑ tures‑ Info: tinyurl. com/­dawsonhome ***AUGUST 2020: Furnished studios,

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1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments. No pets.

Non‑smokers pre­ ferred. 412‑621‑0457.

1‑2‑3‑4‑5 Bedroom apartments/houses.

Rents starting at $650 for 1BR. May or Au­gust availability.

412‑999‑2124 1‑2‑3‑4‑6 bedroom apartments and houses available for August 2020. Owner Managed. 40+ years on campus. Fully fur­ nished or unfur­nished, most units are newly remodeled Kitchens and baths , located on Atwood, Semple, Oakland Ave., Ward, Mckee Place, Juliet and Parkview Ave. Call or text Tim @ 412‑491‑1330 www.­ TMKRentals.com 2 BR 1 BA on cam­pus bus route. Avail­able immediately. $750/ month includ­ing utilities and ca­ble.

On street park­ing. No pets. 412‑576‑8734 2‑3‑4‑5‑6‑7 bedroom apartments and houses available in May and August 2020. Nice, clean, free laundry, in­ cludes exterior main‑ tenance, new appli‑ ances, spa­cious, and located on Semple, Oak­land Ave., Mey‑ ran Ave., Welsford,

Classifieds

For sale

• AUTO • BIKES • BOOKS • MERCHANDISE • FURNITURE • REAL ESTATE • PETS

services

• EDUCATIONAL • TRAVEL • HEALTH • PARKING • INSURANCE

Bates, Dawson, and Mckee 412‑414‑9629. douridaboud­ propertymanage­ ment.com 2‑6 bedroom. All newly renovated, air‑conditioning, dish­washer, washer/ dryer, and parking.

Most units on busline and close to Pitt.

Avail­able Summer 2020. 412‑915‑0856 or email klucca@veri­ zon.net.

3 BD apartments available in South Oakland from $1195‑$1600 M.J. Kelly Real Estate mjkellyrealty@gmail.­ com. 412‑271‑5550.

3BR, 2BA furnished apartment. Dawson Street. Spacious bed­ rooms, living room, dining room, kitchen.

Washer & dryer in unit. Free parking available. Pitt bus stops at door. $1500/ mo. + all utilities.

412‑818‑9735 4 BR HOME ‑ SEM­PLE STREET, LO­CATED NEAR LOUISA. EQUIPPED KITCHEN, FULL BASEMENT. NEW CENTRAL AIR ADDED. AVAIL­ ABLE IMMEDI­ ATELY AND RENT­ING FOR MAY

notices

• ADOPTION • EVENTS • LOST AND FOUND • STUDENT GROUPS • WANTED • OTHER

AND AUGUST 2020.

412‑ 343‑4289 or 412‑330‑9498.

416 Oakland Ave., Garden Court. Bright and spacious 2BR, 1BA. Hardwood floors, laundry.

Move May 1 or Au­ gust 1, 2020. Call 412‑361‑2695.

Apartments for rent. 3 and 4 bedroom apart‑ ments available. Some available on Dawson Street, At­wood Street, and Mc­kee Place.

Newly re­modeled.

Some have laundry on site. Min­utes from the Univer­sity. For more info please call Mike at 412‑849‑8694 Before signing a lease, be aware that no more than 3 unre­lated people can share a single unit. Check property’s compliance with codes. Call City’s Per­mits, Licensing & In­spections.

412‑255‑2175.

Dawson Village Apts. near CMU and Pitt.

One bedroom apts. $935 + electric. Avail‑ able for immedi­ate move in. On bus line, close to restau­rants and shops. Contact Jerry at 412‑722‑8546 For Rent: 340 S Bou­ quet Street Pgh Pa 15213

R A T E S

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6X $30.20 $32.30

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Deadline:

Two business days prior by 3pm | Email: advertising@pittnews.com | Phone: 412.648.7978

3 bedrooms/1 bath/­ cental air/ laundry on site Contact John at 412‑292‑8928 Hudson Oakland Apartments. 2BD 1BA Located on Craft Ave, Semple St, & Cable Pl. $1,300‑ $1,495/month +elec­ tric. Within walking distance to Pitt. Tel: (412) 407‑9001 x.1 www.hudson‑oakland.­ com Now renting for Fall 2020. Apartments and houses of all sizes.

Conveniently located throughout South Oakland. Rents start‑ ing as low as $620.

John C.R. Kelly Re‑ alty. 412‑683‑7300 www.jcrkelly.com Share spacious, fur­nished apart‑ ment, S. Oakland.

Living room, dining room, Washer/dryer in­cluded. $650/mo.

Rent includes gas, electric, and wa­ter/ sewage 412‑818‑9735 South Oakland Houses and Apart­ ments with Laundry and Central Air Call or Text 412‑38‑Lease Studio, 1, 2, 3, and 4 BD apartments avail­ able in South Oak­land from $800‑$2500

November 19, 2019

M.J. Kelly Real Estate mjkellyrealty@gmail.­ com. 412‑271‑5550.

Squirrel Hill Half‑double, 3 BD with garage, on bus line. Call 412‑281‑2700. Avail‑ able Now!

view NOW! Medical and Heart Care, Students Welcome, 155 N. Craig Street, Dean Kross, MD, 412‑687‑7666

Sublet Sublet Other SUBLET unit ‑ 1BR, shared kitchen and bath. Atwood Street. Available Dec. 1, 2019 thru July 31, 2020. $400/ mo., utili­ties extra.

Contact Robert at 412‑889‑5790

Employment Employment Other Comfort Keepers, a Post‑Gazette Top Workplace 2019, is seeking caring indi­ viduals to provide companionship, light housekeeping and personal care to se­niors. We offer FLEXIBLE hours and great bene­fits. Please call 412‑363 5500 to schedule an inter­

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