2-6-18

The Pitt News

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | February 6, 2018 | Volume 108 | Issue 105

Posvar Hall Whitaker talks sports, jazz features in Pittsburgh updated classrooms

Thompson Wymard For The Pitt News

Erika Gold Kestenberg is quite familiar with Posvar Hall — she spent time studying there as a student in the ’90s, and now works there.

The associate director of educator development and practice Urban Scholars Program coordinator for the School of Education doesn’t miss the building’s old design, though.

“Overall, the brutalist architecture and the nature of the design aren’t always the most warm and welcoming and also easiest to navigate, so I really appreciate these upgrades and updates to the spaces,” she said.

The University of Pittsburgh announced in April 2017 that the largest academic-only building on campus, Posvar Hall, would undergo an estimated $10,200,000 renovation. Posvar has since seen renovations to three of its most used classrooms on the first floor — Posvar 1500, 1501 and 1502 — redesigned study spaces and the revamping of departmental offices.

The Classroom Management Team was responsible for approving the building’s changes. CMT is a group made up of University organizations, such as the Provost’s Office, the Registrar’s Office, the University Center for Teaching and Learning, Facilities Management and Computing Services and Systems Development, that meets periodically to identify where improvements can be made to upgrade university facilities.

See Posvar on page 2

Journalist and author Mark Whitaker signed copies of his newest book, “Smoketown,” centered on Pittsburgh’s vibrant black history and culture, Monday night at the Heinz History Center. Christian Snyder | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Alexa Marzina For The Pitt News

Mark Whitaker is a Philadelphian infatuated with Pittsburgh.

He is also an esteemed journalist who worked for Newsweek Magazine for three decades and became the first AfricanAmerican to lead a national newsweekly.

But that infatuation with the Steel City is what led him to investigate his father’s Pittsburgh upbringing.

Whitaker, author of “Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance,” spoke at the Heinz History Center Monday night for the Town Hall Event Series presented by PNC and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

David Shribman, executive editor of the Post-Gazette, moderated the event and invited Whitaker to pretend the audience wasn’t there and treat the talk like a conversation between them.

“You can tell me some secrets,” Shribman said.

Whitaker, however, didn’t hesitate to share information and openly discussed his book. “Smoketown,” published in January, investigates black Pittsburgh from the 1920s to the ‘50s, covering cultural highlights like baseball, jazz music and the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the top black newspapers in the United States.

The Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords baseball teams traded

star players such as Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson and Judy Johnson through the ‘30s and ‘40s, leading to eventual success for both teams.

“The Grays, who started out as a sandlot team in Homestead, but had been taken over by Cum Posey, had become the best team in black baseball,” he said. “Until Gus Greenlee ... bought another sandlot team called the Pittsburgh Crawfords and started raiding all of Cum Posey’s players and turned them into the best team.”

Pianist Erroll Garner also takes a spotlight in “Smoketown,” as his ballad “Misty” had become a jazz standard.

See Whitaker on page 2

News

Posvar, pg. 1

According to Michael Arenth, the director of educational technology and a member of the CMT, Posvar was picked for renovations this past year because of its large size, its heavy daily use and its occupancy by numerous departments throughout the University. He said lecture hall 1500 and classrooms 1501 and 1502 were chosen specifically because of their frequent use for lectures. The first floor renovations are part of a series of changes in Posvar, including work in the Center for Urban Education, the Department of Anthropology, Department of Political Science, a behavioral lab for the School of Business and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms.

“These rooms are three high-profile, very heavily used rooms,” he said. “They were good targets for renovation, and certainly there was ample opportunity to

improve the features to enhance teaching, learning in the rooms.”

Lindsay Onufer, a teaching consultant and CMT member, said the new classrooms on the first floor were updated with teaching in mind. They include mobile desks that allow for reconfiguration and group work, swivel chairs and more natural light. Onufer also said faculty enjoy the new whiteboard additions because they allow for more group work in large lecture classes.

“The idea behind the rooms is designing them in such a way that it inspires teachers to use pedagogical best practices — to teach in new and different ways,” Onufer said.

Many people echoed this emphasis on the increased capacity for the renovated classrooms to facilitate group work. One of those people is Loretta Killeen, the senior project manager for the CMT, who said elements of the design were a reac-

tion to surveyed responses from both faculty and students.

Killeen highlighted another key feature of the renovated rooms — increased practicability in terms of handicapped accessibility. In Posvar 1501, 1502 and 1503, a student in a wheelchair or with crutches now has the ability to sit anywhere in the room, something that was not a possibility in the old, tiered classrooms.

In Posvar 1500, the entire classroom is handicap-accessible. This means not only can students sit anywhere in the room, but a faculty member in a wheelchair could teach there as well.

The renovations also feature new study rooms. Natalia Duarte, a graduate student in sociology, spoke highly of the addition, especially when contrasted with her office on Posvar second floor.

“They have windows — big windows — and they have comfortable seats,” she said. “I’m a graduate student and I have

Whitaker, pg. 1 Whitaker says though Garner was unable to join the Pittsburgh Musicians’ Union — members were required to read music, and Garner only played by ear — he was “a total genius.”

“He composed one of the great songs in the American songbook,” he said. “In the late ‘50s, early ‘60s, Erroll Garner was probably the best-known jazz pianist in the world, really.”

Samuel Weber, a junior communication and English writing major, attended the event and was surprised by Whitaker’s honesty in his book. “Smoketown” discusses Pittsburgh’s largely “unsung community” and reminds readers “that black history is not all bleak,” according to the event program.

“I didn’t expect him to be so open and ready to talk about the topics he discussed in ‘Smoketown,’” Weber said.

Theresa Dickerson, a junior English writing major, didn’t expect such a large turnout but enjoyed the community feeling the event provided.

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David M. Shribman (left), executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Mark Whitaker, American journalist and former executive vice president and managing editor for CNN Worldwide, discuss the rich history of African-Americans in southwestern Pennsylvania, as presented in Whitaker’s book “Smoketown.” Christian Snyder | MULTIMEDIA EDITOR “The beautiful thing was this was not about being black or white, but rather the gathering of a community that was celebrating a history that was neglected for so long,” Dickerson said.

While “Smoketown” is his most recent book, Whitaker is known for other

works as well. His first book, “My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir,” published in 2011, is a combination of memory and reporting on his family’s history in Pittsburgh — his father, a scholar of Africa and born to undertaker parents, was absent for a while during Whitaker’s

February 6, 2018

my office upstairs, they don’t have windows at all. So I like here [the new lounge] ... There’s a lot of light — natural light too — so I like it,” she said.

Joe Kocik, a junior majoring in computer engineering, agreed the light improved the overall atmosphere of the building and said the new study rooms will come in handy for students with dying laptops.

“I’ve studied here before, and it’s always been a pain to find like outlets and tables and stuff. So, the new study areas should fix that,” Kocik said.

Kestenberg said the renovations have improved the overall mood of the faculty too, with the new offices seeming to inject energy into the space.

“People are excited to come in, they want to be here,” Kestenberg said. “With the openness of it and the glass, it provides a lot more accessibility to people and a lot more interaction.” early teenage life.

Whitaker describes his parents’ interracial relationship as being “doubly scandalous,” saying they “broke all the rules,” because that type of relationship was still illegal in the ‘50s.

He visited the Cathedral of Learning earlier in the day to speak to a journalism class about writing memoir and autobiography, as well as to discuss his process for writing “My Long Trip Home.”

“I think [objective] is a dangerous word,” he said to the class. “[But] I think it’s possible to be what I call dispassionate ... I was an unreliable narrator in my life to myself.”

Whitaker also shared his thoughts about the current gentrification of Pittsburgh neighborhoods compared to the once-booming life on the Hill. While he said he had many opinions, it also took him a while to answer.

“What I would like to see happen” he said, “Is [for Smoketown] to remind people who are benefitting from the current renaissance ... is that there is this history.”

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Opinions

column

from the editorial board

Super Bowl ad shows superficial concern for civil rights When he first delivered his “Drum Major Instinct” sermon Feb. 4, 1968, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr. had little way of knowing how his speech would come across in the moment — let alone 50 years in the future.

The civil rights icon likely never foresaw a sound bite of the speech, which warned members of the black community against the dangers of consumerism, being used to sell products. But that’s exactly what a recording of the speech ended up doing this weekend — in a Super Bowl ad.

During Sunday’s championship game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots, an advertisement for Ram trucks featured a montage of Americans hard at work, Rams sloshing through the mud and King’s recorded voice narrating in the background. Naturally, the bizarre combination wasn’t lost on Super Bowl viewers.

“MLK wanted equal rights and for me to buy a Dodge Ram,” Twitter user Ja’han Jones said.

“Dodge using MLK’s words in a car ad seems so obviously in poor taste that one wonders if they’re expecting and eagerly anticipating ‘backlash,’” another user, Daniel D’Addario, tweeted.

Of course, the Ram commercial this Super Bowl wasn’t the first advertisement in recent memory to touch on racial issues with mixed success and a remarkable lack of tone awareness. Socialite Kendall Jenner starred in a commercial for Pepsi last April that had much the same effect. In the ad’s story, Jenner solves the complex conflict between Black Lives Matter protesters and armed police by offering both sides a Pepsi. The ad left an impression on the people who watched it — mostly because

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it was difficult to understand how advertisers could be so out of touch with social realities in America.

Similarly, the effect of the Ram commercial is almost comically offensive. And it’s a good point to keep in mind that most of the initial shock to Ram’s poor taste will probably be forgotten in the long run as people remember the product’s name and forget its negative connotations. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hold the companies involved responsible.

Beyond simply acting in poor taste, the people involved in financing and organizing the Super Bowl and the National Football League in general were hypocritical to include Martin Luther King Jr. in a car sales pitch.

The comparisons between Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers’ former quarterback prominent for his protests during games, and Martin Luther King Jr. are inevitable.

“Black people [can’t] kneel and play football but MLK should be used to sell trucks during the super bowl,” Twitter user Akilah Hughes noted. “Unbelievable.”

After leaving the 49ers at the end of the 2016-2017 season, Kaepernick has been unable to find work in the league, filing a grievance October alleging NFL owners are colluding against hiring him because of his protests against police violence. If the league really does want to work civil rights into its agenda, it might start by ridding itself of its reputation of systematically excluding players who want to bring them up.

Using Martin Luther King Jr. to sell cars during the Super Bowl is a disservice to MLK and other civil rights fighters. If advertisers and producers are unwilling to draw the line at basic decency, we should do it for them and stop supporting them.

DON’T PAINT GREEK LIFE WITH SINGLE STROKE

Ana Altchek Columnist

I distinctly remember my first night at college, standing awkwardly in the basement of an off-campus house packed with strangers. Lost in a trance, watching drunken mobs of people make fools of themselves, I was brought back to reality when I was aggressively shoved by an incoherent stranger who spilled his drink all over me.

Just when I thought my night couldn’t get any worse, blue and red lights started flashing outside the house. It wasn’t long before the police were banging on the door. The lights went out, I lost my friends, and the guy next to me started threatening everyone to stay where they were.

It was at that moment I decided I had to join Greek life at Pitt. College is an environment known for heavy alcohol use and sex that’s all too often nonconsensual — and I didn’t want to go to parties where there were no limits on drinking or enforcement of appropriate behavior. I wanted a social life, but within a certain parameter.

The reasons I originally decided to join my sorority came to mind again last month, when an incident involving alcohol at an event for the Pitt chapter of Sigma Chi led to a pledge’s hospitalization. Even though the incident didn’t involve any other fraternity or sorority, the entire Greek community suffered for one chapter’s mistake when Pitt administrators put all fraternities and sororities on temporary social probation — all Greek organizations were banned from holding parties and other social events with alcohol.

Greek life already faces self-imposed limi-

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tations and some controls from University administration — many of which come from the direct supervision of living on campus. What happened last month wasn’t so much indicative of a problem with Greek life itself as it was of the excesses of college party culture — and blaming fraternities and sororities for those excesses simply isn’t productive.

For me, joining Greek life wasn’t necessarily about parties. It was about being part of an organization that embraces social life and friendship while also giving back to the community and maintaining order, rules and responsibility.

For example, most fraternities and sororities on campus require the constant presence of a number of designated sober people at events where alcohol is served. If members get out of hand, there are precautions in place to help avoid the worst possible outcome at a party.

So while social fraternities and sororities may have a reputation for partying, they aren’t allowed to act as out of control or drink as much as they want without consequences.

And just because a single fraternity or sorority does something to violate the University’s code of conduct, doesn’t mean every Greek-affiliated organization is corrupt and misbehaved.

Greek life at Pitt has now been on probation for two weeks, and the fraternity directly involved continues to be on probation, even after Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner announced last week that Pitt police hadn’t found any evidence to link the incident at Sigma Chi to hazing.

“The underage student voluntarily drank to excess,” according to a statement from Bonner emailed to the student body Thursday.

See Altchek on page 5

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Altchek, pg. 4 Concerned brothers at Sigma Chi risked the organization’s standing with the University by reporting it. Given the current social and administrative atmosphere at colleges, one that’s quick to blame the culture of Greek life for problems on campus, it’s commendable the fraternity responded relatively early on. Drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol, unfortunately, happens at college parties — associated with fraternities or not — every weekend. A situation not so different at a Penn State fraternity around this time last year resulted in the death of pledge Timothy Piazza when fraternity brothers delayed calling emergency services.

It seems every time an alcohol-related incident occurs on campus, the entirety of Greek life as an institution takes the blame as the originators and sole perpetrators of negative norms in collegiate life. But issues spotlighted in the conversation about fraternities and sororities — like binge drinking and hazing — are an unfortunate part of college culture in general.

According to 2015 estimates from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from “alcohol-related unintentional injuries” yearly. Yet it’s the handful of deaths

Liam McFadden | STAFF ILLUSTRATOR that occur within the bounds of Greek life on campuses that receive the most media attention.

This isn’t to say fraternities involved don’t bear responsibility for problems occurring in the Greek community. But there’s a bigger problem at stake, and Greek life isn’t the root of it — a culture of excessive drinking is. Like any other college function with alcohol present, fraternity parties can obviously sometimes get out of hand. The difference is that a party hosted by someone who has no social affiliation with the

university is not going to hold back.

When a judge convicted Stanford’s Brock Turner of rape in 2016, sports teams at the school weren’t suspended from participating in games. When three Duke lacrosse players were charged with rape after bringing strippers to a party with alcohol, the team wasn’t kicked off campus. The culture of alcohol abuse and the negative consequences that come from it isn’t just restricted to Greek life.

Bonner reminded students in last Thursday’s email that the problem at Sigma Chi

wasn’t anything special to Greek life.

“Alcohol emergencies can involve anyone in our community,” he cautioned.

Instead of turning to one organization to pin the blame on for all bad collegiate behavior, perhaps we should start to assess the values that are shared at universities and the overall culture of drinking at college. A look at the basis of this problem is essential if we ever want to solve it.

Ana primarily writes about culture and social issues. Write to Ana at aea51@pitt.edu.

The Pitt News SuDoku 2/6/18 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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Culture

First Time for yoga:

Stretching the limits at Wintergarden Sarah Connor Staff Writer

I rolled out of bed at 8 a.m. Sunday wishing my alarm clock hadn’t interrupted my usual Sunday morning sleep session that usually creeps into the early afternoon. I peeked out the window of my South Oakland apartment and saw heavy, wet snow falling from the gray sky. Today was not the day for me to try to be athletic.

Wearing yoga pants that I had never actually worn for yoga purposes, I hopped in an Uber around 9 a.m. The driver noticed the yoga mat I was carrying — borrowed from my mom — and asked me how long I had been practicing yoga.

“Ha! Not very long,” I said, chuckling at the idea of someone thinking of me — a person completely new to the art of yoga — as a regular yoga-goer.

The driver dropped me off at Market Square in downtown Pittsburgh, at the entrance to the Wintergarden at 1 PPG Place. I met up with a friend of mine who has been heavily involved in yoga for years now, hoping to watch her for guidance.

As we entered, I was immediately surprised by the bare openness of the room — all of the decorations had been removed at the end of the holiday season. Before this, I had only ever been in the Wintergarden to see the massive display of Christmas trees and hundreds of gingerbread houses.

The floor was covered with dozens people sitting on colorful yoga mats. The majority of the attendees at Sunday’s class were young women, but there were plenty of older women and some men as well — this was a free, all-inclusive event. Attendance was first come, first served, with room for about 300 people on the floor of the Wintergarden — and it was packed to all four glass walls.

Immediately after entering, I was intimidated.

People were warming up with stretches I had never seen before and proving to be highly flexible. My friend and I threw our mats down at the front of the room, and I hoped I still had some of that flexibility from my days in competitive figure

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Women and men fill PPG Place’s Wintergarden room as Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and Fittsburgh host a free, first-time yoga class Sunday morning. Sarah Connor | STAFF WRITER skating and dance.

Our instructor for the day was a man named Mitch Riehle. Riehle is a patient care technician at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a yoga instructor at Salt Power Yoga and an ambassador for Lululemon, a popular yoga clothing line. Riehle was a strong presence in the room, roaming between mats and calling out directions through his portable headset microphone.

“We’re just going to start with some breathing so we can find our balance,” he said.

This seemed easy enough to me. Maybe I could handle this yoga thing.

As the class went on, Riehle had us doing things like “updog,” “downdog” and “warrior.”

Most of these basic yoga poses I had seen in commercials — like the ad for the Aerie yoga pants I bought for comfort instead of yoga. The low difficulty of these poses reassured me, even with my beginner capabilities.

A few minutes later, Riehle instructed us to practice standing splits and gave us the oppor-

tunity to try some headstands. A woman next to me whipped out the most stunning headstand — with her legs above her in a full split.

I didn’t even attempt to stand on my head, knowing that gravity would be working against me in the process of trying to balance on anything except my feet.

Although I was intimidated by all of the experienced yogis surrounding me, it proved helpful to peek over at what they were doing to learn the correct way to perform poses. Yoga is also a very self-centered activity, where a yogi will often close their eyes or focus on the ground or the spot directly in front of them. I was relieved to know that no one was watching me closely.

“And now to finish, we’re just going to lay back and continue to practice our breathing cycle,” Riehle said. Finally, I could relax my tingling muscles.

Through the glass walls of the Wintergarden, I could see the tall glimmering structures of the other PPG buildings — a view to focus on as I re-

February 6, 2018

peatedly breathed in and sighed all of the air out of my body. It was the perfect reward for working my body for the past hour.

Hosted by Fittsburgh — a media platform sponsored by the UPMC Health Plan centered on community fitness in Pittsburgh — and the Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership, the event attracted beginners like myself as well as more practiced yogis.

The free yoga classes in the Wintergarden are taking place every Sunday in February at 10 a.m. with a different expert teaching each week. Next week, Pitt’s own Sally Sherman will be conducting class. Sherman has a Ph.D. in exercise science and teaches yoga, pilates, dance and other physical education classes at Pitt.

Wintergarden Yoga turned out to be worth the early morning trip Downtown for me. It left my body sore, but my mind was relaxed and clear. It was a strange feeling — my body hurt, but I wasn’t mad about it. I actually wanted to do it again.

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review

Timberlake pays controversial Super Bowl homage to Prince Darren Campuzano Staff Writer

Prince once told an audience in Los Angeles, “Instead of hate, celebrate.”

Apparently, that memo never reached this year’s Super Bowl — as mutual hatred for all things Patriots stretched from Minneapolis all the way to Forbes Avenue. But for those that had no stake in the game, outrage was pouring out toward another area of the Super Bowl — Justin Timberlake’s halftime show.

Prince annihilated the 2007 Super Bowl halftime show 11 years ago with a performance that still leaves me thunderstruck. It was 12 glorious minutes that started with the quintessential party declaration “Let’s Go Crazy” and ended with a chilling version of “Purple Rain.”

While the broiling guitar work Prince fans are accustomed to rang throughout Miami, a giant sheet flailed as it showcased the silhouette of The Purple One. Even better, it was all done under February rainfall, as though his signature song had summoned the elements.

That is one sight that I never want to forget.

This year, Timberlake took the halftime stage

of the 2018 Super Bowl for a greatest-hits-so-far setlist. It was rumored earlier in the week over social media that Timberlake’s show would feature a hologram of Prince as a tribute to him and as a treat to his hometown of Minneapolis. Backlash from fans soon erupted.

They reminded us that JT once mocked Prince’s short stature at a Golden Globes ceremony and referenced him in the 2007 song, “Give It To Me” with the lyrics, “We missed you in the charts last week / Damn that’s right you wasn’t there,” They also stood behind Prince’s wishes to never be shown in hologram form, which he labeled as “demonic.”

Instead, the tribute consisted of a video projection of the late rocker and JT singing along to Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U” as U.S. Bank Stadium lit up purple. That should have been an acceptable salute to His Purple Highness. Yet, the reactions said otherwise.

Newsweek wrote, “It might not have been a hologram, but it was just as tasteless — not to mention a crass act of ignoring a dead man’s wishes.” The entire performance received negative reviews as The Atlantic headline read — “Justin

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Timberlake’s Anti-Spectacular Super Bowl.”

Paying tribute to a deceased artist is always tricky. For every group of disgusted critics, there is a legion of fans that gawk over it. Personally, I found myself divided over this “debacle.”

Was Timberlake trying to elevate his status in pop music? Or was this a genuine attempt to honor the man?

And so I did what any Prince enthusiast would do — I turned to his music.

I can admit that Timberlake’s decision to sing “I Would Die 4 U” to commemorate Prince was not the best choice of song. Just like Chris Richards of The Washington Post writes, “Prince didn’t die for Timberlake, and he certainly didn’t die for this.”

However, Prince also writes in the same song that “I am something that you’ll never comprehend.” That’s what made Prince so sensational — he was always surrounded by a notion of unfathomable mystery. He was also always one to stir some controversy. I mean, come on — just read the tracklist of his 1981 album, “Controversy.”

Who are we to say that Prince didn’t like JT’s homage? For all we know, he could have adored

Kim Rooney | Assistant Copy Chief

the quarrels that spun from Timberlake’s decision. I don’t think it’s logical to dwell on the anger or the frustration that Prince would not have been pleased. Let’s be honest — the closest we’ve ever gotten to speaking with Prince about his desires is when we lip sync the words to “Baby I’m a Star.”

It’s been one year, nine months and 15 days since Prince died. No, I’m not counting — don’t be ridiculous. Frankly, I think it was time to see Prince again for one fleeting minute. Not having at least a brief moment of admiration for Prince in Minnesota is like going to Philly and not eating a cheesesteak — you just don’t cross that line.

I’d like to admit that I am in no way an NSYNC fanatic or president of the JT fan club. I like a good tribute act when I see one and truthfully, I think the reactions are slightly extreme for a halftime show that could have gone a lot worse.

Timberlake was not the ideal candidate to pay respect to The Purple Wonder. But who really is?

I can’t name one person that can capture the musical majesty that is Prince. Any living artist that chooses to recognize one that came before them can only give their valiant effort. And sometimes that’s more than enough.

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Sports

Q&A: Pitt Professor Discusses super bowl prediction Model

Michael Nitty

For The Pitt News Pitt associate professor Konstantinos Pelechrinis predicted the Patriots would win the Super Bowl last week. Or, more accurately, his model did.

Pelechrinis has been teaching at the School of Computing and Information at Pitt since 2010. He developed a model two years ago that’s meant to predict the outcome of football games. The model has been rather successful so far, accurately predicting the winner 74 percent of the time in a study released last April.

When Pelechrinis tested to see if the model could predict this year’s Super Bowl, it predicted a 25-22 Patriots victory. The Eagles, of course, won the Super Bowl 41-33 this past Sunday.

After the Eagles victory, the Pitt News caught up with Pelechrinis to talk about his model and what this year’s Super Bowl means for his model going forward.

The Pitt News: What gave you the idea to build a model to predict football scores?

Konstantinos Pelechrinis: It was more about building a model for teaching purposes.

I’m teaching a sports analytics class and that is a really nice way to engage students — building predictive models with some data that students can actually understand and relate to rather than just using abstract data and abstract equations and models. It was mainly because I wanted to give students something they could relate to, but obviously I’m a big sports fan.

TPN: What was the process of creating this model like?

KP: The process was a typical data analysis process, where I collected data from the past 10 seasons of the NFL. We extracted the model parameters from each of the games and identified how they correlate with winning, and then we used some statistical techniques ... in order to project how teams are going to perform ... and the model was finally giving out the win probability.

TPN: Why was the model wrong for this year’s Super Bowl?

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Konstantinos Pelechrinis, an associate professor at the School of Computing and Information at Pitt, predicted the loss of the 2018 Super Bowl for the Eagles using a self-made statistical model but was proven wrong, as the Eagles were victorious Sunday night. Courtesy of Konstantinos Pelechrinis KP: The model is a probabilistic model, in the sense that the first object is win probability. So the win probability was 59 percent for the Patriots and 41 percent for the Eagles.

Then there is a simple interpolation that repeats based on how many points on average a team scores to get this 25-22. So I’m not that surprised that the model was wrong in regard to the actual score, because the main object of the model is the probability rather than the score. The score is more of a metaprocessing that happens and makes some very strong assumptions.

With probability, the Patriots had a higher probability from the model compared to the Eagles, but that’s a nice thing, and this is actually one of the reasons I like to use it as an example for the class. What the model gives is probability — so if the game was repeated 100

times you’d expect 59 of them to be Patriots, 41 to be Eagles, but you only get one shot.

TPN: Was there anything from the game that surprised you that was hard to account for?

KP: The biggest play call would be the fourth-and-1 obviously at the end of the second quarter where the Eagles scored a touchdown instead of settling for three points. We have other models — not the same that we’re discussing — but we have other models for within the game that supported this decision.

Also what surprised me a lot from the Patriots point of view — in their first drive, they faced a fourth-and-4 on the 8-yard line. Instead of going for it, they settled for a field goal, but then in their next drive, they faced a fourthand-4 and they went for it and they failed.

So two decisions from Bill Belichick were

February 6, 2018

very big surprises for me because we are not used to seeing Belichick make bad decisions, and these were bad decisions from the perspective of win probability.

TPN: What about the botched snap on the extra point and the missed field goal?

KP: Yeah, so obviously you have to take chances, but that was messed up by the unit.

That was the right decision, what they did there, the extra point, it’s just the unit messed up. Now, Philly made a decision that some people may have questioned — where they missed their first extra point and then later went for two in order to somehow leverage their first missed extra point. The data didn’t really support one or the other. Both gave about the same win probability.

TPN: Will you make adjustments or will you leave the model as-is?

KP: What I’m doing is, after every season, I’m recreating the model, and I’m keeping track of how the model parameters change. So from year to year there are not big changes.

But, for example, if you use data from 20 years back, obviously the model is completely different. Now you have a pass-first game, so the passing statistics are way more inflated than in the past. So I do make a few tweaks from year to year. They are not big changes.

TPN: Are there any games in particular where your model was spot-on or really close to being spot-on?

KP: The way we evaluate the model is we take all the games and see what the win probability we give for the home team. Let’s say then we take all the games where the home team was given a 60 percent probability and we say, “Okay, from these games, how many times did the home team win?” If our probabilities are correct, what you expect is 60 percent of the instances to have the home team winning because of the probability. It means there’s a 40 percent probability they lose.

So at the end of the day, what you are doing is called a liability curve where you have your predicted probability on the X-axis and the actual outcome of these instances on the Y-axis. And if you’re close along the X and Y axis, then your model gives you very good probability.

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Alex Lehmbeck Staff Writer

When Shocky Jacques-Louis committed to Pitt Dec. 20, 2017, the football team finally landed its highest-rated recruit. Jacques-Louis joined the Panthers after a tumultuous recruiting process saw him decommit from two other schools.

Jacques-Lewis is listed by 247sports.com as a three-star, 6-foot-1, 175-pound athlete.

247sports.com’s evaluation of Jacques-Louis paints him as an explosive option for Pitt’s offense.

“Jacques-Louis, who is being recruited to play receiver, is a field stretcher who is also equipped with intriguing size for the position,” 247sports.com said. “He needs to work on expanding his route tree, but is a well-rounded receiver who shows good vision and acceleration when operating in the open field.”

The Panthers beat out some notable names in the chase for Jacques-Louis. The Fort Myers, Florida, native had offers from some of the nations top football programs, including Michigan, Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon and Central Florida.

“All of the places I went to visit, different colleges and stuff, they talked about national championships, but there was nothing different about them,” Jacques-Lewis said. “Coming to Pitt, everything’s just different and diverse, and I love the people here. Everybody’s nice.”

Jacques-Louis’ recruiting path included many changes. He committed to the University of Kentucky, led by head coach Mark Stoops, in April 2017. But, he decommitted from the Wildcats in June, before committing to the University of Tennessee in August. The Volunteers head coach Butch Jones was fired Nov. 12, and Jacques-Louis decommitted again.

“Decommitting is hard, period,” JacquesLouis said. “You’re committing to someone, and it’s like you’re playing with their feelings, and I’m not like that. That was real hard, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to make the choice that’s right for you, because you’re spending the next four years of your life there. I feel like Pittsburgh was the right place for me.”

One of Pitt’s five midyear enrollees in the

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new recruiting class, Jacques-Louis has gotten a head start on and off the field. He has found an interest in criminology and plans on majoring in it.

“I enrolled early so I could get ahead in my education, start on workouts and dive into the playbook,” Jacques-Louis said. “I wanted to get used to college life, so I wouldn’t have to come in at a regular time and be scattered everywhere trying to go to classes. Now that I’m getting used to it, right now I feel like I’ll be comfortable when it’s time to start the season.”

Jacques-Louis has high expectations for himself and the team during his time at Pitt.

“I’m looking forward to breaking the receiving records and I’m looking forward to an ACC championship,” he said.

Jacques-Louis’ early start may also help him get used to the drastic change in weather. Fort Myers’ average low temperature in January was 52 degrees, while it was 18 degrees in Pittsburgh according to wunderground.com.

“It’s been real cold,” Jacques-Louis said.

“They said it’s the coldest it’s been in a long time. You know, I wouldn’t know, but it’s the coldest I’ve ever been in my life, but It’s easy to get used to once you start putting on layers, you know, I haven’t really been worried about it.”

Jacques-Louis tweeted in January that he wants to accomplish just as much off the field as on the field at Pitt. He has wasted no time making his impact felt in the community — along with 10 other Panthers, he participated in the Dollar Energy Fund’s Cool Down for Warmth Campaign, where they raised awareness and donations for Pittsburgh residents who struggle to pay for heat during the harsh winter.

“It went great,” Jacques-Louis said. “It was a nice opportunity to get out and help people, also to encourage people to be a part of something.”

Jacques-Louis will be joining a young Pitt wide receiving core that lost two key contributors last year: Jester Weah to graduation and Quadree Henderson to the NFL draft. He and Alabama native and fellow recruit Cameron O’Neil will join a receiving depth chart with four rising sophomores and only two seniors.

The Pitt news crossword 2/6/18

Shocky Jacques-Louis lands at Pitt

February 6, 2018

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I N D E X

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

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pittnews.com

Employment • CHILDCARE • FOOD SERVICES • UNIVERSITY • INTERNSHIPS • RESEARCH • VOLUNTEERING • OTHER

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August availability. $1425-$2600. Call John CR Kelly Reality. 412-683-7300 Visit: www.jcrkelly. com 3 Bedroom & 1.5 Bath House for rent. 2 car garage. Full house air conditioning, dish washer, self-cleaning oven, full basement.

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2, 3, and 4 bedroom apartments available. Some available on Dawson street, Atwood street, and Mckee Place. Newly remodeled. Some have laundry on site.

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to buses, shopping and great restaurants.

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Employment Other Comfort Keepers, a Post-Gazette Top Workplace, is seeking caring individuals.

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rental applicants, do internet postings & help staff our action-central office.

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pittnews.com

February 6, 2018

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