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Evanston introduces changes to housing rehab program » PAGE 2
The Daily NorthwesternDAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM Find us online @thedailynuWednesday, February 18, 2015
Spring sports guideCatch up on all the spring sports as the Wildcats start their seasons » PAGE 5 High 7
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Serving the University and Evanston since 1881 INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Opinion 4 | Classifi eds & Puzzles 10 | Sports 12
Sean Su/Daily Senior Staffer
WOMEN IN POWER Christine Brennan (Medill ’80, ’81), Cassidy Hubbarth (Medill ’07), Pam Oliver and Rachel Nichols (Medill ’95) discuss women in sports media at a panel Tuesday.
Freed inmate sues NU, Protess
Sports reporters talk genderBy TONY CHENthe daily northwestern
Christine Brennan (Medill ’80, ’81) joined three of her fellow trailblazers from diff erent generations and fi elds of sports journalism to discuss the female voice in sports media Tuesday.
Th ere was standing room only in the McCormick Foundation Center Forum for the four-person panel that tackled subjects including the role of social media and personal brands in journalism as well as the trope of the female sideline reporter.
Th e panel is the fi ft h installment of the “Beyond the Box Score” lecture series hosted by the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Market-ing Communications and Northwestern Athletics.
Brennan, a USA Today sports colum-nist and author and commentator for ABC News, CNN and NPR, moderated the event. Brennan began the event by asking the panel their thoughts on the status of women in sports journalism.
Rachel Nichols (Medill ’95), CNN’s sole sports anchor, said the strides women in sports media have made can’t be ignored, but there is much improve-ment to be made.
“Being able to have women in the position that Christine is in or being able to say what you think is a big deal,” Nichols said. “Th ere weren’t women in those positions 10 years ago.”
Cassidy Hubbarth (Medill ’07), an ESPN anchor and host of NBA Tonight on ESPN2, said women can now explore more opportunities than before.
“A woman can now tell a sports story,” Hubbarth said. “Th ere isn’t a specifi c role
anymore. Th at’s positive.”Fox Sports reporter Pam Oliver said
staying true to the craft of journalism is the most important. She wants to see “passion and heart” in young journalists, not just a desire to be on television.
Th e panel also discussed their starts in journalism, and during the half-hour Q&A session that ended the event, the panelists answered audience questions about how to deal with career rejection and the biggest misconceptions about female sports journalists.
“The greatest misconception for me is that I can cook because now and then I will still get an email or tweet that says, ‘go back to the kitchen where you belong,’” Brennan said. “And I would be like ‘oh no … you do not want me to be in the kitchen.’”
ASG Senate to vote on divestmentBy SHANE MCKEONthe daily northwestern@Shane_McKeon
Associated Student Government Sen-ate will vote Wednesday on a Northwest-ern Divest-sponsored resolution asking the University to divest from six corpora-tions the sponsors say violate Palestin-ians’ human rights.
Th e meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Norris University Center’s Louis Room, a larger-than-usual venue to accommodate the larger crowd expected to attend.
Weinberg junior and Senate speaker Noah Star said students should bring their WildCARDs because ASG will require guests to check in at the meeting.
Th e resolution, introduced at Sen-ate’s Feb. 11 meeting, calls for greater
transparency in investing the University’s endowment and for NU to divest from six corporations that NUDivest believes the University is invested in.
Th e Investment Offi ce does not release information on its investments.
Weinberg senior Ariel Roitman, the ASG senator for NU Hillel, said he will vote against the resolution. He said he supports the call for greater transparency, but that passing the resolution would align ASG with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, a movement he fi nds “problematic for many reasons.”
“I don’t think we should invest in companies that violate human rights anywhere in the world,” he said. “Where I disagree with them is I do think this is a political resolution. It has a lot of political implications, and I am very concerned about those implications.”
NUDivest held a workshop Feb. 5 to educate students on the BDS movement and to clarify misconceptions about it.
Weinberg junior and NUDivest member Noah Whinston, a senator for off -campus students, helped author the resolution. He said NUDivest has no organizational stance on the political issues Roitman referenced. Whinston answered questions about the resolution at the Feb. 11 meeting.
“Within our organization, there are people who believe in diff erent political solutions to the confl ict, which is why we don’t have an organizational stance,” he said. “Th e only affi liation we have with the BDS call is that we are pursuing part of the divestment part of the call.”
Whinston also said NUDivest avoids
By CAT ZAKRZEWSKIdaily senior staffer@Cat_Zakrzewski
A man is suing Northwestern and other parties for $40 million aft er he says he was coerced to plead guilty to a double homicide and spent 15 years in prison following revelations by an NU journalism class.
Alstory Simon fi led a lawsuit Tues-day in the U.S. District Court of North-ern Illinois seeking redress for the time he spent in prison aft er he says he was wrongfully incarcerated for the killings. Cook County prosecutors threw out his conviction in October.
Th e suit alleges the University, for-mer Medill Prof. David Protess as well as private investigator Paul Ciolino and Simon’s then-attorney Jack Rimland “conspired to frame Simon for the murders.”
In a landmark case that garnered international attention and contributed to the end of the Illinois death penalty, a 1998 class led by Protess found evi-dence that overturned a death sentence against Anthony Porter in the 1982 murders of Jerry Hillard and Marilyn
Green. Porter was originally found guilty of the double homicide. Ciolino, a private investigator working with the Medill class, obtained a video of Simon confessing to the killings.
Simon pled guilty to charges of mur-der and manslaughter and was sen-tenced to 37 years in prison. However, in October, Cook County prosecutors threw out the conviction of Simon when questions were raised about the integrity of the investigation by Protess’ class, which was part of a program later named Th e Innocence Project.
In his suit, Simon claimed Protess instructed students to “develop evi-dence of Porter’s innocence, rather than search for the truth.” He claims he was coerced to falsely plead guilty to the murders when presented with fabricated evidence and “terrifying” threats.
In a statement today, University spokesman Al Cubbage said the Uni-versity is reviewing the lawsuit.
“Northwestern denies all wrongdo-ing in this matter and looks forward to being vindicated in a court of law,” he said.
NU hosts forum on new provost positionBy JEE YOUNG LEEthe daily northwestern@jennajeeyoung
Students and administrators voiced concerns about Northwestern’s diversity efforts Tuesday at a forum held by the search committee for the University’s new associate provost for diversity and inclusion.
The search committee, compris-ing representatives from the admin-istration, faculty, staff and the student body, was formed in December 2014 to begin looking for the successor to former Assistant Provost for Diver-sity and Inclusion Dona Cordero, who left the University in October for a position at the Georgia Insti-tute of Technology. The committee will interview candidates in May and hopes to have chosen a new provost by the end of the academic year, Lind-say Chase-Lansdale, associate provost for faculty, told The Daily.
The search committee decided to upgrade the position from an
assistant spot to associate provost to make the position more power-ful, Chase-Lansdale told The Daily after the forum. She said other Big Ten universities are creating similar positions to consolidate the power and responsibilities of administrator positions dedicated to diversity and inclusion.
About 25 staff, faculty and stu-dents attended the forum.
“During the search of candidates, we are educating ourselves with what the concerns of the community are, so that when we are talking to the candidates we can be candid about them,” said Dwight McBride, co-chair of the search committee and the Associate Provost for Graduate Education.
McBride said the search commit-tee held two open fora Tuesday on the Chicago and Evanston campuses, as well as two committee meetings during the quarter. His update on the committee’s progress was followed
» See BEYOND, page 10
» See SIMON, page 10
» See PROVOST, page 10» See DIVEST, page 10
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Around TownAt what point will military service really help African Americans get their rights and get the respect they deserve?
— Lesley Williams, EPL’s head of adult services
“ ” Residents discuss role of black soldiers in WWI Page 9
2 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
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HEY, NU GREEKS & STUDENT GROUPS:
City alters housing rehab programBy JULIA JACOBSthe daily northwestern @juliarebeccaj
Evanston received increased federal funding for community development and will implement changes to streamline its housing rehabilitation program, city officials said Tuesday.
At the Housing and Community Development Act Committee meeting at the Civic Center, city officials announced annual updates to the Com-munity Development Block Grant. The CDBG is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and works to provide low- and moderate-income individuals, families and neighborhoods with decent housing.
The city was granted $1,604,746 in federal CDBG funds for 2015, which is more than 6 per-cent higher than the city’s estimate, said Sarah Flax, the housing and grants administrator. The city will receive the funds in mid- to late-May.
Evanston is working on changing qualifications for the CDBG Housing Rehabilitation Program, which provides financial assistance for housing owners based on family size and income, said April Jacobs, the grant and compliance specialist. Because income level does not always accurately determine the applicant’s ability to pay for hous-ing, the division is developing a new strategy for making sure that low-income and high-income applicants are appropriately subsidized, she said.
“We know that the housing need is very large,
and we’d like to be able to reach as many people as possible without putting an undue burden on someone,” Jacobs said.
Another way of streamlining the application process is by consolidating the applicant categories to owner-occupants and investors, Jacobs said. More specific activities will now fall under those two categories so that applicants will only need to fill out one form, she added.
“It’s just to make the process easier for people to get through,” Ald. Donald Wilson (4th) told The Daily. “If you have … a really overly burden-some process of applications and documenta-tion, it makes it really difficult for someone to get through just the paperwork and the first step. That’s a deterrent to people to participate.”
This year the city will also implement project checklists that more comprehensively determine the repair needs of the house to limit the number of applicants reapplying for funds, Jacobs said. The program currently allows eligible funding recipi-ents to return for assistance after five years, which encourages them to reapply for new repairs that could have been fixed initially, Flax said.
“If it’s a checklist and it’s incredibly consistent, we know every single time we’re looking at the major life systems of the home,” Jacobs said. “We’re looking to make sure the electrical’s updated … that there’s nothing in the plumbing that may fail soon … that the major appliances will function over the next 10 years.”
Another coming change to CDBG is that all funds allocated in a one to two year period will have to be spent before the next two years, which HUD informed the city of during their random inspection of the CDBG program a couple of weeks ago, Jacobs said.
Once this is implemented, the change may restrict carrying unspent money from previous projects to new projects, she added.
Equipment stolen from warehouseAbout $3,500 worth of equipment was sto-
len from a warehouse undergoing rehabilita-tion in the 200 block of Hartrey Avenue.
A Stihl concrete saw worth $1,500 and $2,000 worth of copper wire were stolen sometime between 4 p.m. on Feb. 13 and 7 a.m. on Feb. 16, Evanston police Cmdr. Joseph
Dugan said.The construction foreman alleged that the
burglars entered the property by cutting a padlock on a fence that surrounded the site and took the items from a toolshed by cutting another padlock, police said.
Driver charged for obstructing identification
A 40-year-old Evanston resident was arrested during a traffic stop in the 9400 block
of McCormick Boulevard.The man supplied a false name and date of
birth to officers, police said. The arresting offi-cer realized this when he looked up the driver’s license photo for the false name.
The man was charged with driving under a suspended license and with obstructing identi-fication. He is scheduled to appear in a Skokie courthouse March 3.
— Hal Jin
Julia Jacobs/The Daily Northwestern
AFFORDABLE HOUSING HELP Sarah Flax, housing and grants administrator; April Jacobs, grants and compliance specialist; and Gary Gerdes, building and inspection services division manager, discuss the Housing and Community Development Act Committee updates to the Community Development Block Grant.
Police Blotter
On CampusPeople care about where food comes from, how its grown . . . but I think there’s a real lack of interest in the hands that pick that food.
— Sanjay Rawal, director of “Food Chains”
“ ” Real Food at NU hosts Q&A with “Food Chains” director Page 9
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 3
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By OLIVIA EXSTRUMdaily senior staffer @olivesocean
More than 80 Northwestern community members gathered at Technological Institute on Tuesday to listen to several Chicago activ-ists speak about their work with the Black Lives Matter movement as part of the second event organized by the Black People Making History Committee.
Communication sophomore Sarah Ober-holtzer, who helped organize the “Breathe-In: The Fight to Breathe” event, began the panel by recounting the story of former NU football player Robert Russ, who was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer in 1999.
Oberholtzer said she thinks sometimes NU students can become “isolated” from events like this.
“Just because we have an education, just
because we seek asylum from the Northwestern bubble does not protect some black life,” she said during the event. “Today, I really encourage you to extend your boundaries of understanding what oppression can look like.”
The first to speak was Janae Bonsu of the Chicago chapter of the Black Youth Project 100, an organization of young black activists. She described the project as a “national organization operating at the intersection of grassroots activ-ism and policy advocacy.”
Brianna Tong, a senior at the University of Chi-cago, spoke about her work with the Southside Solidarity Network, part of the collective action organization IIRON Student Network.
She said the organization is working on several campaigns, including ones regarding environ-mental justice, corporate accountability in Illinois, worker justice and mass incarceration. Tong also said she is working on a campaign for “equitable policing” on her own campus.
“Our police force acts like most, if not all, police
forces in the country,” she said. “They racially pro-file people, they will almost exclusively stop black and brown people, people who don’t fit the profile of ‘student,’ a.k.a. a white, middle-class person.”
Next to speak were Kristiana Colon and Damon Williams of the Let Us Breathe Collec-tive, who discussed their experience gathering supplies for and traveling to Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the death of Michael Brown.
“There were all these moments that I could remember of feeling this murky, muddy puddle of grief and rage,” Colon said, “I think black people have a unique experience of feeling when one of our own is killed and there is no justice for that.”
Colon said when she learned gas masks were needed in Ferguson, she set an initial goal of raising $1,300, and ultimately raised nearly $10,000.
“Our mission became to support with any resources we could and to amplify their story,” Williams said.
Since going to Ferguson, Colon said, the col-lective has focused on activism in Chicago. She said they held a march on Black Friday and have held theater performances, protests and toy and coat drives.
After the panel, audience members broke into groups for breakout sessions with the activists. SESP student Zane Waxman, who helped organize the event, said after leaving NU for two years after his sophomore year, upon returning he was inspired to engage the student body with activ-ism in Chicago.
Waxman, who will graduate in 2016, said the point of the breakout sessions was to give attend-ees a chance to spend one-on-one time with the speakers.
“Typically big events are very disengaging,” he told The Daily. “They’re super passive, and we wanted to explicitly break free from that model.”
Chicago activists speak at second ‘breathe-in’
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
BREATHE-IN Chicago activists speak Tuesday during “Breathe-In: The Fight to Breathe,” a panel about activism amid the Black Lives Matter movement. More than 80 Northwestern community members attended the event, which was hosted by the Black People Making History Committee and co-sponsored by the Center for African American History.
The Daily NorthwesternVolume 135, Issue 78
Editor in ChiefCiara McCarthy
Managing EditorsSophia Bollag Jeanne Kuang
Opinion Editors Bob HayesAngela Lin
Assistant Opinion Editor
Naib Mian
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Guest Column
Join the online conversation at www.dailynorthwestern.comOPINION
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 PAGE 4
What commenters are saying
Online Buzz
Israel was not even close to being the worst in the world in human rights abuse. In fact in 2013 (which is the most recent I can find) they were ranked 38th/187 countries. Why are you not complaining about any of the 37 ahead of Israel. Maybe begin with the Top 10? Not the 38th. 37 other countries deserving of BDS before Israel.
— Jeff Bloomberg
We have been very clear about the ways in which the companies we are pushing to divest from are complicit in the oppression of peoples all over the world. For instance, Elbit Systems is a multinational company that we can point to for constructing the apartheid wall in Palestine as well as the virtual technology that kills so many migrants at the US/Mexico border. But you have refused to recognize how #NUDivest is a campaign of solidarity.
— Cinthya Rodríguez
Respecting Syrian lives is the least we can do
The Syrian conflict has found its way to Northwestern campus politics. It took only four years, nearly four million refugees and 220,000 lives to do so.
Its emergence on our campus isn’t going to give the few Syrian-Americans on campus a gasp of long-needed fresh air, either. If anything, the little air left in our lungs has been exhausted with a final punch to the gut.
Last week, a particular set of student organizations on this campus decided to boil the Syrian conflict down in a neat and con-cise manner. For the NU Coalition for Peace, all of Syria was a single tangential talking point — one of many, and likely nothing more.
The Syrian catastrophe has become the most tragic conflict of this century. That said, it still has no place in Coalition for Peace’s legal pad of counterpoints in a stu-dent debate. That’s especially true when neither has felt the need to talk about the issue ever before.
It isn’t that they never had the opportu-nity to do so. There was a torrent on social media after the Assad regime launched sarin rockets on the Ghouta suburbs of Damas-cus, in what some call the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran-Iraq War.
The movement on social media was calling attention to the atrocity in the hope that the international community wouldn’t let it hap-pen again. It did happen again.
Unfortunately, though, Syria’s tragedy has only mattered when it benefited one group’s political agenda as fodder for debate. In even greater irony, the atrocities in Syria are only used as a barrier to inhibit a stream of social justice efforts on atrocities in other places. When activists want to make a difference on one topic, Syria is brought up as something more deserving of immediate attention.
Just this week, Wildcats for Israel invited two Israeli intellectuals for a talk titled “Exploring Human Rights” which, according to its Facebook page, sought to “explore the web of human rights violations in the Mid-dle East from Gaza to Syria.” This method of derailing the discussion is nothing new.
In this logic, Syria isn’t deserving of atten-tion by itself, but only as a distraction from other cruelties. The world is filled with so many different problems, so we should sit idly by as they all go unattended, the logic
continues. It is a cruel justification for main-taining the status quo.
There is another irony, too, in that Syria isn’t really relevant to any of these political debates and panels.
It’s an ill-mannered way to co-opt the Syrian tragedy, and it isn’t only insulting the millions of Syrians who have suffered tremendously inside and outside the region these past four years, either. It is disrespect-ful to one of our own here at NU. That is, the legacy of James Foley, who reported on the atrocities of the Syrian regime that had clamped down on peaceful protests in its country starting in early 2011. He was someone who took it upon himself to make a difference, something he paid so dearly for. Syrian activists continually show their respect for him. It’s no question that we all should as well.
It is also disrespectful to Bassel Sheha-deh, a Syrian film student who received a Fulbright scholarship to study at Syracuse University while protests were emerging. He left Syria for New York (where he also spent time interviewing American intellectuals on nonviolent resistance in light of Occupy Wall Street) as soon as he was released from a Damascus prison for protesting against the government. One semester into his stud-ies, he felt he needed to go back to Syria to continue his work as an activist. He was killed in cold blood by Syrian security forces on May 28, 2012 in the central city of Homs that my family and I call home.
There is something important to take away from Bassel’s story. He understood U.S. university campuses could do little to change the outcome back home. It was his personal bravery, his activism and his work that was so essential to the early movement back home. That is why he returned to Syria, to make a difference and join the ranks of those like James Foley who paid the greatest price for doing what was right.
The truth is, that in our capacity as stu-dents of NU, there is nothing we can do to substantially affect the outcome of this war, turn the tide, or absolve ourselves from responsibility for human rights abuses. That is why it is not relevant to the discussion here on campus. That is why it is disrespect-ful to the millions of Syrians suffering today to half-heartedly bring it up anyway.
This isn’t a commentary on campus poli-tics. This is a commentary on how not to conduct campus politics, about how to be cautious and sensitive when you attempt to speak for others. It’s also a comment on how nobody spoke up and recognized how problematic it really is. When you co-opt the increasingly complex Syrian conflict as a tangent in your arguments against another campus group, you’ve reduced it to some ploy in which you claim to speak for Syrians. You don’t.
The least we can do within our capacity as students at NU is respect the tragic loss of life in Syria.
Ameer Al-Khudari is a Weinberg junior. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].
Take time to consider academic major decisions
Early in Fall Quarter freshman year, every-one asks each other, “What’s your major?” It’s a nice way to find out whether you and other freshmen have something in common and if not, to find out what they are passionate about and what they like to do. The problem is that many people often reply with “I don’t know,” or “I haven’t declared anything yet.” When that happens it’s almost as if you’re trying to walk into a conversation with a dead end.
But in a way that made me inexplicably happy, I wasn’t one of those students. From the first week onward, my answer to that questions was certain: “I’m a computer sci-ence major.”
It was a decision I had made a few months before I came here. Throughout high school I thought I was going to be an engineer. I was taking difficult physics and chemistry courses and trying to get good scores on my SATs because engineering schools were very selective and I needed to be the best I could be. But after having some difficulties with physics my senior year of high school, I told myself I couldn’t take four more years of it.
In the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, I had taken an introductory programming course at a col-lege. I loved it. The fact that I could build things by writing lines of code had inspired me. Besides this, even before I enjoyed pro-gramming, I had consistently been the “com-puter guy.” I had always enjoyed tinkering with all sorts of programs on my computer and finding the newest apps and games.
All these factors led me to thinking about computer science as my major. Combining my newfound love of programming and my decision to drop engineering, I thought com-puter science was the right path to follow.
At the end of my Spring Quarter freshman year, it appeared to still be the right path. I had enjoyed my computer science classes
until then. In meetings with my adviser, I had told him my decision to pursue com-puter science was the one I was surest about.
Today, a quarter and a half later, I’m seri-ously reconsidering.
This quarter, I dropped a computer sci-ence class for the first time. I’ve admitted to myself that I haven’t enjoyed my computer science classes nearly as much as I loved programming in that first class I took, and I’m realizing that computer science may not
actually be the right decision for me.
Luckily, I came to this realization early enough. I’m only in my fifth quarter here at Northwestern, so I have plenty of time to start and finish a new major I would like and still graduate in four years.
Here at NU, we are very lucky — it is tremendously easy for us to switch schools and majors. NU is a school that embraces students who change their minds.
While you have such an easy oppor-
tunity to change your mind, take the time to consider your decision. For a second, stop and think for a moment whether you really enjoy what you are doing. If you don’t, what’s the point in putting yourself through stress and difficulty? What’s the point in forcing yourself through hours of classes and even more hours of work about things that don’t really interest you? Is it worth the time, the energy and whatever else it will take away from you?
To me, it doesn’t seem so.
Yoni Pinto is a Weinberg sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this column, send a letter to the editor to [email protected].
YONIPINTODAILY COLUMNIST
NU Divest targets 6 companies due to their involvement in Israel alone. It says nothing of the atrocities committed by the Palestinian leadership, or that of other nations who engage in horrible crimes against their people (Saudia Arabia, even Qatar and its links to terror groups). I fail to see how it would help the stated goal of improving the lives of Palestinians, but I do see reasonable harm to Israel, which I personally believe deserves our support for a variety of reasons.
— Noah Kimmel
In response to: Guest Column: Why I cannot remain silent on Palestinian suffering, submitted 2/17/15
“Here at NU, we are very lucky — it is tremendously easy for us to switch schools and majors. NU is a school that embraces students who change their minds.
“When you co-
opt the increasingly complex Syrian conflict
as a tangent in your arguments against
another campus group, you’ve reduced it to some
ploy in which you claim to speak for Syrians.
AMEERAL-KHUDARIGUEST COLUMNIST
By AVA WALLACEdaily senior staffer @AvaRWallace
There’s been an impending sense of change about women’s lacrosse for some time.
This season, teams that have popped up in recent years throughout the Midwest and West Coast are playing like programs with deeper lacrosse histories.
This season, the Big Ten opened its doors to a women’s and a men’s lacrosse league, expanding tele-vision coverage of lacrosse and shifting the sport’s geography in an official way.
And this season, after two straight exits in the NCAA semifinals and a loss at the American Lacrosse Conference championships for the first time in the history of the ALC, which disbanded after last sea-son, Northwestern was ranked No. 5 in the coaches’ preseason poll, the lowest ranking the Wildcats have received since 2005.
A decade after NU won its first of seven national championships, change has come to the lacrosse world.
The Cats are just trying to keep up.
New year, new Cats
Since starting the year with two wins by a goal each against Southern California and Virginia, the defining word for No. 5 NU so far this year is “new.”
For starters, the Cats have a whopping 14-woman crew of fresh faces who joined the program this fall and are already making an impact. The group was ranked the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation by Inside Lacrosse magazine, as coach Kelly Amonte Hiller brought five top-20 prospects to Evanston.
Freshman midfielder Selena Lasota, No. 3 on that list, is NU’s leading scorer and has already become a
bit of a phenom.Lasota is from British Colombia, where she grew
up playing box lacrosse, field lacrosse’s indoor, more physical, co-rec sibling. Used to playing with a deeper pocket than that of a traditional women’s lacrosse stick, it was Lasota’s ball-handling that initially attracted Amonte Hiller.
The freshman hasn’t disappointed. So far against this season, Lasota has muscled her way through tight defenses like a hot knife through butter and earned a Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor.
“She’s been playing with boys for a long period of time,” Amonte Hiller said. “She’s used to having to be physically strong enough to play against guys.”
Fellow midfielder Shelby Fredericks — the fourth-ranked recruit in the nation — is another rookie prov-ing her value early on.
Fredericks has two goals already and is representa-tive of what this year’s freshmen mean to the team.
This year’s freshmen are of a generation of play-ers introduced to NU as a perennial championship-winning team. That exposure sparked an interest in the program early on and also put the players in the position to reap the benefits that trickled down.
Shannon Smith, who graduated in 2012 as one of NU’s most accomplished players, was Fredericks’ coach at one time.
“I’ve always known about Northwestern. They’ve established themselves as a great program,” Fredericks said. “It made it easy to see myself here. I wanted to surround myself with the best people for me.”
The freshmen have been visible on game days, but Amonte Hiller said the team benefits from their pres-ence just as much in practice. A large squad means more competition, a wider range of scrimmage and drill situations at the coaches’ disposal and a depth of talent on the bench.
It helps that the newbies have the confidence needed to execute when close games, like NU’s first
two this year, come down to the wire.“I wouldn’t say I was expected to produce right
away, but I knew that I wanted to, I knew that we could,” Fredericks said. “Coming in, the upperclass-men let us know, ‘You guys are the engine of this team. What you guys do propels onto everything else.’ ”
Replacing a legend
Freshmen like Lasota and Fredericks are also part of the Cats’ new offense — one that doesn’t include a nearly automatic draw control win from former center Alyssa Leonard.
NU has won just 15 draws in two games, compared to 25 by its opponents. Practice usually ends with extra draw control work as Amonte Hiller refines her midfielders’ techniques and searches for a com-panion center to junior Lauren Murray, who starts in the position.
“When you’re used to winning 75 percent of the draw controls, it is a struggle,” Amonte Hiller said. “But we have a lot of young people doing the draw. … It’s just a matter of us gaining experience. We’ve got new people on the circle. It’s a whole new ballgame.”
The loss of that automatic possession, combined with the graduation of several of NU’s core attackers, means the offense’s production has decreased.
Senior Kara Mupo and juniors Kaleigh Craig — healthy again after a season-ending injury last season — and Christina Esposito will bear the brunt of the attacking burden.
But so far the defense has kept the Cats alive in its two contests. Goalkeeper Bridget Bianco leads a defense anchored by senior Haydyn Anigian, usually deployed to shut down an opponent’s top offensive threat and filled out with multi-talented sophomore Sheila Nesselbush and junior Nancy Dunbar.
It was the defense that stemmed USC’s 7-0 onslaught in the Cats’ season opener, allowed only
four goals in the second half and kept one of the top scorers in the nation, Liza Blue from Virginia, off the score sheet in NU’s second game of the season.
Bianco feels a new sense of comfort in her posi-tion as a third-year starter, but attributes the defense’s success to each player’s willingness to step up and be a leader.
Amonte Hiller said that confidence translates well on the field.
“We have a lot of athletes back there this year play-ing great one-on-one defense, great team defense,” Amonte Hiller said. “(Backup goalkeeper) Brooke Jones is really pushing Bridget. They’re a great unit along with (backup goalkeeper Natalee Easthom), so there’s a lot of dynamic that happens before the game starts that’s really the key to our success on game day.”
Beat the best to be the best
There’s one last new aspect to NU’s season, and it’s not one to overlook.
This year, the Cats play No. 1 Maryland in the regu-lar season for the first time since 2007 — the contest opens conference play on March 26 — thanks to the Terrapins’ move to the Big Ten.
But Maryland certainly isn’t NU’s only formidable opponent this season; the Cats face 10 other top-20 teams in the nation.
Although this year is particularly daunting, Amonte Hiller believes it’s one of the best ways to stay afloat well into the post-season, especially with the youth of her team and the changes happening in lacrosse.
“You have to be able to play the best if you want to be the best,” Amonte Hiller said. “Obviously we could not be more excited about the Big Ten. We have so many great threats in our conference.”
In changing landscape, NU tries to retain powerLacrosse
graphic by Jacob Swan/The Daily Northwestern
By MIKE MARUTdaily senior staffer@mikeonthemic93
Northwestern began the 2014-15 season with its first losing record in three years, but after two weeks of practice and two wins over two Big Ten opponents, the Wildcats are back on track.
Entering the past weekend, No. 21 NU (3-2, 1-0) faced a reality check after losing two of its first three matchups against top opponents. With three of their top players graduating,
the Cats were left to figure out a new six-player lineup. The inexperienced group
required many of the players to learn and adopt new
roles on the team. With a young squad — one senior, one junior, four sopho-mores and three freshmen — NU will have to find its identity quickly.
“Because of some of the adver-sity we’ve had, the team has got-
ten closer,” assistant coach Rob Gurden said. “They’re
trying to get to know who they are and what they’re made out of. … We’re moving in the right direction.”
Beyond the youth
of the Cats, the team has also faced an uphill battle from the beginning with injuries. Cur-rently, three players have sustained injuries and a fourth is playing “somewhat hurt.” Soph-omores Maddie Lipp and Manon Peri, and freshman Rheeya Doshi are all injured. Doshi plans to return next week while Lipp is out for the season. Peri hurt her knee against Penn State and the timetable for her return remains unclear after an MRI on Feb. 15.
Senior Lok Sze Leung has been nursing an apparent elbow injury, wearing a sleeve each match and icing her elbow after nearly every practice and competition. Despite the injuries, the Cats still have a winning mindset, Leung said.
“It started with (head coach Claire Pollard)
giving us this chapter from a book,”
Leung said. “It talked about playing to win and that mentality, and how it affects your brain. Instead of playing defensively or tentatively, we just impose our game and our willpower onto our opponents.”
Another hindrance for the team is Pollard’s recent indefinite leave of absence for family reasons. With the roster reduced to only six players and no head coach, NU needs all hands on deck until Doshi is able to return to be a seventh option.
For now, the Cats will have to dig deep and build off their two wins in the Big Ten open-ing weekend. The victory over Penn State
provided a much-needed confidence boost, especially winning in spite of Peri forfeiting her match midway through the first set. The victory despite the mid-match injury pointed to the strength, toughness and fundamentals the team practices, which Gurden stresses dur-ing practice.
“Taking away some of the frills at times gets you back to the basics and the fundamentals,” Gurden said. “They were much more vis-ceral in their competition mindset (last weekend).”
Chemistry also has always been
important for NU, but even
more so this year due to the youth of the team and every-
one playing a new position. As the longest tenured active player under Pollard, junior Alicia Barnett has taken up a leadership role on the team as both the No. 1 singles player and one half of the No. 1 doubles tandem.
“We just have focus on competing,” Barnett said. “If we can fight for each other, for the people who can’t come to our matches, can’t come to practice or can’t play, it’s just going to make us stronger in the long run. We only have six players on the court, and we need every spot.”
6 SPRING SPORTS GUIDE | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
NU battles injuries, adversity, remains optimisticBy MIKE MARUTdaily senior staffer@mikeonthemic93
Northwestern began the 2014-15 season with its first losing record in three years, but after two weeks of practice and two wins over two Big Ten opponents, the Wildcats are back on track.
Entering the past weekend, No. 21 NU (3-2, 1-0) faced a reality check after losing two of its first three matchups against top opponents. With three of their top players graduating,
the Cats were left to figure out a new six-player lineup. The inexperienced group
required many of the players to
roles on the team. With a young squad — one senior, one junior, four sopho-mores and three freshmen — NU will have to find its identity quickly.
“Because of some of the adver-sity we’ve had, the team has got-
ten closer,” assistant coach Rob Gurden said. “They’re
trying to get to know who they are and what
NU battles injuries, adversity, remains optimistic
By ALEX PUTTERMANdaily senior staffer@AlexPutt02
Seniors Scott Heelan, Cody Stevens and Kyle Ruchim have played a combined 339 games at Northwestern.
All three have been on the field together in two of those contests.
When Stevens and Ruchim were fresh-men in 2011, Heelan played at Virginia Tech. In 2012, when Stevens and Ruchim were sophomores, Heelan sat out before trans-ferring to NU. When Heelan arrived in 2013, Stevens missed the season due to a life-threatening head injury. The trio finally took the field together the first weekend of the 2014 campaign, until Ruchim left game two with an arm injury, opted for surgery and missed the rest of the season.
The great reunion (or, really, union) of 2015 was delayed when the NCAA suspended Ruchim six games for an issue involving an MLB Draft adviser.
Ruchim will sit out the first three games of
this weekend’s Irish Alamo Invitation before finally suiting up for the final contest on Sunday.
With Heelan, Ruchim and Stevens all in the same lineup — buttressed by sophomore outfielders Joe Hoscheit and Matt Hopfner and junior first baseman Zach Jones — the
Wildcats (0-3) could produce more offense than they have in years.
“I don’t think we really set a lot of concrete expectation,” Ruchim said last week. “We know we can improve a lot as
the season goes on, but the sky is
the limit for
us.”Heelan, Ruchim and Stevens all offer some
degree of versatility. Ruchim and Stevens have played both middle-infield positions at NU as well as center field, and Heelan, a catcher, took over second base last season after Ruchim’s injury.
This year, Heelan will be the starter behind the plate, but Ruchim and Stevens said they have no clue where they’ll get most of their playing time. Last weekend, Stevens started two games at second base and one in center field and also got some time at shortstop. Cody said his favorite position is “on the field,” and coach Paul Stevens said he’s a better outfielder than infielder. The coach said he expects Ruchim to start at shortstop when his sus-pension ends but that he could find himself all over the field.
Although Cody Stevens is no easy out in the batter’s box (.278 batting average,
.337 on-base percentage in 2014), most of his value derives from his
sharp fielding.Heelan and Ruchim, on the
other hand, can be some of the Big Ten’s best hitters this year. Heelan has led the team in on-
base percentage (minimum 100
plate appearances) each of the past two sea-sons, while batting .366 in 2013 and .317 in 2014.
Ruchim provides more power, having easily led the team in doubles, triples and slugging percentage when he was last healthy two years ago. He was draft ed by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 39th round of last summer’s MLB Draft but chose to return to school for one more season.
“In my estimation he would be one of the top hitters in this league,” Paul Stevens said.
Both Heelan and Ruchim (along with senior starting pitcher Brandon Magallones) were named preseason Big Ten Players to Watch.
Cody Stevens resisted the suggestion that the trio of veterans would assume leadership roles within the team, saying, “We don’t have definitive leaders right now. We have people who set an example, whether those are seniors or freshmen.” Still, not every team has a core as experienced as these three.
If the Cats remains generally healthy, they could improve drastically on last season’s 19-33 record. And barring yet another derailment, Stevens, Heelan and Ruchim will be leading that improvement together.
All three have been on the field together in two of those contests.
When Stevens and Ruchim were fresh-men in 2011, Heelan played at Virginia Tech. In 2012, when Stevens and Ruchim were sophomores, Heelan sat out before trans-ferring to NU. When Heelan arrived in 2013, Stevens missed the season due to a life-threatening head injury. The trio finally took the field together the first weekend of the 2014 campaign, until Ruchim left game two with an arm injury, opted for surgery and missed the rest of the season.
The great reunion (or, really, union) of 2015 was delayed when the NCAA suspended Ruchim six games for an issue involving an MLB Draft adviser.
Ruchim will sit out the first three games of
offense than they have in years.“I don’t think we really set a lot of concrete expectation,” Ruchim said last week. “We know we can improve a lot as
the season goes on, but the sky is
the limit for
the plate, but Ruchim and Stevens said they have no clue where they’ll get most of their playing time. Last weekend, Stevens started two games at second base and one in center field and also got some time at shortstop. Cody said his favorite position is “on the field,” and coach Paul Stevens said he’s a better outfielder than infielder. The coach said he expects Ruchim to start at shortstop when his sus-pension ends but that he could find himself all over the field.
Although Cody Stevens is no easy out in the batter’s box (.278 batting average,
.337 on-base percentage in 2014), most of his value derives from his
sharp fielding.Heelan and Ruchim, on the
other hand, can be some of the Big Ten’s best hitters this year. Heelan has led the team in on-
base percentage (minimum 100
chose to return to school for one more season.“In my estimation he would be one of the
top hitters in this league,” Paul Stevens said.Both Heelan and Ruchim (along with senior
starting pitcher Brandon Magallones) were named preseason Big Ten Players to Watch.
Cody Stevens resisted the suggestion that the trio of veterans would assume leadership roles within the team, saying, “We don’t have definitive leaders right now. We have people who set an example, whether those are seniors or freshmen.” Still, not every team has a core as experienced as these three.
If the Cats remains generally healthy, they could improve drastically on last season’s 19-33 record. And barring yet another derailment, Stevens, Heelan and Ruchim will be leading that improvement together.
Daily fi le photo by Nathan Richards
Daily fi le photo by Brian Lee
DEFENSIVE WIZARD The trio of seniors Scott Heelan, Cody Stevens (pictured) and Kyle Ruchim appear set to lead the Wildcats in 2015, barring any setbacks. Stevens isn’t sure of the position he’ll play, but his versatility is a part of his strong fi elding ability.
Women’s Tennis
Baseball
One last shot for veteran trio of Stevens, Heelan, Ruchim
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | SPRING SPORTS GUIDE 7
By BOBBY PILLOTEdaily senior staffer@BobbyPillote
Aft er a successful 2014 campaign that saw Northwestern fi nish with a 35-18 record overall and a 14-9 mark in conference play, the Wildcats are back and hungry for more.
NU made it all the way to the NCAA Seat-tle Regional last season, winning two of three games before falling to No. 8 Washington. Th e Cats have gotten off to a slow start this year, sit-ting at 3-6 aft er two weekends of play, but coach Kate Drohan is confi dent her team can mount another strong campaign.
“We don’t have the results we want yet,” she said. “But if we keep our eyes on the ball and stay on the process, we’ll be that team.”
Th ere’s still more than a month to go before Big Ten play begins, meaning NU has plenty of time to tune its roster before the most impor-tant stretch of the season. Drohan said she once again expects the squad to be “very, very com-petitive” in its conference matchups.
Early season experimentation will be a key part of any late success for the Cats, as Drohan also stressed that depth and versatility are two of the team’s greatest strengths.
“Depending on the matchup … we have a lot of people coming off the bench that can make a huge impact on the game,” she said. “We’ve used a lot of diff erent combinations, defensively and in the batting order.”
But even with the fl exibility that a strong bench aff ords, star power will still need to reign supreme. NU will have to fi nd a way to replace the bat of graduated centerfi elder Emily Allard,
who was the Cats’ top off ensive threat last sea-son with 52 runs, a .394 batting average and 37 stolen bases in 39 attempts — all team highs.
Senior right fi elder Andrea DiPrima and junior second baseman Brianna LeBeau will attempt to pick up the slack in the batting order. DiPrima was third in batting average a year ago and hit 12 doubles over the course of the season. She’s off to a similar start this year, batting .348 with 8 RBI.
LeBeau was far and away the Cats’ top slugger in 2014, belting 11 home runs en route to 100 total bases and a .690 slugging percentage — all team highs. She hasn’t had a hot start to this season, batting just .208, but remains a constant threat at the plate.
On the mound, NU is buoyed by the return of ace pitcher Kristen Wood. Th e junior was a workhorse for the team last year, appearing
in 37 games and tossing 184 innings, more than half of the Cats’ total 332.2. Wood hasn’t missed a beat to start 2015, already taking two no-hitters into the fi ft h inning in NU’s early season action.
Th e pieces for another winning season are in place, and Drohan believes achieving success is just a matter of assembling the puzzle.
“It’s all about us playing a complete game, and I think all aspects of our game can be better,” she said. “I have a lot of faith in our team’s ability, and I really think the execution will come.”
NU’s 3-6 record isn’t intimidating any oppo-nents at the moment, but don’t count out the Cats once May rolls around.
Michael Salik contributed reporting.
Reloaded cats primed for another successful season
By DAVID LEEthe daily northwestern@davidylee95
Anyone involved with Northwest-
ern has two clear goals this spring: win the Big Ten and NCAA tourna-ment.
For an outfit with
s u c h l o f t y ambitions, NU
has not yet been able to establish itself as a first-tier program. But this year, with an experienced roster and brutal non-conference schedule, the Cats just might be able to accomplish the Big Ten dream.
Last year, the Cats were an extremely young roster featuring four freshmen that made up the eighth-ranked recruiting class
in the nation. Now sophomores, Alp Horoz, Strong Kirchheimer, Sam Shropshire and Konrad Zieba are back with more experi-ence and are poised to take NU to the next level. Kirchheimer and Shropshire have also elevated themselves to notoriety, holding the No. 64 and No. 96 national rankings in singles, respectively. Shropshire now mans the No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles positions and has an impressive 15-13 record against opposing teams’ top players.
And those opponents have been some of the toughest in the country. Coach Arvid Swan deliberately tries to give his team the toughest non-conference schedule he can find.
This year, he has outdone himself. With only 10 games under its belt this season, NU has already faced eight ranked opponents, and posted a 6-4 mark against this brutal slate. Those teams include No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 7 Duke, No. 17 Notre Dame and No. 23 Vanderbilt.
“This was actually the toughest non-con-ference season we’ve had since I’ve been here,” senior Alex Pasareanu said. “The quality of the teams we’ve been playing has been really, really, really high, so we weren’t expecting
anything spectacular.”Although NU fell to last year’s NCAA run-
ner-up Oklahoma 4-1, the squad forced all but two of the matchups to a third set.
The only player who was handily defeated that day was Logan Staggs, the team’s lone freshman, who lost 6-2, 6-2. Staggs was the fifth-ranked recruit in the nation last year, but he staggered to a 2-4 start in dual matches.
Staggs has since found his footing, in more ways than one. Staggs ascribed at least part of his early season struggles on having to transi-tion to an indoor court. The California native had been playing outdoors most of his life and had gotten used to the pace of outdoor play. Indoor courts can be more punishing. Balls move faster and serves are harder, put-ting additional pressure on Staggs as he tran-sitioned into college play.
The freshman was named the Big Ten Ath-lete of the Week on Feb. 10 after winning three straight singles matches, including a bout against Harvard’s No. 86 Sebastian Beltrame.
“I feel comfortable now knowing I have a few good wins under my belt,” Staggs said. “I definitely feel a whole lot better. In the begin-ning it was a little bit rough, some ups and
downs, but after that good weekend for me I feel much better.”
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of NU’s play this season has been its ability to perform without a singular dominant star. This squad bears little resemblance to the dynamic of last year’s, which was clearly led by then-senior Raleigh Smith. Smith ranked as high as No. 37 last year in singles and was the de facto team leader. Heading into conference play, the Cats don’t have a single player in the top 63 and have transitioned into a more balanced approach.
“I think the vibe is really good,” said Pasar-eanu, when asked about the team atmosphere. “Tennis is an individual sport but, at the same time, in college, support is important.
NU has been battling against the very best opponents it can find and say they have emerged bruised, battered but better.
“We don’t have anyone who’s top 20, top 30 in the country so we all need to be together as a group and we all need to fight,” Pasareanu said. “And if we do that I think we have a great chance.”
NU in position to establish itself as elite program
Anyone involved with Northwest-
ern has two
s u c h l o f t y ambitions, NU
Daily fi le photo by Brian Lee
EARLY INNINGS ACE Kristen Wood releases the pitch. The junior has been an ace in her last two starts, keeping no-hitters into the fi fth inning each time.
Softball
Men’s Tennis
8 SPRING SPORTS GUIDE | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
Cats expect track season filled with exciting racesBy MAX SCHUMANthe daily northwestern
Northwestern will start the spring track season with NCAA sponsorship for the first time.
In previous seasons, NU competed in track meets to sustain fitness and supplement training while bid-ing time until the beginning of the fall cross country season. Without sponsorship as a track program, coach April Likhite had to deal with restrictions on travel to meets and an inability to take her athletes out of class to compete.
She said she scheduled as best as she could for track seasons past but was forced into Midwest-heavy schedules that were missing many opportu-nities to showcase her athletes on a national stage, making track an appetizer to the main course of cross country season.
Now, with the restrictions lifted, Likhite has put together the best track schedule the team has seen to date, one that has her athletes abuzz.
“This season is a game-changer,” junior Rachel Weathered said. “I loved track in high school and I love track here. This is such a benefit for us.”
The spring outdoor track schedule has the team slated to travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the John Mitchell Alabama Relays and to San Francisco for the San Francisco State Distance Carnival, meets the team simply could not attend in prior years. Combined with repeat appearances at meets closer to home, like the prestigious Drake Relays, Likhite has given her team opportunities to match any other school in the Big Ten and positioned her squad for a chance to climb the conference.
“We’re going to be going to meets where a lot of those Big Ten schools we want to be competitive with
are going to be racing their better athletes,” she said. “It’s only going to make them better.”
As a sponsored track team, the Cats get one more perk: the ability to compete in both indoor and outdoor NCAA Championship meets. With sophomore stars Andrea Ostenso and Jena Pianin continuing to shine in the indoor track season, NU could send a representative to the national champi-onships soon.
Ostenso has a season best of 16:31.66 in the 5,000m so far, while Pianin has run a 9:34.70 in the 3,000m this indoor season. Even if she can’t qualify for nationals, the new scheduling has Ostenso setting new personal goals.
“My ultimate goal is to break 16 minutes (in the 5,000m) by outdoor track, so I can qualify for the Stanford Invitational,” she said.
The Stanford Invitational, held in early April, is one of the biggest track events in the country and is another meet NU was previously unable to attend.
Weathered noted such opportunities to qualify for big meets are pushing the team forward.
“I’ve seen kind of a spark in the team, girls getting more motivated,” she said. “I’ve been seeing a lot of stars in people’s eyes which is really exciting.”
As much as a competitive track schedule helps her team in present, Likhite also knows the exposure will help to boost her program in the long run.
“Seeing the opportunities that we’re giving our girls in competitive meets will definitely enhance the potential for our recruiting,” she said.
With her girls preparing to pack their bags as spring and outdoor track approaches, Likhite’s scheduling has made track the main course for her team.
Source: Northwestern Athletics
NCAA APPROVED Freshman Sara Coffey and sophomore Ellen Schmitz compete during the cross country season. For the first time ever, the NCAA has sponsored the Wildcats for a track season in the winter and spring.
Following changes, NU hungry to make noise
Confident Cats looking for top-8 NCAA finish
By KEVIN CASEYdaily senior staffer @KevinCasey19
A lot has appeared to change in the past year for the Wildcats, but really, everything has stayed virtu-ally the same.
In September, Pat Goss moved out of his 18-year role as head coach to take a higher position in the program, naming four-year assistant David Inglis to his old position.
A changing of the guard for Northwestern? Not really.
“To be honest, it’s not really much of a differ-ence,” Inglis said. “Pat is still here everyday at prac-tice. I really think the transition couldn’t have been smoother. ”
The continuity has been apparent to his players as well.
“In our everyday practice and preparation, noth-ing has changed,” senior Bennett Lavin said. “Inglis always took a responsibility in helping us prepare for tournaments.”
The Cats had also appeared to suffer a major blow with the graduation of star Jack Perry. Perry was a super-reliable No. 1 for NU and often the main reason for stopping the team from falling off a cliff in its performance. The recruiting process handled that loss, though.
Freshman Dylan Wu came right in and took on the Perry role. After a T29 in his opening start, a solid but unspectacular performance Wu chalked up to mental errors, the freshman bolted off a T7, a team-leading T23 and an impressive victory against a strong field.
Wu, who has Big Ten Freshman of the Year and All-American dreams for himself in the spring, gave his fall season a satisfactory grade, with one admis-sion of delightful surprise.
“I have high expectations for myself,” Wu said. “But winning a tournament in my fourth or fifth start, I never expected that would happen.”
Not everything is as it once was, though. Junior Andrew Whalen, who emerged as the team’s No. 2 in a desperate time of need last spring, mysteriously disappeared from the lineup in the fall.
He won’t be among the starting five in the spring either, as Inglis noted that the rising golfer is redshirt-ing for academic reasons.
“This time last year, we started talking to Andrew, and he had gotten a little behind in terms of being on track for graduation,” Inglis said. “From that stand-point, we liked the way he was improving his golf and we liked the way his game was trending, but we just felt like he would be a better player in years four and five, than in three and four.”
Yet again, though, NU has seemingly plugged the hole. Junior Josh Jamieson, mired by inconsistency in the past, has proven a worthwhile No. 2 with three individual top-25s and three top-two finishes on the team in four fall events. He also beat former World No. 1 Luke Donald 2 & 1 in the team’s annual Alumni Match, which isn’t too shabby.
But returning to last year’s norm isn’t beneficial in every way. NU produced a ghastly fade at season’s end in 2014. First the Cats posted an average fourth-place finish at Big Ten Championships and followed that up at NCAA Regionals by finishing 19 strokes back in last place.
Late season struggles, more at Big Tens than Regionals, have been a major issue for the Cats in past years. A contributing factor might have been the lacking performance from the lower part of NU’s lineup in past years. The Nos. 3-5 were at times quite unreliable, especially come postseason time, in previ-ous seasons. And on this point, the Cats have also remained nearly the same, in a bad way.
The back end of the lineup was shuffled through-out the fall, with all seven active team members mak-ing appearances, but multiple players appearing to lose spots due to poor play.
Only Wu, Jamieson and Lavin were in all four fall starting lineups. That is progress in itself, though, as Lavin has discov-ered a newfound consistency, fin-ishing third on the team in every fall event.
NU has completed one spring tournament, the Big Ten Match Play Champi-onship. The Cats finished a respectable fifth, but the event merely served as a warm up to the stroke play portion. The changes have been smoothed down, but now the Cats’ challenge is to rise up, rather than waste away in the season’s closing tournaments.
NU is currently pegged at 59th in the rankings and has closing woes, but the new coach sees the potential.
“If we can keep improving, there’s no reason we can’t compete for a Big Ten Champion-ship and make it to nationals,” Inglis said. “And if we really play our best, we could be in contention for a spot in the top-eight at NCAAs. I think we can surprise some people and play a lot better than our ranking would suggest.”
By KEVIN CASEYdaily senior staffer @KevinCasey19
The hype is building around Northwestern as the golf program methodically builds itself up to elite national status.
“A lot of articles are saying that we are contending for a national title, and I think it’s great that people are saying those things,” junior Kaitlin Park said. “But in my opinion, being patient and rooting for each other is the focus.”
That’s easier said than done for the Wildcats, a team that produced back-to-back top-15 finishes at NCAA Championships the past two seasons after making it to the tournament only once before.
And for a third consecutive season, NU may have its most talented group in school history. Six NU golfers are former top-30 recruits — in a sport where only five starting spots are usually up for grabs — and the Cats can boast a No. 7 national ranking.
Such success from a northern school might be surprising, but the Cats have made it a mission throughout the golfing program to sell recruits on
the benefits of cold winter conditions.For coach Emily Fletcher in particular, building the talent pool and the inter-
nal ambition that comes with these higher achievers has been para-mount in the uptick.
“We’ve had success recruiting deep,” she said. “It’s not enough for us to get one or two really good players, but to have five or six competitive players. (Coach) Beth (Miller) and I are also very
proud of the culture, with players taking it on themselves and work-
ing hard and pushing harder and with how competitive they are within
the team.”The postseason format will change this
season. Twenty-four teams will receive invita-tions to NCAA Championships per usual, but
that group will then compete over 72 holes for eight slots in a match-play final.
A year after announcing a goal for a top-10 finish at NCAAs, Fletcher and Co. are predict-ably targeting that top-eight group.
And the team has plenty of collective firepower to do it.
The recruiting rankings speak for themselves, but the results
have proven this top talent has translated
to the college level.Park and senior Hana Lee are both former First
Team All-Big Ten selections. Sophomore Kacie Komoto was entrenched in the middle of the lineup throughout the fall. Junior Suchaya Tangkamolpra-sert stepped up with big-time performances on a couple of occasions in the fall. Freshman Hannah Kim solidified herself as the team’s No. 1 a mere four events into her college career.
That sixth talent, who only saw individual action in the fall, was freshman Sarah Cho, who actually welcomed stepping aside in her opening months at NU.
“I would love to have been a part of the top five, but playing as an individual was great, especially because my game wasn’t in great shape,” Cho said. “My coaches and I were trying to figure out what was going on with my long game. Everything was kind of not tidy, so we worked on tightening everything and my feel. And we started from scratch almost.”
Cho finally got the start for NU at this week’s Lady Puerto Rico Classic, the Cats’ opening tournament of the spring season. The team finished fourth in the event, behind No. 4 Arkansas, No. 20 LSU and No. 33 Iowa State, a less than stellar performance to begin the campaign.
The key for NU going forward, if it hopes to fulfill its top-eight dreams, will be how it performs closer to the hole.
“The determining factor will be our short game, our pitching and wedges and ability to make putts,” Fletcher said. “Doing that will lead to better scoring and more consistent scoring.”
The performance in Puerto Rico was actually not indicative of NU’s norm. Kim’s final-round 68 catapulted her to second place in the event, while the lower part of the lineup lagged behind.
If anything, the opposite has usually been true of NU this season and in past years — the scores for Nos. 1-5 are all good, solid results, but a standout is missing.
After the first event of the fall, no Cats golfer finished higher than eighth in any event. Fletcher chalked that up to the strength of the fields NU played in the fall, and has no worries over any per-ceived lack of an ace.
Whatever the case, confidence is with the Cats in spades, and as long as they maintain that inner determination, the sky is the limit.
“Our girls are such hard workers,” Park said. “The one thing they have to do is for them not to get too down on themselves after one bad round. We are all very critical of ourselves because we all care so much. I am very confident we will make nationals. Believing in each other is key.”
Cross Country
Men’s Golf Women’s Golf
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | NEWS 9
In the Spring Quarter the Slavic Department and the Music School are offering an unusual course concerning Russian Music in the context of Russian Culture. It is cross listed under Slavic 350 and General Music 335. Professor Irwin Weil will be lecturing at 1:00 PM on Wednesdays and Fridays about the fascinating Cultural Background of Russian Music. This year we will be per-forming music by four Composers. Two of them, Tchaikovsky and Rakhmaninov, are very widely known and popular in the West. The other two, Taneev and Sviridov are justly popular in Russia but not familiar to Western ears. This is unfortunate, because their music is genuinely beautiful. We will be singing some of the Vesper music by Rakhmaninov, perhaps the most deeply moving of all his well known compositions. We will also be singing the stir-ring melodies of the name day party from Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" - in three quarter time, the likes of which only Tchaikovsky could use to quicken the heartbeat.
Sviridov makes almost magical use of Russian traditional folk rhythms, while Taneev's melodies managed to attract the favorable attention of Tolstoy. The course will vibrate with musical excitement and broaden the universe of your imagination. Dr. Natalia Lyashenko, former choral conductor of the Novosibirsk State Opera, will be conducting rehearsals on Tuesday Nights, starting at 7:00 PM, for a concert which will occur in early June. No previous training in the beauti-ful Russian Language or singing is required. Students are always exhilarated by their work with her; she is univer-sally adored. Don't miss out on this opportunity. If you haven't sung before, this is the chance to feel the joy of language and his-tory, when combined with powerful music. If you are no stranger to producing lovely vocal sounds, this is a chance to expand your repertory into the magnificent Russian Field.
DO YOU LIKE TO SING? DO YOU LIKE GREAT LITERATURE?LO O K N O FU RTH E R THAN TH E WO R D S B E LOW
By MARIANA ALFAROthe daily northwestern @marianaa_alfaro
A documentary examining the treatment of farm workers was screened Tuesday night at Harris Hall followed by a Q&A session with its director in an event hosted by Real Food at NU, the Environmental Policy and Cultural Program, the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and other Northwestern groups.
“Food Chains,” directed by Sanjay Rawal and produced by “Desperate Housewives” actress Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser, writer of best-selling book “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal,” focuses on the struggle tomato pickers from Florida face when trying to overcome low salaries, poor treatment and, in some cases, abuse from their employers.
The workers, united under the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, share their story of a fight against large supermarkets and fast food chains for better working conditions and a fair salary.
Rawal said he was inspired to start this proj-ect after reading a book by Barry Estabrook called “Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit,” which detailed the human and environmental cost of the $4 billion tomato industry in the country.
“There’s so much interest in food these days. People care about where food comes from, how its grown . . . but I think there’s a real lack of interest in the hands that pick that food,” Rawal told The Daily. “A lot of times, we make food decisions based on the direct impact of that food on our physical bodies. … We care about pesti-cides (because) we care about ingesting them. We don’t necessarily care about the pesticides because of their exposure on farmers.”
The documentary aims to create social con-sciousness about the way agricultural workers across the U.S. are treated. Though the film focuses mainly on Florida and California farm-ers, Rawal said that it is a “deep, dark secret” that agricultural workers in the country are among
the most vulnerable and most poorly paid.Rawal said he was very grateful that the
movie has been received so positively and said one of the biggest effects the film has had is how it sparked conversations and protests in college campuses.
“There’s a growing movement called ‘Boot the Braids’ against Wendy’s,” Rawal said. “There’s 22 Wendy’s on campuses in this country, and there’s now an active movement to try to get those Wendy’s kicked off of campuses because Wendy’s still hasn’t signed the Fair Food program.”
The Fair Food Program partners with growers and retailers, including restaurants like Chipo-tle and food providers like Sodexo and Whole Foods Market, to improve working conditions for agricultural laborers in the United States, according to the film’s website.
“A lot of students watched the film and were motivated to actually go and protest outside those Wendy’s restaurants,” Rawal said. “So we’re finding that students are becoming incred-ibly active around this topic, and that’s very exciting.”
Medill junior Miranda Cawley, Real Food at NU’s co-director, said people don’t tend to talk about the human cost of food because it’s uncomfortable and invisible to them.
“It’s really easy to focus on what goes into your body because it’s something you have con-trol over,” she said. “But delving into a system with a very uncomfortable history of exploita-tion of marginalized communities and slave labor is harder because generally that infor-mation is not as available, and it’s way more uncomfortable to think about.”
Colleen Fitzgerrell, the other co-director of Real Food at NU, said the film was a good way to open a new conversation about food at NU.
“We have a lot of groups that talk about sustainable agriculture … but we don’t talk so much about who’s growing our food and how our food system affects them,” the Weinberg senior said. “So we thought this movie would be really important to bring to campus.”
Real Food at NU screens ‘Food Chains’
Residents discuss role of black soldiers in WWIBy YAQOOB QASEEMthe daily northwestern @yaqoobqaseem
The Evanston Public Library held a discus-sion Tuesday centered on a novel about the first African-American regiment sent to battle in World War I.
Lesley Williams, EPL’s head of adult services, said the discussion is a combination of two pro-grams at the library: the monthly discussion group on African-American literature and the library’s yearlong program focusing on WWI. The WWI programming, which started in August 2014 and continues until August 2015, has also included discussions of other novels and films and includes lectures and presentations orga-nized in partnership with the Evanston History Center.
The African-American literature group talked about the novel “A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighters’ Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home” by Peter N. Nel-son on Tuesday.
“Reading about World War I is incredibly upsetting for me,” Williams said. “Most people don’t even have a really strong sense of what the
issues were with World War I.”African Americans were involved in America’s
wars throughout history and treated unfairly in the process, Williams said. They made sacrifices each time with the unfulfilled hope of gaining full civil rights, she said.
“The question always is how much is going to be enough? At what point will military service really help African Americans get their rights and get the respect they deserve?” Williams said.
The discussion touched on the motivations of the African-American soldiers, the reasons behind the obscurity of the regiment’s story, the hardships faced by the soldiers after the war and the reception of the soldiers abroad.
“I always leave with something to take away,” said Theresa Cameron (Communication ’88), a two-year member of the discussion group. “I make connections in my life experience to what I’m reading,”
Mike Evans, another member of the discus-sion group, said the book improved his knowl-edge on the topic. He specifically learned more about post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
“I learned a lot from everyone,” Cameron said. “We all bring something different.”
Yaqoob Qaseem/The Daily Northwestern
BOOKS ON BRAVERY The Evanston Public Library hosted a book discussion Wednesday about African-Americans serving in World War I. Community members discussed the Harlem Hellfighters, the first African-American regiment to fight in the war.
10 NEWS | THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
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Near the end of the panel, Brennan shared advice about journalism and life in general.
“Stay focused on what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life,” she said.
Medill freshman Will Greer said he was happy to hear about misconceptions about women sports journalist being addressed.
“It was good to see how these women had bro-ken through past assumptions,” Greer said.
Medill Prof. Charles Whitaker, who heads up the sports journalism initiative within Medill’s graduate program, helped organize the panel. He also serves as a board member for Students Publishing Co., The Daily’s parent company.
“Women are taking more and more visible roles in sports journalism, but yet there are some chal-lenges that they face,” Whitaker said. “We thought it would be a good time to do a status report on female voice in sports journalism. … All panel-ists were very excited to come, and they were all volunteers.”
by the introduction of each member on the search committee.
“It’s always hard to get a full grasp on everything that’s being done,” Affirmative Action Coordinator Tina Curry said to the committee. “There is not one centralized place you can go to find out all the efforts that are being done, whether it’s in Kellogg or any other unit.”
Curry voiced her concern regarding this decentralization and addressed the diffi-culties she encounters when working with affirmative action programs. She asked whether the responsibility of the provost position would involve consolidating the efforts to increase diversity in each unit of the University.
McBride said he does not anticipate the diversity officers reporting to the associate provost, but hopes the individual would con-tinue the efforts of Cordero to meet with groups concerned with issues of diversity.
“We are working in a variety of ways to build more transparency, clarity and infra-structure of information, and the ability to access it as well as accountability,” Chase-Lansdale said.
The discussion then focused on the chal-lenges facing the integration of minority stu-dents, including first-generation and low-income students.
“It is uncomfortable being a low-income student here,” said Allison Manley (Wein-berg ’12), who currently works at the Kel-logg School of Management. “They think that low-income situations are something that they experience outside of Northwestern, but that actually is a concern here.”
Manley said if the associate provost is from a place with a different perspective than NU, they will be able to more clearly understand concerns regarding low-income and other minority statuses.
“The faculty demographics are not match-ing the student demographics,” McCormick sophomore Wendy Roldan said. “Sometimes I feel discouraged after reaching out to faculty administrators who are in a position to help first-generation and low-income students because they don’t understand us.”
Roldan said the provost should initiate trainings for faculty to facilitate conversa-tions that occur during interaction among faculty, administrators and students.
“We will be reviewing candidates on paper in April and interviewing them in May,” Chase-Lansdale told The Daily. “We hope to have someone identified by the end of the academic year.”
Protess did not immediately respond to requests for comment about today’s suit. Rimland told The Daily he had not yet reviewed the case.
In a statement to The Daily, Ciolino wrote Simon confessed on videotape “without physical threat or coercion.”
“Porter was interrogated, never confessed and his case was based on eyeball witnesses with sketchy credibility and memories,” Ciolino wrote. “Northwestern University, Dave Protess and I saved him from an unjust conviction and execution that would have never passed muster today.”
However Ciolino has admitted in the past that he showed Simon a video in which an actor posing as a witness implicated Simon as the gunman. In a statement today, Ciolino said Simon confessed to others, including a Milwaukee TV reporter.
James Sotos, an attorney representing Simon with Terry Ekl, criticized Ciolino’s claims that no coercion was used to obtain Simon’s confession.
“I’ll tell you I not only dispute it, I find it rep-rehensible that he can continue to say that,” Sotos said.
Sotos cited a 2002 Chicago magazine interview where Ciolino described the video confession.
“We just bull-rushed him, and mentally he couldn’t recover,” Ciolino told Chicago magazine.
When Simon was freed in October, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said fol-lowing a yearlong investigation by her office that the class used “alarming tactics” in its investiga-tion. The investigation, which involved interviews with more than 100 people, did not determine who carried out the killings.
Ciolino defended the Medill class’s findings at the time to The Daily, saying the video confession spoke for itself.
The lawsuit also says very little journalism was conducted by the Protess class, arguing students did not submit any articles about the case for pub-lication. It accuses the University of supporting the investigation to “enhance” the reputation of Medill. The lawsuit cites several books and TV movies made about Protess’ work that may have boosted the school’s reputation and attracted top students to apply to the school.
On Tuesday, Cubbage also said David Protess retired in 2011 and is no longer employed by NU. Protess stopped teaching at Medill after he was barred from teaching the Innocence Project class and then-Dean John Lavine publicly accused him of doctoring records from a separate investigation into a 1978 slaying.
At the time, the University said Protess had misrepresented facts and actions to the University in a case investigating the murder conviction of Anthony McKinney.
“Medill makes clear its values on its website, with the first value to ‘be respectful of the school, yourself and others — which includes personal and professional integrity,’” Cubbage wrote in an April 2011 statement. “Protess has not maintained that value, a value that is essential in teaching our students.”
Protess now leads the Chicago Innocence Project.
Medill Prof. Alec Klein now leads a similar course into investigating potential wrongful con-victions, rebranded as part of the Medill Justice Project. Klein deferred comment for this story to University spokesmen. Cubbage declined to com-ment on whether or not the litigation will affect that course’s ongoing work.
Ciara McCarthy contributed reporting.
Simon From page 1
Source: Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS
CONTROVERSIAL PROFESSOR Former Medill Prof. David Protess speaks with students during an Innocence Project meeting at Northwestern in 2009.
ProvostFrom page 1
Beyond From page 1
taking a political stance because students can’t affect political change in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We recognize that the conflict is really complex and has a lot of history behind it, which is why we don’t think that we as students are qualified or, really, able to make a real impact when it comes to political solutions,” he said. “We can have an impact on Northwestern’s investment policy, which is why we’ve taken a stance on that.”
University President Morton Schapiro told The Daily in January that he encourages this sort of debate on campus, so long as it remains civil.
“When I came here six years ago, I was surprised that the level of political activism was so low here. … I always wanted to encourage people to think more about global issues,” Schapiro said. “As long as people do it in a respectful way, I think political activism is an important part of any campus.”
Senators can vote through secret ballots if there is an individual motion for it and a simple majority vote in favor of it, Star told The Daily.
The resolution needs a majority of votes to pass, so long as the total number of votes cast outnumbers abstentions. For example, if there were 21 senators present, the resolution could pass with seven votes in favor, six votes against and eight abstentions.
Star clarified the rules in an email to senators.“I just wanted to make sure that we’re creating a
space that will lead to productive debate,” Star told The Daily. “I have every expectation that that is the space we’re going to create.”
DivestFrom page 1
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015 THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN | SPORTS 11
The Daily NorthwesternWinter 2015 | An independent voice since 1923 | Evanston, Ill.
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NU begins arduous Big Ten Championships on Wednesday
Northwestern (7-6, 2-4 Big Ten) has been out of action since Jan. 31 as the team has put its effort toward the all-important Big Ten Championships from Wednesday through Saturday.
The team’s chances of capturing victory in Columbus, Ohio are slim, as six ranked teams — none of which are the Wildcats — will be on hand for the event.
NU did beat a ranked team on the road and short handed earlier this year, and there is plenty to compete for aside from team victory.
On Wednesday, the four-day spectacular begins with the relay events, the area where the Cats have been most excited.
Coach Jimmy Tierney pointed to relays in previous weeks as a main focus for Big
Tens. He felt the sprint depth was better than anything he had seen from his team in years and believed his relay squads could match up well with nearly anybody else’s.
Questions still abounded about the makeup of the relay teams, but Tierney said it was a result of too many options, rather than too few.
Individual events will encompass the last three days of the meet, and NU has plenty to look for there as well.
Several Cats swimmers will be attempting to qualify for NCAA Championships, along with making some noise for NU.
NU may be strongest in sprint freestyle, with freshman Mary Warren leading the way at 50-yard freestyle and sophomore Annika Winsnes at 100-yard freestyle.
Sophomore Lacey Locke looks to impress in the backstroke and fellow sophomore Ellen Stello will attempt to take charge in butterfly and individual medley races.
— Kevin Casey
Nathan Richards/Daily Senior Staffer
BACK IN ACTION Northwestern is heading to the Big Ten Championships after a three-week break from competition. In recent weeks, coach Jimmy Tierney has expressed excitement over the Wildcats’ relay squads.
Men’s BasketballFrom page 12
weeks, we’ve gotten a glimpse of who the Cats really are: a young squad still trying to find its way out of the Big Ten cellar.
NU has proven recently that the Big Ten’s better teams are far too much for them to handle (with the Iowa performance being the anomaly).
NU faces four such squads, all ranked top-57 nationally by kenpom.com, in its final six conference games. If the Cats capture any of these contests, it will be a major surprise.
That leaves NU needing to win its other two games to reach 4-14 in conference. The Cats have the fire-power to beat Michigan or Penn State, but defeating both seems like a stretch. Both are better teams than NU, and even a home environment for the Cats in each matchup isn’t enough to convince me of a sweep.
NU takes one of those matchups for its third confer-ence win, but that’s where the Cats’ conference victories for the year come to a halt.
Northwestern will surge to four, possibly five conference victories
Jesse Kramer: NU finally ended its 10-game los-ing streak Sunday against Iowa, which is important because that game marked the start of a favorable seven-game stretch to end the regular season.
Half of the Cats’ six remaining games are at home.
All three of those opponents are teams that struggle on the road.
Kenpom.com slightly favors NU over a Penn State team that has not won a Big Ten road game since last March. (Of course, that victory last year came against NU at Welsh-Ryan Arena.)
NU is a projected favorite March 3 against Michi-gan, which is 2-6 since losing star guard Caris LeVert to injury. The Wolverines’ only road win without LeVert came against last-place Rutgers.
Indiana is a more difficult matchup with its high-powered offense. The Hoosiers have beaten mediocre teams Nebraska and Illinois on the road.
NU is worse than both those teams, so the Hoosiers deserve to be a favorite when they visit Evanston.
However, a 2-5 record in road games leaves room for an upset.
The Cats should win two of these three games, and it’s possible they win out at home.
Their three road games are more difficult.NU has to travel to hot Minnesota and Illinois
squads and rematches down-trending Iowa in the regular season finale.
If the Cats give inspired performances like the one Sunday, maybe they can steal one on the road.
With this fairly favorable finish to the season, a total of four Big Ten wins should be the minimum, with five being extremely possible.
[email protected] [email protected]
Women’s BasketballFrom page 12
PointFrom page 12
Women’s SwimmingMcKeown said. “I think she’s done a really good job of playing in transition with-out getting herself into foul trouble with charges. And I think she just plays so hard you’re just glad she’s on your team.”
The Cats are ranked sixth in the confer-ence and are one game ahead of Nebraska. Although this contest will have huge impli-cations on NU’s postseason, McKeown said he does not think about that.
“I think more than anything else it’s really important that they focus on the next game,” McKeown said. “I think that formula has really helped us the last couple of weeks. So that’s how we are going to approach the next two weeks.”
smile, when asked if NU was now a 2-3 team. “Call me Boeheim Jr., I guess.”
If the Cats do come out in a zone again, it will be against a Minnesota team that’s much better at shoot-ing 3s than Iowa. NU will have to make adjustments for the Golden Gophers’ personnel and style of play, but Collins and his team do have one motivational edge: the spoiler effect.
The Cats dealt a hefty blow to the Hawkeyes’ NCAA tournament resume by beating them. For a potential bubble team like Minnesota, already with 10 losses and lacking signature wins, a defeat to an inferior opponent like NU could be the final nail in the coffin.
“We have an opportunity to play a lot of those teams that are fighting for postseason berths,” Collins said. “We still feel we have a lot to play for. As long as there are games to play, you can always get better.”
SPORTSWednesday, February 18, 2015 @DailyNU_Sports
ON DECK ON THE RECORDWomen’s BasketballNebraska at NU, 7 p.m. Wednesday
Instead of playing defensively or tentatively, we just impose our game and our willpower onto our opponents. — Lok Sze Leung, senior
FEB. 18
Surging Cats search for 6 vs. No. 21 CornhuskersBy KHADRICE ROLLINSthe daily northwestern @KhadriceRollins
After a couple of nail-biting road victories, Northwestern returns home in hopes of continuing its win-ning ways against No. 21 Nebraska.
The Wildcats (19-6, 9-5 Big Ten) look to stay undefeated in February and push their winning streak to six when the Cornhuskers (18-7, 8-6) visit Wednesday.
Although NU is in the midst of its hottest stretch of the season since its 10-0 start, Nebraska is attempting to right the ship. Before a win Sunday, the Cornhuskers were stumbling through a three-game losing streak, their longest of the season. The start of this decline can be traced back to the injury of starting junior guard Rachel Theriot.
Coach Joe McKeown drew paral-lels between what Nebraska is going through and what the Cats have dealt with in terms of the injury bug. McKeown applauded the rest of the Nebraska roster and said the Cornhuskers have been playing well without their leading scorer, despite not getting winning results.
“They’ve played really well with-out her,” McKeown said. “They’re balanced, you know. They can score, and their system is real solid. So the one thing about Nebraska, they really don’t beat themselves, regard-less of who’s on the floor.”
NU might also be going without a key piece in this matchup. Sopho-more guard Christen Inman has been sidelined the last three games with an ankle injury and her status for the Nebraska tilt will not be determined until Wednesday.
In Inman’s absence, senior guard Karly Roser has been inserted into the starting lineup, a role she has not had since her sophomore sea-son. Roser is second on the team in assists and has been praised all season by McKeown for her ability to contribute in a plethora of ways. The best example of her versatility on the court was her first start of the season against Illinois, where she grabbed five rebounds, four of which were on the offensive end.
“I enjoy starting,” Roser said. “It’s not a big concern for me, but it is really nice to get out there and just try to start strong from the first tip. I liked coming off the bench a little bit, just bring that energy to raise us up to another level, but starting is fun. I get more hyped up in warm-ups probably.”
Although Roser’s ability to tran-sition into the starting lineup has been big for NU over this current
stretch, so has the play of sophomore forward Nia Coffey.
The Cats’ leading scorer has taken her game to another level in Feb-ruary, and she will likely be a big factor in determining the outcome
of this game. Coffey is averaging 16.4 points
and 11.2 rebounds during the win-ning streak and has posted a double-double in all five contests.
Coming off a 25-point 11-rebound
performance, Coffey will most likely be asked to lead NU’s balanced scor-ing attack once again.
“She’s taking better shots,”
No. 21 Nebraska vs. NorthwesternEvanston7 p.m. Wednesday
Sean Su/Daily Senior Staffer
ROSER RESURGENCE Karly Roser contests the shot. The senior guard has earned a starting role in sophomore guard Christen Inman’s absence and has done an admirable job as a fill-in.
By KEVIN CASEY and JESSE KRAMERthe daily northwestern @KevinCasey19, @Jesse_Kramer
Wildcats fall short of four-win projection
Kevin Casey: The basis of this question comes from kenpom.com’s prediction that NU’s most likely outcome is finishing the conference season 4-14. Currently NU is 2-10 in the Big Ten, meaning the team has to double its Big Ten win total in the final six games of conference season to match that set mark.
And if NU wants to reach five Big Ten wins, it must play .500 ball in the remain-der of the conference schedule.
I don’t see either of these scenarios happening.
The Cats have already pushed through the brutal part of its Big Ten competition. In the team’s first 12 conference games, it faced seven top-40 opponents in kenpom.com’s rankings, but only sees one such foe in the final six.
Still, I find the odds of NU completing a 2-4 or 3-3 arc quite slim.
Sure the Cats had a long string of close losses against some of the Big Ten’s best opponents last month, but that was NU playing near its peak. In the past two
Cats adopt new persona late in season
By BOBBY PILLOTEdaily senior staffer @BobbyPillote
Late in the season, Northwestern has forged a new identity.
Bolstered by the reemergence of soph-omore forward Sanjay Lumpkin and the return of sophomore forward Nathan Taphorn, plus the adaptation of a 2-3 zone defense, the Wildcats (11-14, 2-10 Big Ten) are still riding the high from their upset victory over Iowa on Sunday.
And the Cats are ready to head to Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Wednesday to take on the Golden Gophers (16-10, 5-8).
“(Minnesota) is playing really well right now,” coach Chris Collins said. “They’re very confident, they’re a veteran team … and it’s a tough place to play. We know we’re going to have to play really well to come away with the win.”
Lumpkin has had a quiet season for NU statistically, averaging just 5.1 points and four rebounds per game, but the Min-nesota native is likely to play a big role in any success the Cats have. Collins said Lumpkin was instrumental against the Hawkeyes in overtime, taking hard fouls in the paint to put poor free throw shoot-ers on the line.
The coach also praised Lumpkin for a newly adopted hard-nosed attitude, saying the forward’s biggest contributions will never show up in the box score.
“I talked to coach, and he said I needed
to be the junkyard dog for this team,” Lumpkin said. “I feel like I got away from it a couple games this season, but I’m back doing it.”
Taphorn also had a big moment against Iowa. Having missed the previous seven games with a foot injury, he eased back into action against the Hawkeyes but was in the right place at the right time when he made a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in regulation to give NU a 2-point lead.
He also starred out of the spotlight as the Cats’ inbounder, avoiding turnovers against the full-court press and success-fully navigating the pressure Iowa applied in the second half. Taphorn will be asked to use this skill against Minnesota, which leads the conference in steals..
“No,” Taphorn said when asked if he’s worried about the defensive pressure. “I’m confident that our guys can take care of the ball.”
He and Lumpkin drew many individ-ual accolades for their play against Iowa, but the day truly belonged to NU’s 2-3 zone defense. It’s a look the Cats have gone to for spurts this season, but Collins had his defense locked in that set for almost the full 45 minutes Sunday and reaped the benefits, with his squad holding the Hawkeyes to 32 percent shooting from the field and blocking a ridiculous 12 shots.
The zone is especially viewed as a boon for junior Alex Olah. The center said after the game Sunday that it allowed him to better see the court, and Collins added it was very beneficial to keep Olah in place near the basket as a rebounder and rim protector. But the coach was coy about his intentions with the zone going forward.
“I don’t know,” he said, suppressing a
Northwesternvs. MinnesotaMinneapolis, Minnesota8 p.m. Wednesday
Daily file photo by Sean Su
SANJAY UNLEASHED Sanjay Lumpkin goes for the dunk. The sophomore forward is looking to adopt a scrappier approach to his game.
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Can NU achieve Big Ten wins?
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