INSIDE
Is there snow good reason to cancel classes?
Don’t let hair stop a workout
PAGE 2
Women fall short at Rutgers
PAGE 5
Duffy discusses new book
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PAGE 4
monDAY
february 10, 2014 MONday High 39, Low 28 TUESday High 39, Low 28
VOLUME 99 ISSUE 57 FIRST COPY FREE, ADDITIONAL COPIES 50 CENTS
RYAN MILLER / The Daily Campus
Students and fans rushed the court at Moody Coliseum after the Mustangs beat the Cincinnati Bearcats, their first on-campus win over a top 10 opponent since 1967. The men’s basketball team has yet to be defeated at home this season.
SMU remains undefeated at home
Students, fans rush court after Mustangs trample No. 7 Cincinnati 76-55 Billy Embody Sports Writer wembody@smu.edu Moody Madness or Moody Magic. Either way, SMU has made Moody Coliseum one of the toughest places in college basketball to play and with SMU’s third win over a Top 25 team this season at home, the men’s basketball team is thinking about a NCAA tournament bid. The Mustangs didn’t just beat the No. 7 ranked Cincinnati Bearcats Saturday, the team dominated them 76-55 in front of the fifth sellout crowd of the season at Moody.
“If we didn’t have a good team, all we’d have is a beautiful building,” SMU Head Coach Larry Brown said. “I didn’t imagine it would be like this quickly. But I was hopeful that we could get it that people wanted to see our team play and appreciate the fact that we’re playing hard and playing the right way.” When the Bearcats pulled within seven midway through the second half, two Nick Russell steals and a Nic Moore 3-pointer highlighted an 11-0 run that put the game out of reach for Cincinnati. Russell finished with 15 points, three rebounds and three steals in
a great team victory, but it was his two key steals that preserved the win when it was gutcheck time for SMU. “When Nick got a steal and they didn’t even try to run back with him, I figured it was over,” Cannen Cunningham said. In one of the best team wins of the year, it was Cunningham stepping up with forward Markus Kennedy in foul trouble that was one of the reasons SMU went into halftime with a 38-24 advantage. Cunningham had all 11 of his points in the first half and also added three rebounds and two steals on the game. Moore had 14 points
and first-year Ben Moore continued his impressive play, added 15 points, five rebounds and two blocks off the bench as well. Russell’s big game was also highlighted by his impressive defense. Russell forced star Bearcats guard Sean Kilpatrick to shoot just five of 18 from the floor and even though he still scored 22 points, Kilpatrick and the rest of the Bearcats took contested shots all night, shooting just 35 percent as a team from the field. Cincinnati’s press defense did cause some trouble for SMU though, forcing 16 turnovers by the Mustangs, but SMU forced 19 turnovers by
Cincinnati as well, taking advantage by scoring 24 points off of turnovers. Moody Madness is in full force and Coach Brown and the players credited the crowd for doing their part in the win, but Brown said he knows the program needs to continue to improve to where the team and fans expect to win games like this. “I’m so happy that we had that opportunity (to storm the court),” Brown said. “If we ever get the program the way we like, we’ll get used to winning games like this.” “It was crazy,” Cunningham said. “Everybody’s my best friend now.” SMU is now 13-0 at home on
the year and 6-0 in Moody, and this win might just propel SMU into the Top 25, something not many people expected out of a team that won just 15 games a year ago. “At the beginning of the year, we knew that we believed in each other, but not a lot of people did,” Russell said. “I’m sure nobody expected us to be here. We knew what we had: We’ve got a great coach, a great coaching staff — the sky’s the limit.” The 19-5 Mustangs have a few days off before heading to Rutgers Thursday for their second matchup of the year. SMU beat Rutgers 70-56 at Moody Jan. 21.
Research
SMU seismologists investigate cause of North Texas earthquakes Jehadu Abshiro News Writer jabshiro@smu.edu The Reno-Azle area, west of Fort Worth, has been experiencing more than 30 earthquakes since November, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The largest earthquake was 3.7 on the Richter scale. The majority of the earthquakes are at a low magnitude. “The real question is how big can these earthquakes get,” said Christopher Hayward, director of geophysics research at SMU. A group of 12 SMU scientists and students, a well as a Lake Highlands High School intern, are currently studying the RenoAzle area. Associate geophysics professor Heather DeShon is leading the study and Hayward is leading the installation process. The group has installed 12 instruments so far. Questions whether the earthquakes are occurring because
Courtesy of Hillsman Jackson
A researcher sets up an instrument to analyze the local earthquakes.
of fracking by oil and gas companies lead a group of Azle, Texas residents to travel to the state capitol Jan. 23. “It is important we do not rush to conclusions,” DeShon said at a press conference Friday. “I understand people want results quickly. But we have to sit and wait a little while.”
Fracking is the injection of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into bedrock to increase the flow of oil or gas. Of the about 35,000 shale gas wells in the U.S., only two cases show fracking-induced seismicity. According to Hayward, the
wastewater injection wells are more of a concern. Wastewater injection wells, about 30,000 in the U.S., dispose of waste fluids from producing oil and gas wells by injection wells drilled below fresh water aquifers. According to Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies, there were eight case studies linking earthquakes to these wastewater wells in the U.S. in 2011. Wastewater disposal is a separate process from the fracking operation and may occur away from the fracked well. In December 2013, four digital monitors provided by the USGS were deployed to monitor the seismicity in the area. The research team is deploying several single channel sensors provided by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Program. Rotating teams of two install the instruments in a variety of places from schools to private homes in the area that are near power and internet connections.
“They [residents] are allowing us to install; they’ve been very nice, very cooperating,” Hayward said. “We are very appreciative of them.” The instruments are highly sensitive, picking up even the energy from footsteps. They are placed within the epicenter of the events and within 25 kilometers of the events. Scientists will then cross analyze the data to improve our understanding of the earthquake locations, size, fault plane solutions, accelerations associated with the events. Once the instruments have all been deployed the team will no longer travel to the area. The seismic activity in the Reno-Azle area is similar to activity that occurred around Cleburne, Texas and the Dallas/Fort-Worth International Airport between 2008 and 2011. At DFW, the injection well began operating before the earthquakes began and that the earthquakes were close to the well. In the case
of the Cleburne area, there was not a strong timing relationship between the earthquakes and the wells. Heyward and SMU seismology professor Brian Stump, along with other SMU and University of Texas at Austin scientists, were part of that study as well. The difference between the DFW/Cleburne studies and the Reno-Azle studies is the technology available to scientists. “We can do a bigger and better job at looking at the data,” Stump said. “A lot more details in understanding of the cause in the earthquakes.” In both studies, rather than information being directly sent back to campus, the instruments were left on site for several months, then seismologists would return and download the data to their laptop to analyze it. The educational website has been set up with information about where the instruments are installed, frequently asked questions and photos.