Print Edition of The Observer for Monday, February 6, 2017

The independent

To uncover

newspaper serving

the truth

Notre Dame and

and report

Saint Mary’s

it accurately

Volume 51, Issue 80 | Monday, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Changes unveiled for 2017 football season University announces changes to football ticket pricing

Band to move off field into student section of stadium bowl

By ALEX CARSON and RENEE GRIFFIN

By RACHEL O’GRADY News Editor

Assistant Managing Editor and News

When the Irish kick off their 2017 football season, the Band of the Fighting Irish will no longer be alongside them on the playing surface, the University announced Saturday morning. Instead, the Band of the Fighting Irish will become part of the student section, creating what Rob Kelly, associate athletic director of ticketing, premium and technology, calls “one student voice.”

“The rationale for moving the band into the student section was really two-fold,” Kelly said in an interview with The Observer on

Writer

When football fans return to Notre Dame Stadium this September for the 2017 season opener against Temple, they’ll notice plenty of changes brought about by the Campus Crossroads project. The long-debated video board will make its debut, seats will be wider in the lower bowl, Wi-Fi will work throughout the stadium and the visiting team will enter through a new tunnel in the northeast corner.

But despite all the aesthetic see TICKETS PAGE 5

NEWS PAGE 3

see WEEKEND PAGE 5

VIEWPOINT PAGE 6

SCENE PAGE 9

Men’s basketball PAGE 16

Hockey PAGE 16

Megan Valley

O’Grady is a junior majoring in political science, and most recently took over as News Editor while Galioto is abroad, having served Assistant Managing Editor 2017-2018

Managing Editor 2017-2018

Observer’s Editorial Board next year, incoming Editor-in-Chief Ben Padanilam announced Thursday.

Galioto will take on the

Rachel O’Grady

Managing Editor position, the paper’s No. 2 spot, while Mazurek, O’Grady and Valley will all serve as Assistant Managing Editors.

Galioto, who studies political

Juniors Katie Galioto, Marek Mazurek, Rachel O’Grady and Megan Valley will help oversee The

Assistant Managing Editor 2017-2018

to keep our readers informed and engaged and our staff will continue to work to accomplish this. It’s a privilege and an honor to serve The Observer in a leadership role.”

Katie Galioto

Parents from around the country traveled to Saint Mary’s this weekend to spend time with their daughters for the annual First Year Parent’s Weekend.

Parents received an invitation to the weekend in December for this year's event, which had the theme of Winter.

The schedule was planned by the first year class council, including class representatives Kassy Acosta and Michelle Lester, with the assistance of Karen Johnson, vice president of student affairs, and Jennifer Terry, executive administrative assistant for student affairs.

First Year Parent’s Weekend is an important event for the class of 2020 because this is many first years' first time being away

science with minors in business economics and Journalism, Ethics and Democracy, most recently served as the paper’s News Editor last semester. She hails from Minnesota and is currently studying abroad in Rome.

On campus, she lives in Walsh Hall.

During her time with The Observer, Galioto has covered a variety of campus issues, including sexual assault, the 2016 presidential election and the ESPN lawsuit against the University and Notre Dame Security Police (NDSP).

“I think The Observer is an invaluable part of the Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s community,” she said. “I’m excited to work with this team over the course of the next year to continue to provide topquality reporting on topics that matter to our readers.”

Mazurek hails from Mishawaka, Indiana, and studies history, with a minor in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy. Over the past year, Mazurek served as Sports Editor, covering the football and men’s basketball teams. Mazurek resides in Carroll Hall.

“I’m really excited for the year ahead,” Mazurek said. “Our goal is

Observer Staff Report

Marek Mazurek

News Writer

from family for so long.

According to Acosta,parents were able to give input on what events they wanted to see during the weekend through Facebook and email.

The weekend kicked off with a reception Friday evening, where freshmen and their parents received gift bags with mugs.

Most of the day Saturday was taken up by bowling, go-karts and mini golf at the Strikes & Spares Entertainment Center in Mishawaka.

“For a lot of girls, this will be the only time that they get to share the campus and South Bend community with their parents,” Lester said.

Later in the day, parents and students attended a workshop put on by the College’s Career Crossings

Incoming Editor-in-Chief names supporting staff

Assistant Managing Editor 2017-2018

SMC hosts First Year Parent’s Weekend

By COLLEEN ZEWE

see BAND PAGE 3

LAUREN HEBIG | The Observer

as Associate News Editor prior to that. A native of the city of Chicago, O’Grady currently resides in Ryan see ME, AMEs PAGE 5

2

TODAY

The observer | MONDAY, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Question of the Day: ndsmcobserver.com

Have a question you want answered?

Email photo@ndsmcobserver.com

What is your dream Super Bowl act?

P.O. Box 779, Notre Dame, IN 46556 024 South Dining Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556

Kaitlyn Keffler

Marissa Campilii

junior Breen-Phillips Hall

junior Pasquerilla East Hall

“Beyoncé (sad I missed out).”

“Luke Bryan.”

Marilyn Murphy

CJ Pulmano

junior Breen-Phillips Hall

junior Alumni Hall

“Chris Coles.”

“Bruce.”

(574) 631-4542 mhynds@nd.edu

Benedict Becker

Sarah Drumm

Managing Editor

junior Alumni Hall

junior Walsh Hall

“Frank Ocean.”

“Myself. I am a star.”

Editor-in-Chief Margaret Hynds Managing Editor Business Manager Kayla Mullen Emily Reckmeyer

Asst. Managing Editor: Alex Carson Asst. Managing Editor: Zach Klonsinski Asst. Managing Editor: Clare Kossler

News Editor: Rachel O’Grady

Viewpoint Editor: Claire Radler

Sports Editor: Marek Mazurek

Scene Editor: Erin McAuliffe

Saint Mary’s Editor: Nicole Caratas

Photo Editor: Emmet Farnan

Graphics Editor: Lauren Weldon

Multimedia Editor: Wei Cao

Online Editor: Jimmy Kemper

Advertising Manager: Olivia Treister

Ad Design Manager: Madison Riehle

Office Manager & General Info

Ph: (574) 631-7471 Fax: (574) 631-6927 Advertising

(574) 631-6900 ads@ndsmcobserver.com Editor-in-Chief

(574) 631-4542 kmullen2@nd.edu Assistant Managing Editors

(574) 631-4541 acarson1@nd.edu, zklonsin@nd.edu, ckossler@nd.edu Business Office

(574) 631-5313 News Desk

(574) 631-5323 news@ndsmcobserver.com Viewpoint Desk

(574) 631-5303 viewpoint@ndsmcobserver.com Sports Desk

(574) 631-4543 sports@ndsmcobserver.com Scene Desk

(574) 631-4540 scene@ndsmcobserver.com Saint Mary’s Desk

ncaratas01@saintmarys.edu Photo Desk

(574) 631-8767 photo@ndsmcobserver.com Systems & Web Administrators

(574) 631-8839 Policies The Observer is the independent, daily newspaper published in print and online by the students of the University of Notre Dame du Lac and Saint Mary’s College. Editorial content, including advertisements, is not governed by policies of the administration of either institution. The Observer reserves the right to refuse advertisements based on content.

The news is reported as accurately and objectively as possible. Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the majority of the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Assistant Managing Editors and department editors. Commentaries, letters and columns present the views of the authors and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Viewpoint space is available to all readers. The free expression of all opinions through letters is encouraged.

Letters to the Editor must be signed and must include contact information.

Questions regarding Observer policies should be directed to Editor-in-Chief Margaret Hynds.

Post Office Information The Observer (USPS 599 2-4000) is published Monday through Friday except during exam and vacation periods.

A subscription to The Observer is $130 for one academic year; $75 for one semester.

The Observer is published at: 024 South Dining Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556-0779 Periodical postage paid at Notre Dame and additional mailing offices POSTMASTER Send address corrections to: The Observer P.O. Box 779 024 South Dining Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556-077 The Observer is a member of the Associated Press.

All reproduction rights are reserved.

Today’s Staff News

Sports

Emily McConville Natalie Weber Andrew Cameron

Marek Mazurek Ben Padanilam Elizabeth Greason

Graphics

Scene

Lauren Hebig

Kelly McGarry

Photo

Viewpoint

Sarah Olson

Claire Radler

Corrections The Observer regards itself as a professional publication and strives for the highest standards of journalism at all times. We do, however, recognize that we will make mistakes. If we have made a mistake, please contact us at (574) 631-4541 so we can correct our error.

EDDIE GRIESEDIECK | The Observer

Players from Zahm and the combined Keenan-Keough interhall team fight for control of a faceoff during Keenan-Keough’s 5-4 win Wednesday. It was Zahm’s second game with fans in attendance since its two-year “fan ban” was lifted.

The next Five days:

Want your event included here?

Email news@ndsmcobserver.com

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Mass for Immigrants and Refugees Basilica of the Sacred Heart 5:15 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.

Men’s Basketball vs.

Wake Forest Purcell Pavilion 7 p.m.

The Irish take on the Demon Deacons.

Lecture: “Concentrating Solar Energy” DeBartolo Hall 313 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Part of ND Energy’s Solar series.

Lecture with Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak Hesburgh Center for International Studies 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Lecture: “Innovative Energy Generation” Mendoza College of Business 10:40 a.m. - 12:10 p.m.

Part of the Ten Years Hence lecture series.

ND Women’s Basketball vs.

Louisville Purcell Pavilion 7 p.m.

The Irish take on the Cardinals.

Discussion: “The Half-life of Freedom: Race and Justice in America” Jordan Auditorium 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Memes and Masculinity LaFortune Student Center 5 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Film: “Once Upon a Time There Lived a Simple Woman” DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Tickets available online.

Performance: Bach’s Lunch DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 12:10 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.

News

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, february 6, 2017 | The Observer

Panelists discuss future of American liberalism

By NATALIE WEBER News Writer

On Friday, panelists gathered in the Oak Room of South Dining Hall to discuss the future of liberalism, as well as the future of democracy, in an event sponsored by the Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies, the Constitutional studies minor, the department of Africana studies, and the Notre Dame College Democrats.

The panelists included Tim Roemer, former Indiana congressman and former U.S. ambassador to India, Rogers Smith, professor of political science and associate dean for social sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dianne Pinderhughes, chair of Africana studies and professor of political science at Notre Dame.

Roemer said American democracy has been in crisis for the past 15 to 20 years because of low government approval ratings, increasing polarization and flaws in the U.S. democracy.

“In the last election, 70 percent of the American people thought the country was going in the wrong direction,” Roemer said.“Congressional approval ratings are in the teens, some in the single digits.

“Imagine that — 8, 9, 10 percent approval rating. You’re in company with the leader of North Korea and cockroaches when you are at 9 or 10 or 11 percent popularity.”

According to Roemer, divides along partisan, socioeconomic and geographical lines have also contributed to a crisis in U.S. democracy. Roemer said Democrats

need to imitate Robert Kennedy and unite diverse groups in the working class.

“We need to get back to that time of inclusive messaging,” he said of Kennedy.

Roemer said he also was concerned about American democracy because the Economist Intelligence Unit “downgraded” the U.S. from its status as a full democracy to that of a flawed democracy.

“We are now with Estonia, Chile, South Korea,” he said. “We are not that beacon to the rest of the world for what they all want to be like. So we have work to do.”

Smith said liberals must respond to President Donald Trump’s nationalism with their own narrative about American identity. “…[In] this historical moment, and perhaps for decades to come, I think it is still necessary for those who seek to win authority to shape national policies in progressive directions, to build coalitions on shared accounts of national identities and purposes, what I call national stories of peoplehood,” he said.

Smith said liberals should try to emulate the abolitionist movement of the Civil War era.

“My argument today is that if liberalism is to have a future in the age of Trump, liberals and progressives must explicitly advance a rival vision of American national identity, one first set forth by the antebellum, anti-slavery Constitutionalists,” he said.

“This rival vision argues that the nation’s first obligation is to its citizens, but it also insists that the nation exists in order to

serve a still higher purpose: the gradual securing over time of the basic rights of the Declaration of Independence for all people, of all colors, everywhere.”

Pinderhughes discussed the effects of Trump’s policies on American democracy and African Americans’ relation to liberalism.

She said African Americans occupy a “distinctive space” in American politics, with the majority voting for Democratic candidates — though African Americans also critique liberalism.

“The fact is, whether political activists, academics or the man in the street, many African Americans point to the presence of racist politics and policies that did not very sufficiently [work] to make a change in their lives, even when the president is a Democrat or the governor is a Democrat,” she said.

Pinderhughes said Trump disregards the “rule of law” – laws and policies designed to check the president’s arbitrary power — and will have a long-term impact on American democracy and civil rights. According to Pinderhughes, ignoring the rule of law undercuts the efforts African Americans have made to have their civil and political rights recognized.

“If there’s no rule of law for some people, there’s no rule of law for anyone,” she said. “That includes African Americans. So, the assumptions that people have been operating under are being challenged.”

Contact Natalie Weber at nweber@nd.edu

ND hosts Model UN

By MEGAN VALLEY Associate News Editor

More than 170 students from nine Midwestern high schools traveled to campus this weekend to participate in the Notre Dame Model U.N.’s (NDMUN) inaugural high-school conference.

“It’s been really a dream of the club for, really, as long as the club has been around,” senior secretary-general Zachary Mastrovich said. “September of 2015 was really when we decided to make that dream become reality.

“At that point, we were looking for venues, started talking to all the legal offices, spoke to some website and registration programmers and did everything we could to prepare — we gathered about 40 Notre Dame students to help out, trained them if they needed it.”

High school student committees were allowed to sign up according to three levels of difficulty, depending on their experience: beginner, intermediate or advanced.

“We are a beginner conference, but we knew some of the schools

we were inviting had some really advanced delegates, so we wanted to make sure we had committees right for them,” Mastrovich said.

“So we broke down our committees into three levels ... with the advanced committees being crisis-based.”

The advanced committees were constantly in contact with a “crisis committee,” who would constantly change the scenario to test the students.

“The crisis committee will say, ‘A bomb is about to go off in a major city,’ and so you would go back to the crisis committee with your plan and they would say ‘OK, you did this, but here’s what’s going on now,’ and it’s a continually changing process. So we had two committees like that the crisis staff focused on.”

The beginner and intermediate committees were more focused on the delegates forming resolutions and groups, although Mastrovich said that was still a part of the advanced committee’s challenge.

Mastrovich said the NDMUN conference was a success and the club was already planning on

meeting next week to plan next year’s.

“It was an incredible experience,” he said. “I was lucky enough to be the secretary general and watch everything come to life. We met there a couple hours early to make sure everything was set up right and schools started arriving and it was like, ‘Wow, this is a real thing, it’s actually happening.’ It was cool. I found it very rewarding.”

As part of the planning process for next year, Mastrovich said the club would like to invite more schools to make the conference more diverse than it was this year, which had schools from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

“We’re always looking for more help,” he said. “We want to continually grow this conference so if anyone has any experience they can reach out. Kylie [Ruscheinski] is running it next year. If anyone wants to get involved, please reach out and we’ll help get you involved.”

Contact Megan Valley at mvalley@nd.edu

Band Continued from page 1

Tuesday. “The first and foremost is safety. So, ensuring that both student-athlete and band member safety in the event of an unlikely incident, which there has not been a specific one, but the specter of that is something we fear as administrators. We’re put in the care of student-athletes and members of the band, and given all the other changes we’re making, it seemed like an opportune time to make these changes.”

Senior Kim Forbes marches onto the field at Notre Dame Stadium. The band will relocate for the 2017 season, moving from an on-field location in the northeast corner of the stadium to the front of the student section.

Caitlyn Jordan | The Observer Senior Kim Forbes marches onto the field at Notre Dame Stadium. The band will relocate for the 2017 season, moving from an on-field location in the northeast corner of the stadium to the front of the student section.

The band will now straddle the area at the very front of the freshman and sophomore sections at the wall between the end zone and the corner, Kelly said.

“The second reason for positioning the band within the student section is to sort of create one student voice, whether that be through the instruments of the band or the vocal chords of our lively student section,” Kelly said.

The change is consistent with the plans for the rest of the field, Kelly said.

“In the south end zone, we’re moving all of the field-level seating as well,” he said. “So there’s about 450 seats there that are also coming out, for the same reason.”

Paul Browne, vice president for public affairs and communication, said the move was not the result of any “catastrophic incident.”

“There have been guys running into [the band], and people have been knocked down and there have been no serious injuries, but it’s a concern that that could quickly turn very bad. So it’s not like there have been incidents, but so far so good, so let’s keep it that way.”

Kelly said safety has always been a top priority.

“We are tremendously thoughtful about what happens on game day because any time you bring 80,000-plus people together, the eyes of the world are upon you,” Kelly said. “This is something that

Weekend Continued from page 1

Office titled “Surviving Sophomore Year,” which aims to help students plan for their second year, when students declare a major and discern their career.

A Mass in the Church of Loretto on Saint Mary’s campus was also offered Saturday.

Saturday concluded with a cocktail reception and dinner at the Gillespie Center, which College President Jan Cervelli attended.

The reception also included a

3

we just really believe was the right thing to do and we needed to do it.”

While the stadium’s capacity will decrease, from 80,795 to a number around 78,000, the availability of student tickets will not change, Kelly said, because Notre Dame does not cap student tickets.

“If anything, we may see a slight increase in space [occupied by the student section],” Kelly said. “In my time here and to my knowledge, we’ve never capped the availability of student tickets. In fact, over time, because of the nature of student seating … we were able to sell single-game seats in parts of the student section in the end zone that weren’t being used.

So what we’re going to do is push that back, so some of those student tickets won’t be sold and then that will allow for the band to come in as well as allowing for the student section to expand and spread out.”

Season tickets for students will decrease in price for the 2017 season, from $245 to $240, and while they will include seven games, tickets are priced for six games, according to a release from the University.

“It became very important to us early on that the student ticket price was the least expensive ticket in any given offering,” Kelly said.

Going forward, Browne said he hopes to utilize the stadium more.

“The architects were saying, ‘We want to keep Notre Dame as a campus as much as possible where people can walk one venue to another,’ and the stadium itself was maybe being used six, seven, eight times a year,” Browne said.

“In terms of pedestrian traffic — except for those few occasions — it was actually an obstacle that you’d walk around to get somewhere else.”

The idea was to create about a dozen different, new locations on campus, Browne said, and they decided to consolidate it into one place.

“We wanted to think about changing the stadium from being an obstacle to being a place where people were going, where things were going on,” Browne said. “That extends to using the stadium itself for things other than football.”

That would include events such as concerts, Browne said.

“It’s going to be a whole effort to explore those opportunities,” Browne said. “It will be used for venues other than football.”

Contact Rachel O’Grady at rogrady@nd.edu

photo booth.

“That's what most of our work has went towards, planning, so I'm just glad we'll get to see it all planned out,” Lester said.

According to Acosta, First-Year Parents Weekend was a chance for students to show their parents what life is like at the College.

“Parents weekend is important,” she said. “It allows the students to show their parents what they have accomplished here at Saint Mary's.”

Contact Colleen Zewe at czewe01@saintmarys.edu

Paid Advertisement

News

Tickets Continued from page 1

alterations, the biggest change to the Notre Dame gameday experience might come somewhere else: in fans’ bank accounts.

Traditionally, Notre Dame has charged the same price for any bench seat in the stadium bowl, no matter whether that seat is in the lower or upper bowl, at the 50yard line or in the corner. That will change in 2017, however, with the University announcing Saturday morning that it will break from that decades-long practice to institute a new tiered ticketing system.

Instead of a single price for all bench seats, there will be eight general-admission price points moving forward — four in the lower bowl, four in the upper — for each Irish football game in Notre Dame Stadium. The result is a decrease in the get-in price, dropping from $75 for any seat against Nevada to $45 for three opponents next season: Temple, Miami (Ohio) and Wake Forest.

“There’s almost a question of fairness to give the people who have seats that aren’t as in much of a prime location a lower price than those who are on the 50-yard line,” University spokesperson Dennis Brown said in an interview with The Observer on Tuesday.

The cheapest seats will be in the upper bowl’s end zone, where single-game tickets will cost $45, $65 or $95 based on the opponent — Georgia and USC will be the most expensive in 2017 — while the most expensive seats will be in the lower bowl’s three middle sections, with

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, february 6, 2017 | The Observer

tickets costing between $145 for the cheapest games and $250 for the marquee opponents.

Season ticket plans will follow a similar structure, with those seats starting at $400 — plus a $750 required gift — in the “upper end” sections, rising to a $3,000 ticketand-gift cost in the “lower prime” areas. Though the Irish will play seven times at home this year — due to the lack of a Shamrock Series game — season tickets will be priced for just the standard six games.

Students will see a minor decrease in their costs, too, with the price for student season tickets dropping from $245 to $240.

While seat prices along the sidelines are increasing, the decreases in the corners and end zone means Notre Dame won’t be adding revenue under the new system.

The University had three key concerns, Rob Kelly, assistant athletic director of ticketing and technology, said: an affordable get-in price, an affordable season ticket and staying revenue-neutral against last year’s figures.

“There were three goals … that we really wanted to hold to as we thought about constructing this model,” Kelly said in the interview.

“One was holding an affordable price point that would ensure access for as broad as possible a population to the Notre Dame family.

The second was continuing to be able to offer a deeply discounted student season ticket. And the third was that, regardless of the changes that we were making in the bowl, that we strived to keep the revenue from the bowl revenue-neutral from the 2016 season.”

Paid Advertisement

Ticket prices will stay the same for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, Kelly said.

The change in ticketing structure will also affect the lottery system; Kelly said winners for games will be given a time to enter the system, with the choice of not only a price point, but also their specific seat.

“This may be the most significant change that we’re making in the process, is that with this coming year, participants in the lottery won’t just get to express a preference, you will actually select your seats,” Kelly said. “Given the new technology that we’re deploying, you will have the opportunity to select your seat location and preferred price point, based on availability.”

Season ticket members will gain new benefits in 2017, including free parking in White Field and complimentary entry to the Blue-Gold Game on April 22.

While the majority of the seating changes will take place in the lower bowl this offseason, the upper bowl will see changes, too, with an increase in ADA-accessible seating.

“Because we have an increasingly older demographic in our fanbase, we’re finding the needs for accessible seat locations is increasing,” Kelly said. “And we’re removing all the aluminum temporary benches, or stands, in the upper bowl to make way and make accommodation for additional ADAaccessible seat locations.”

Season-long seat holders will have the opportunity to stay in the same location or relocate to a new section to get to a desired price point — and since Notre Dame

5

caps season tickets at 50 percent of capacity, Kelly expects no issues with ticket holders being able to sit where they want to.

“If there was any change in your seat, it would likely be nominal,” Kelly said. “If you’re on an aisle, we tried to keep you on an aisle. If you were in the first row, we tried to keep you in the first row. There were very few exceptions to that — because the seats that we pulled out, we could just pull out from the middle of the bench and then close everything in around it.”

The actual seats ticket holders sit in will be different, though. The wooden benches in the lower bowl will be ripped out and replaced with dark blue steel benches to match those in the upper bowl. The new seats will be two inches wider than their predecessors, expanding from 16 inches to 18, matching the width of the upper bowl’s seats.

Though the process of removing and replacing the benches will not be complete by the Blue-Gold Game in April and Commencement in May, Kelly said there will still be enough seating for the University to hold both events in the stadium.

The first opportunity to see the fully-finished stadium renovations will be in August, at the culminating event of the Notre Dame Trail pilgrimage celebrating the school’s 175th anniversary, vice president for public affairs and communication Paul Browne said.

An added benefit to the seat replacements is that season ticket holders will be able to buy pieces of the old wooden bench planks as a keepsake of the pre-Crossroads Notre Dame Stadium for their homes.

Another change will be visible around the playing surface itself, as all on-field seating will be removed to increase player safety, Kelly said.

That means the on-field seating behind the south end zone will be removed, while the Band of the Fighting Irish will move to the front of the student section.

The new tunnel, added in the northeastern corner of the stadium for visiting teams to use entering and exiting the playing surface, will also contribute to the aesthetic changes fans will see in September.

All in all, capacity will decrease as part of the renovations — from 80,795 to a number near 78,000 — with around 7,000 seats being lost from the bowl and roughly 4,000

added in new premium seating areas, according to Kelly.

While season ticket holders may stay in the same seat location, their seat numbers will not remain the same. Notre Dame Stadium’s sections have historically been numbered such that one aisle runs down the middle of a section — meaning that seat 1 was in the middle of the section, not on the aisle — but in 2017, that will change, with one aisle serving two sections.

As a result, seat 1 will always be on the aisle, and section numbers will shift a half-section counterclockwise, with sections 1 and 101 behind the north goal posts.

Of course, there are many changes fans will probably notice before the numbers of their seats — chief among them the 96-by-54foot high-definition video board on the stadium’s south side.

The board will play live game action, important replays and spots about University achievements and initiatives, including the award-winning “What Would You Fight For?” series — but no advertisements. Brown noted the University “gives up a lot of money” by not opening up advertising opportunities, but the decision was made to help the Stadium retain a collegiate feel.

Other major technological changes include more than 150 video monitors placed around the stadium, a high-quality audio system, ribbon boards with game information, stronger cellular service and working Wi-Fi on a stadiumspecific wireless network, Kelly said.

While the tailgating and football tradition fundamental to Notre Dame will remain the same, Kelly expects these updates, along with many smaller ones — renovated restrooms, new concourse and concession decorations — to greatly improve fans’ overall gameday experience.

“The Notre Dame gameday experience is something we obsess over, in a good way,” Kelly said. “We think about every interaction, from the usher telling you, ‘Welcome to Notre Dame,’ as you walk in, down to what do the graphics look like on the concessions cups, to what does the field look like? Details are important.”

ME, AMEs

in the Program of Liberal Studies and English. She hails from Flushing, Michigan and lives in Flaherty Hall. During her time at The Observer, Valley served as Associate News Editor and covered the 2016 presidential election, sustainability on campus and the review of the core curriculum, among many other topics.

“The Observer has been such an important part of my time at Notre Dame, and I’m really excited to see what we can accomplish over the next year,” Valley said.

Galioto, Mazurek, O’Grady and Valley officially begin their new roles March 19.

Continued from page 1

Hall. During her time at The Observer, she has covered a wide breadth of topics, including the inner workings of the Notre Dame student government and the 2016 presidential election.

“My time at The Observer has been one of my most meaningful experiences at Notre Dame, and I’m excited to take on a larger role this coming year,” O’Grady said.

“We’ve got a great team, and I’m looking forward to tackling the next year together.”

Valley is a junior majoring

Contact Alex Carson at acarson1@nd.edu and Renee Griffin at rgriffi6@nd.edu

6

The observer | Monday, February 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Inside Column

To the woman who shaped me Colleen Zewe News Writer

This weekend, I received a letter that transported me back to my childhood.

Be it a coach, nanny or teacher, we all know one special person who helped shape us into talented young adults — the one who provided fond memories, taught valuable lessons and ultimately acted as a third parent. For me, that person was my babysitter, Patty.

Ever y morning starting at the age of 1, my mom dropped my siblings and me off at Patty’s home. W hile my mom worked, we played and grew up in Patty’s blue ranch in the woods. W hile other kids she babysat came and went w ith the passing seasons, we stayed in her care for several years. Her home became our second home.

Most of my childhood memories take place somewhere in Patt y’s basement. It’s cabinin-the-woods v ibe prov ided us children all we needed to have fun w ith our imaginations, as Patt y decorated w ith deer heads, f leece blankets and leather recliners. I remember Patt y comforting me on the recliners after the mov ie “Matilda” made me cr y.

She kept a huge stash of candy in her coat closet, and stealing from it w ith my tw in brother is probably the reason we both have sweet teeth now. I passed many milestones at Patt y’s house, from my first words to learning to sw im.

Patty’s teenage children provided quality entertainment. Her son ran around the house yelling curse words, and Patty chased him w ith the dreaded “wooden spoon” while my siblings and I laughed until we cried. Her teenage daughter showed me her makeup and drew on my hands w ith those early-2000s glitter gel pens. She gave me hand-me-dow ns from Limited Too. I’d play PC games on her computer and feel grow n-up, like a real-life Lizzie McGuire.

Patty has a heart of gold, and she often took in abandoned or hurt baby animals she found on her property. She treated them like people and nourished them back to health.

Patty cared for all the kids she babysat like they were her ow n, giving them hugs when wanted and discipline when needed. She gave us all of her attention ever y day no matter what went on in her personal life. Patty taught me compassion, nourishment and love.

My favorite activity at Patty’s was sitting at her tiny, made-for-kids desk and creating stor ybooks. I w rote, illustrated and stapled together hundreds of them. At Patty’s desk I discovered my biggest passion to this day: w riting.

This weekend, Patty w rote me a letter that filled my heart w ith joy. She said she felt so proud I was making my dream of becoming a professional w riter a reality. The funny thing is, I wouldn’t have that dream w ithout her.

So thank you, Patty, for shaping me into the woman I am today.

Contact Colleen Zewe at czewe01@saintmarys.edu The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

LETTERs TO THE EDITOR

Lessons from non-native Spanish speaking The great irony of learning a new language is that you know you sound slightly “off” (read: horrible), yet you still have to practice to improve. To me, speaking Spanish as a non-native speaker often seems frustrating and silly, but in this sense, I believe I am like the typical Notre Dame student — afraid to show weakness, uncomfortable with not being the best, nervous to be vulnerable.

I recently returned to the U.S. after almost seven months in Spanish-speaking countries where communication and self-expression did not always come easily. While I now consider myself moderately f luent, I accept the fact that I have quite a ways to go. And, above all, I understand that I need to continue putting myself out there to get better; I need to try words out, ask for help on my accent and open-heartedly take feedback. To be concise, I have to be vulnerable. I only wish I had developed this skill earlier.

Around this time last year I was just a sophomore: one year younger, a few pounds lighter, naively content with the direction of American politics and noticeably unhappy with my surroundings. It sounds crazy, but amidst incredible friends, professors and opportunities, I found myself increasingly overwhelmed by an unknown pressure — a force molding me into someone I am not, the sense that I have to maximize my time here — to use the resources of ND; make life altering decisions (correct ones, for that matter); and all the while, sleep well, eat well and exercise daily. You might know the feeling.

I distinctly remember one Tuesday afternoon sitting by a window in Geddes, looking at the permacloud and thinking to myself, “How did I get here? How did I end up with a seemingly amazing life but an internal demon? Why can’t anyone see through me?” I had not spoken with anyone in many days. About three days later I dragged myself to St. Liam’s, where I started my road to recovery after what had been months of depression. It was

hard ( ... continues to be) and the feeling of loneliness remains vivid.

I’ll admit that I was embarrassed to tell my best friends about my mental health, to even confess to my loving roommates that perhaps I was not as happy as I let on. For some reason, I just could not allow myself to be vulnerable when vulnerability would have counted the most.

I will be completely transparent: I am nervous to be back on campus. I am slowly becoming comfortable with admitting this, but unfortunately, I have come to associate Notre Dame with stress and exhaustion; after so much time, I can only imagine how my body and brain will react to the changes. And, now, I can’t help but wonder how different my mindset would be had I admitted to my struggles before they manifested themselves physically last year. Perhaps I would be more positive about this semester, or just maybe I could have avoided all those months of emotional absence.

To be a student who also feels like a human, like someone with dignity, balance, joy and a desire to learn — that is what I want for myself and for all my peers this semester. But, I believe that this can only happen if we agree to be more vulnerable with one another; to be more willing to express our frustrations and negative thoughts in a healthy way; to be okay with not being the best; to accept our American accents and inability to roll “rr”s.

It is never too late to start being vulnerable with those around you. I, for one, am committed to opening up more and admitting to my thoughts.

What I have come to realize is that behind the busy schedules of the Notre Dame community, there are so many people waiting and wanting to help you.

We simply need to get uncomfortable.

Lauren O’Connell junior Feb. 4

Freezin’ for a reason Have you been w ithdraw n from UV rays and are tired of dressing up in bulk y, unsightly w inter clothes? The men of Siegfried are, and they cannot wait to shed their clothes even if it’s cold outside. On Wednesday, the Ramblers anticipate a major v itamin D increase as they w ill be dressed scantily clad once again for the most important fundraiser found on campus for the South Bend Center for the Homeless.

For the 11th consecutive year, the burly lads of Siegfried Hall w ill brave the Februar y w inter y cold to stand in solidarit y w ith our brothers and sisters in the South Bend communit y who do not have the priv ilege to ow n a home. Dressing in shorts, T-shirts, f lip-f lops, speedos and even less, the men of Siegfried w ill be spreading their mission throughout campus in classrooms, sidewalks and dining halls in order to elicit donations for the Center for the Homeless.

A ll joking aside, homelessness impacts hundreds of thousands of people across the United States ever y year. It disproportionately affects our nation’s veterans and causes irreparable damage to the bright futures of many children.

During these cold w inter months, homelessness not only puts those who suffer from it at an economic risk, but also a physical one. Over the last 11 years, we’ve been freezin’ for a reason: to raise money to support and aid the homeless in our South Bend communit y. We cannot do this

w ithout your help.

We are calling upon you, Notre Dame, to recognize that we are extremely fortunate, and because of that, our communit y needs to assist those who do not have the dorms or meal plans that we hold. Sacrifice a few Main Circle cab fares or a few Ubers to Finni’s so that we — as a communit y — can fight for those who sacrifice ever y day just to make ends meet. If you are strapped for cash Wednesday, Day of Man has an online donation site where you, friends and family can all donate to this worthy fundraiser. Look for the link shared on the Day of Man Facebook event page and please share it. The Ramblers are taking one day to stand w ith our brothers and sisters in the cold in order to bring this opportunit y of ser v ice to you. Please sacrifice a few dollars to contribute to the mission.

Be cold. Be bold. Be a man.

Isaac Althoff junior Michael Hernick junior Patrick Davis sophomore Feb. 3

The observer | Monday, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

7

Imperial naysayer Ray Ramirez The Crooked Path

For some reason that I cannot grasp, George Orwell’s name has been in the news much lately.

Apparently this has something to do with “1984,” his 1948 (see what he did there?) novel of a future dystopian Britain (completed in 1948, first published in June 1949, for you English majors in the crowd). This followed his earlier work, “Animal Farm,” which recast totalitarian rulers and subjects as animal protagonists. W hile popularly known for these literary works, Orwell was a working journalist, and wrote a number of perceptive essays and reviews for the Observer (not this one, but rather the British weekly newspaper).

In giving advice to aspiring journalists, Orwell championed clarity of thought and precision in writing: “A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” W hat would Orwell think about a world shaped by clickbait, soundbites and Twitter storms?

Orwell also took that whole “speak truth to authority” aspect of journalism seriously and summed it up in a famous quote: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.”

W hile there is a place for public relations, journalists who ‘blunt their pencils’ to maintain access or avoid a nasty tweet are falling short of their professional standards. If someone, say as

a spokesman for the party in power, were to lash out at journalists as constituting “the opposition party,” then as heralds of truth, the journalists should bear such a title with pride and accordingly note the strained relationship of the accuser to the truth.

Another name that has popped up recently is that of the Roman senator Incitatus. According to the historian Suetonius, Incitatus lived a privileged life in a home crafted of marble, and slept in an ivory bedroom with purple blankets. Roman historians savored additional details of Incitatus’ luxurious lifestyle: Suetonius related that the senator wore an elaborate jeweled collar, and Cassius Dio revealed that Incitatus ate meals mixed with gold leaf. These details might be enough to shock us with the prof ligate display of wealth and bad taste among Rome’s upper classes, but there is an additional aspect of this story that has amazed even casual students of Roman history — Incitatus was a horse.

Incitatus has two notable appearances in Roman history, and the first may be of even more current resonance than his turn as a senator.

Thrasyllus of Mendes was a mystic who served in the court of the Roman emperor Tiberius. He infamously prophesied that Tiberius’ great nephew Caligula had no more chance of becoming emperor “than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae.”

Caligula ascended the blood-drenched throne as consul and emperor in 37 A.D. Soon thereafter, he ordered a line of grain barges to be moored alongside each other in the Bay of Baiae between the cities of Baiae and Puteoli. Engineers laid a bridge on the barges spanning the two-mile wide inlet (undoubtedly to cries of “build the bridge, build the bridge”). Caligula could not swim, so he rode Incitatus across the bridge while wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great, putting his

doubters in their place in an over-the-top show of power. He proclaimed himself a god and placed himself above all earthly laws.

Caligula also did not think much of the Roman government. In order to show his contempt for the Roman Senate, especially its efforts to limit his power, Caligula named Incitatus to the Senate.

Senators pointed to this action, and Caligula’s further plan to appoint Incitatus as co-consul, as proof of Caligula’s insanity. As a result of this outrageous act, and well-known incidents of personal debauchery, Caligula’s reign was cut short.

History has labeled Caligula one of the worst rulers of all times, but for all his bombast and claims of divinity, his time on the throne amounted to but four terrif ying years.

Caligula’s action in making a senator of Incitatus, whose name means “at full gallop,” is emblematic of the damage that an individual with unchecked power can inf lict on institutions and a nation. Caligula’s provocative actions, made at full gallop with the sole goal of demonstrating his authority and contempt for anyone who sought to limit his power, have echoed through centuries as the surest sign of the despot. Today, we look to institutions with constitutional charters and protections — the courts, congress, the press — to reign in galloping leaders who serve their own dreams of glory rather than the nation’s citizens.

If we fail to restrain such chaos, then any claims of greatness are as appealing as the glitter in Incitatus’ poop.

Ray Ramirez is an attorney practicing, yet never perfecting, law in Texas while waiting patiently for a MacArthur Genius Grant. You may contact him at patrayram@sbcglobal.net The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Balance Cole Feldman The Absurder

I want to talk about Trump and IS, but first I want to talk about nicer things like playground toys and pie.

Imagine a single seesaw: a narrow beam resting on a pivot at its midpoint; as one end goes up, the other goes down.

Now add another seesaw perpendicular to the first. And keep adding saws the same way you would halve slices of pie, cutting in straight diametric lines from crust to crust.

It should now look as if you drew several dozen straight lines through the center of a circle connecting opposite sides and then erased the outer circle.

Now you have the static image; let’s make it dynamic and set the seesaws in motion. Every saw can rotate 90 degrees on its pivot in one plane to one side or the other. If all the seesaws teeter really fast in both directions you can see a blurred sphere.

Instead of children-sized seats at either end of each beam, imagine opposing ideas: religion and atheism, government and anarchy, wealthy and poor, solitude and community, home and travel, pride and humility, specialization and diversification, order and chaos.

Everyone has their own web of seesaws. Each saw indicates where they stand on an issue, tilted

to one side or the other: as one end goes up, the other goes down. No saw is zero-sum; the tilt is continuous.

A person’s web is a snapshot of their beliefs at the time. Some have seesaw webs like f lat snowf lakes (balance). And others have a bundle of sticks pointing in all directions (imbalance). And still others have snowf lakes with just a few tilted sticks.

But our webs are not static. In f lux, each saw tips as we learn about the issue. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

But most people can’t function this way. My friend Dan says, “Humans are binary thinkers.”

We naturally drift to the extremes — it’s easier to identif y this way. But harder to relate to others, so we herd with those who have seesaw webs like our own.

I read two headlines in the news. One says: Trump to focus counter-extremism program solely on Islam. The other says: Right-wing extremists are a bigger threat to America than IS. I wonder how skilled is Trump at holding two opposed ideas in his mind at the same time. And I wonder the same thing about members of IS. It would seem they, like all extremists, lack the sort of “first-rate intelligence” that Fitzgerald describes.

Then again, extremism makes sense at least.

Religion, for example, if true, is not something we can be balanced about. The bible says don’t be lukewarm. If Jesus was God, then we should be extreme Christians. Or, extreme Muslims, if Muhammad was right.

Persona l ly, I’m not su re, so I er r ba la nced bet ween pious a nd hu ma n ist (read : ag nost ic). But members of IS seem pret t y su re, i n wh ich ca se it’s not d i f f icu lt to u ndersta nd t hei r ex t rem ism.

The key to solving Trump and IS, I argue, is balance. A very particular kind of balance.

There are two types with f lat snowf lakes: one who has never left the balanced center, and the other who has left the center many times and since returned to balance. The first is weak, noncommittal and passive. The second is Fitzgerald’s “first-rate intelligence.”

The second allows for an overlap in understanding with extremists that opens up conversation.

The second has a seesaw web with the potential of a sphere, knowledgeable and able to relate along the range and to the extremes of any issue, but also at any moment perfectly balanced as a f lat snowf lake.

Be a f lat snowf lake, but first be a bundle of sticks.

Deep hows and outer spades, art and idiosingsongs; email colejfeldman@gmail.com, nonsense only please.

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Submit a Letter to the Editor. Email viewpoint@ndsmcobserver.com

8

LAUREN HEBIG and CRISTINA INTERIANO | The Observer

The observer | Monday, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

9

The observer | Monday, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

By JIMMY KEMPER Scene Writer

How do you know when you’ve made it?

This question holds a definite level of significance for Migos, a rap group that now finds itself at the center of a spotlight between Donald Glover’s assertion at the Golden Globes that they are “the Beatles of our generation” and the meteoric rise of hit single “Bad and Boujee” to the top of charts.

Migos’ first flirtation with this level of mainstream attention began back in 2013, when “Versace,” featuring Quavo’s trademark triplet flow (“Ver-sa-ce Ver-sa-ce”), oozed into the depths of hip-hop’s collective consciousness. Within a year, rappers as big as that vampire Drake were borrowing this flow to great success. This didn’t stop the Migos from their grind, because in 2015 they transformed the dab into a meme, giving desperate baby boomer politicians another opportunity to try to woo millennials. In 2016, Quavo features in approximately 1 million tracks, rumors circulate of Migos landing on Kanye’s GOOD Music label and “Bad and Boujee” starts to catch on.

With this much momentum behind them, 2017 is the perfect time for Quavo, Offset and Takeoff to drop their second studio album “Culture.”

“Culture” is steeped in the tradition of Atlanta trap music.

This is obvious from the moment you look at the cover art: a collage of peaches, I-85 highway signs and the other golden dome. It’s about more than just the pretty picture on front, as “Culture” lovingly embraces the works of Outkast, Gucci Mane, Lil Jon and every other artist whose works have graced the speakers of Magic City. Migos even go so far as to invite 2 Chainz and Gucci Mane to share in this moment, boosting their credibility and infusing their legacy with some muchneeded rockstar status.

What’s so fantastic about “Culture” is that Migos are

By MIKE DONOVAN Scene Writer

As readers, we should always approach autobiographies carefully. Their authors, while experts in the subject matter, are inherently biased. Self-indulgence and insecurities often cloud their anecdotes and spin the story into fictional territory. If we digest the text correctly, the authorial bias gives new life to the text. If we don’t, the writing will lie to our faces.

Ty Segall’s latest self-titled album is an autobiography, and, like written autobiographies, it demonstrates all the difficulties that we associate with authorial bias. The only difference is that Segall doesn’t tell his life story in lyrics — he tells his artistic story in music. If we want to figure out what Segall is trying to do, we have to unpack the arrangements.

“Ty Segall” packs eight full-length LPs and an extensive list of formative records (See: Syd Barrett’s entire discography) onto a 10-track canvas. Each song idealizes a different sector of Segall’s musical range, synthesizing his past work and influences into a single musical idea. Tighter production techniques give the tracks a bright sheen. Like fond memories, they observe the past through a tinted looking glass.

The record conjures up a few renditions of Segall’s trademark garage rock. “The Only One,” for instance, takes Ty Segall circa 2008 and packages it in a shiny new high-fidelity box, but it doesn’t capture the loose rage that made tracks like “The Drag” so enjoyable. The more pointed anger of a

unwilling to compromise with the current pop music scene.

Rather, they stay in their lane – showing off the pop sensibilities that they have developed over the years through the mixtapes – and invite the pop world along for a ride in their drop top.

Like any good trap album, “Culture” centers itself around its hits. Of course, before we can get to those hits, Migos set the foundation and lay out their ambition. Quavo and crew take the bold step of placing the introduction to the album into the hands of DJ Khaled, the Snapchat memelord of yesteryear, now relegated to spewing his catchphrases on TurboTax commercials. It’s a risky move, but it pays off: Khaled, with his swaggering, booming bravado, effectively hands the keys of internet virality off to Migos, who pop them in the ignition of the aforementioned drop top and speeds on down to the trap on the very next track “T-Shirt.”

Much like the excellent, “Revenant”-themed music video, the song “T-Shirt” epitomizes all that is great about the Migos. At its core, “Culture,” especially on “T-Shirt,” focuses on guns, girls and gangbanging: the holy trinity of trap, and a perfect recipe for some genuinely fun tracks. Here, an overload of Auto-Tune blurs Quavo’s sharp staccato as he raps over hazy beats by Atlanta producers Nard & B to make an easily recognizable, infectious tune that’s just as playable in the club as it is on pop radio.

Obviously, “Bad and Boujee” maintains its position as the keystone of this album. The bizarre opening by Offset is still as addicting, and the rapping from the rest of the Migos and Lil Uzi Vert is just as virtuosic as when the song was a meme in the depths of Twitter back in October.

After the killer double-double combo of “T-Shirt,” “Call Casting,” “Bad and Boujee” and “Get Right Witcha,” it’s totally reasonable to assume that that Migos don’t have room for anything else of substance on “Culture.” But, as they make abundantly clear, Quavo and the gang are doing this for the culture, and the latter half of the album shows no sign

technically proficient modern player has replaced careless fury of younger days. The opener, “Break a Guitar,” incorporates forceful glam punk aesthetics to suit the tighter band, remodeling Bowie’s flare with Segall’s staple punch, but it again feels refurbished and mundane.

Segall’s folk efforts, on the other hand, hold their own.

“Orange Color Queen” offers a heartwarming glimpse into the garage rocker’s sweeter thoughts. The quirky acoustic progression recalls the unsettling folk of his 2013 album “Sleeper,” while grounding itself in comforting melodies and endearing lyrics. Another standout track, “Talkin’” draws on the familiar rhythms of classic country and the power-pop sensibility of Alex Chilton. It’s easily the record’s most accessible track. But, despite the flawlessly executed rustic ballad, these tracks lack panache.

The single “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)” towers over the rest of the album. On a record of good but largely forgettable productions, “Warm Hands” shocks us with a sprawling soundscape. The 10-minute epic cobbles Segall’s entire discography into one song. It barrages the listener with violent punk sections, brooding psych folk elements and unabashed pop rock, alongside elements of experimental and jazz. The kaleidoscope of sound morphs quickly and without warning — Segall’s chaotic headspace laid bare.

Moreover, it keeps the listeners engaged for the duration thanks to its whirlwind transitions.

So, what do we make of this autobiography? Do the wellmeaning but flat garage-rock efforts, well-executed but

of letting down. While there are no clearly discernible breakout hits there, this side of the record continues to keep listeners in the groove. To be fair, at times it’s pretty easy to slip too comfortably into that groove and zone out here due to Migos’ wholesale embrace of their lane. However, to dismiss these tracks so easily means missing out on some tight production by Gucci-affiliate and Atlanta superstar in his own right, Zaytoven, on the atmospheric, piano-laden “Big On Big” and the sparse, moody “Brown Paper Bag,” among other songs that would be considered major hits for any other trap star.

“Culture” is one of those albums that not only challenges our understanding of Migos’ place in the pop canon, but of trap music in general. Trap is one of those subgenres of rap that’s frequently dismissed as simple party music for the mixtape crowd. The rise of “Bad and Boujee” and the continued success of Migos proves otherwise. While Migos may not yet be “the Beatles of our generation” as Donald Glover suggests, “Culture” and the group’s work ethic that led to this moment show that Migos are without a doubt the ambassador of the Atlanta music scene to the greater music community.

So yes, they have made it.

Contact Jimmy Kemper at jkemper2@nd.edu

‘Culture’ Migos Label: 300 Entertainment Recommended Tracks: “Bad and Boujee,” “T-Shirt,” “Get Right Witcha” If you like: Gucci Mane, Future, Young Thug

uninventive acoustic tracks and a standout epic add up to something more?

It certainly gives an accurate history of Segall’s musical exploits. Like Segall’s discography, the album transforms often and without warning. We can’t put in under a single umbrella.

That said, I don’t think we need a history of Ty Segall. He would have been better off creating another brilliant work of fiction. His previous work stuck with us because it was so unpredictable. With each new record, we got to see Segall put on a new costume and tell a new story. His refreshing vignettes let us escape from the indie rock norm for a few songs. 2017’s “Ty Segall” doesn’t deliver this spontaneity. It’s too sincere.

Contact Mike Donovan at mdonov10@nd.edu

‘Ty Segall’ Ty Segall Label: Drag City Recommended Tracks: “Warm Hands (Freedon Returned),” “Orange Color Queen,” “Talkin’” If you like: The Oh Sees, Sd Barrett, Black Lips

LAUREN HEBIG | The Observer

10

daily

The observer | Monday, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Crossword | Will Shortz

Horoscope | Eugenia Last Happy Birthday: Take a look around you and you’ll find a way to take advantage of opportunities that others won’t notice. Use your insight and ability to adapt quickly, and try to utilize people and experiences from your past in order to bounce forward this year. Personal gains, physical improvements and romance are highlighted, and will encourage a brighter future. Your numbers are 4, 16, 21, 25, 37, 46, 48.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Participate, engage in group functions and open your mind to new experiences, and you will learn a lot about yourself and those around you. Embrace responsibility to improve your life.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Go over what you have done in the past and learn from your mistakes. Having a clear and concise picture of what you want to do will help you convince others to get involved. Recognize emotional interference and stifle it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Let your emotions lead the way and you will punch your way through to victory. Whether a personal or professional matter, your ability to offer suggestions that capture others’ attention will help you forge ahead. Personal gains are apparent.

CANCER ( June 21-July 22): Your imagination will be in overdrive. Weed out any ideas that will be too expensive to complete. Refuse to let someone from your past tempt you into doing something that will leave you short of cash.

LEO ( July 23-Aug. 22): Go where the action is. A day trip, tradeshow, retreat or anything that allows you to take on a challenge will be exhilarating. Make love and romance a priority and don’t be afraid to commit to something you believe in.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Host an event or attend a function that you can go to with a good friend. Exploring something new with the people you like to share experiences with will make what you encounter that much more interesting and enjoyable.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A day trip or a family gathering will help you establish your position in the pecking order. Offering suggestions and physical help will be appreciated and put you in a good position when it comes to group decisions. Love is highlighted.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Open your doors and host a small gathering.

Getting together with a group of people will inspire you to follow through with the personal plans you’ve been considering. It’s time for a change and a new beginning.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Don’t let problems with siblings or peers get you down. Step outside the problems others are experiencing and enjoy what you have and can do with your life. Personal gains and positive physical alterations should highlight your day.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): When in doubt, stop. The less involved you are with other people’s pursuits, the better. Less will result in more by the end of the day. Limit your spending and any excessive behavior AQUARIUS ( Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You are a go-getter; eager to please and willing to compromise, adapt and make whatever changes are necessary to get what you want. Your ability to be decisive will draw support and encouragement. Make romance a priority.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Emotional deception will influence the outcome of a situation you face with someone. It doesn’t matter if it’s you or someone else who is not seeing things clearly. The point will be to find common ground to avoid a rift.

Birthday Baby: You are emotional, perceptive and considerate. You are appealing and popular.

Just add water | Eric carlson & John roddy

Sudoku | The Mepham Group

Jumble | David Hoyt and Jeff knurek

Draw comics.

Email Margaret at mhynds@nd.edu

Work Area

Make checks payable to and mail to: The Observer P.O. Box 779 Notre Dame, IN 46556

Published Monday through Friday, The Observer is a vital source of information on people and events in the Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s Community.

Join the more than 13,000 readers who have found The Observer an indispensable link to the two campuses. Please complete the accompanying form and mail it today to receive The Observer in your home.

Enclosed is $130 for one academic year Enclosed is $75 for one semester Name Address City State Zip

sports

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, february 6, 2017 | The Observer

Sports Authority

ncaa men’s basketball | Wisconsin 65, Illinois 60

Rankings get a needed change Alex Carson Assistant Managing Editor

The best news of the college basketball season dropped last month.

As soon as next season, the NCAA tournament selection process will finally start to use — and perhaps embrace — advanced statistical metrics and computer rankings, finishing the long, difficult reign of the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).

It’s a great change, as the RPI should have been retired years ago because it is, quite frankly, a subpar measure of team success.

In its purest form, 25 percent of RPI is a team’s record, 50 percent of it is a team’s opponents’ record, and 25 percent is a team’s opponents’ opponents’ record. There’s no adjustment for how much a team wins by — a 1-point win is seen in the same light as a dominant 30-point win — and 75 percent of the calculation is outside of an individual team’s control.

While the NCAA has tried to account for home-court advantage — a 2004 change made road wins worth 1.4 wins and home ones worth just 0.6 — it’s still using a metric that was introduced in 1981.

Do you drive the same car you did in 1981? I’d imagine not. Watch the same TV you did then? Hopefully you’ve at least moved to a highdefinition TV, if not one of the new fancy 4K ones. Are we still listening to Blondie and Hall & Oates on top-40 music stations? Unfortunately not.

Just in the same way we’ve made progress in the technology we use in our day-to-day lives, we’ve also made a bunch of progress in the way we use formulas and algorithms to rate college basketball teams.

Through their computer metrics, guys like Jeff Sagarin and Ken Pomeroy have significantly advanced our understanding of college basketball and our ability to predict future results. Sagarin’s point-based spreads have been on the forefront of sports analytics, while Pomeroy’s efficiency-based, and thus

11

tempo-independent, metrics are growing in popularity every year.

Instead of solely relying on patchworked 1981 technology, we’ll now be using modern metrics developed with the best knowledge we have.

Just look at last year for evidence of where this change will be most beneficial. A season ago, Wichita State finished the season as one of college basketball’s most dominant teams — the Shockers won 13 Missouri Valley games by 20 or more points — after overcoming an early season slide without key guard Fred VanVleet.

Most ratings systems saw the Shockers as a clear tournament team — in the top 30 by most metrics — while Pomeroy’s ratings had Wichita State as the No. 12 team in the nation at the end of the season.

Yet, the Shockers were tied for No. 86 in RPI, and instead of being seeded in the top half of the bracket as they should have, the committee had Wichita State as one of the last four teams in, sending them to Dayton, Ohio, for the First Four. After a pair of big wins over Vanderbilt and Arizona, the Shockers finally caught the fatigue bug in a second-round loss to Miami.

The issue, of course, is that the Shockers had to go through a much more difficult path than they should have in March, something that directly contributed to their exit.

There will, of course, always be a place for the so-called “eye test.” Few suggest eliminating visual evidence in this process — this is a common straw man used by anti-stats baseball scouts in their field — but when the selection committee tries to go to statistical metrics in the future, they’ll be doing so with a number of modern measures.

And when the committee’s job means so much to so many teams, that can only be a good thing.

Contact Alex Carson at acarson1@nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

Follow us on Twitter. @ObserverSports

Wisconsin outlasts conference foe Illinois Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. — Staying close to his man on the perimeter, Ethan Happ anticipated Josh Newkirk’s pass and maneuvered his 6-foot-10 frame right around Indiana forward De’Ron Davis for a steal.

A fluid big man, Happ converted the turnover into a layup on the break for one of the few easy looks that No. 10 Wisconsin had down the stretch in a 6560 win on Sunday over the Hoosiers.

Happ scored 20 points and gave his team a defensive spark, while Nigel Hayes added 15 and 10 rebounds.

“When it gets late in the game, you’re going to dig deep,” Happ said.

Happ was 8 of 10 from the field to help the Badgers (203, 9-1 Big Ten) win their seventh straight game and take sole possession of first place in the league. Maryland’s loss to Purdue on Saturday allowed Wisconsin to take a one-game lead in the conference over the Terrapins.

The steal with 3:33 left was one of two critical defensive plays by Happ late in the game.

About a minute later, Happ blocked a shot, corralled the rebound and called timeout just before falling out of bounds to save the possession.

“Thank goodness there are two sides of a basketball (game).

We were able to make up some things on the defensive end,” Hayes said.

The 6-8 Hayes joined Happ to give Indiana problems up front.

But the Badgers were plagued by mistakes or missed foul

shots earlier in the game after building a 12-point lead midway through the first half.

“We wanted to be aggressive, there’s no question about that,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said.

Indiana (15-9, 5-6) stayed within two or three possessions of Wisconsin for much of the final 30 minutes. Newkirk’s two foul shots with 28.6 seconds left got Indiana within 60-57, but Wisconsin went 5 of 6 from the foul line from that point to seal the win.

“When it doesn’t go your way, you can still find a way,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “That’s what good, experienced teams will find — find another way to scratch and claw, and get it done.”

Newkirk led the Hoosiers with 22 points. Thomas Bryant tried to provide balance but was plagued by foul trouble. He scored nine of his 11 points in the first half.

Hoosier defense Wisconsin muddled through another poor-shooting day, going 39 percent (19 of 48) from the field. It was the third straight game that an opponent held the Badgers to less than 41 percent.

Crean said he wanted his team to stay active defensively against an experienced and balanced team shooting 47 percent coming into the afternoon.

“You just can’t let them pick you apart with their passing,” he said. “They can rebound, they can defend, but they can all pass — that to me is what sets them apart.”

Indiana blues Indiana has lost 17 of its last

19 games to the Badgers, including 15 straight on the road. The Hoosiers last won in Madison in 1998.

Poll implications Wisconsin is poised to make a jump in the next AP Top 25 poll on Monday after six top 10 squads lost on Saturday.

“We know it’s hard to win,” Hayes said. “The scary thing is, the smaller the number is next to your name, the harder that games get.”

Big picture Indiana: Crean’s club got off to a tough start, overwhelmed in the lane on both ends of the floor. Sloppy play by Wisconsin allowed the Hoosiers to stay close in the first half and get within 27-24 at halftime.

Indiana was at its best when it could convert quickly to prevent Wisconsin from setting up its tough half-court defense. Still, it was a very respectable showing for a team without two key players in OG Anunoby (right knee) and leading scorer James Blackmon Jr. (lower left leg).

Wisconsin: The Badgers were most effective when the ball went through Happ in the post or Hayes in the lane.

Sloppy ball-handling and a cold stretch from 3-point range helped Indiana get back in the game. Shooting 35 percent from 3-point range for the season entering the afternoon, Wisconsin was held to 24 percent (4 of 17) from behind the arc.

Up next Indiana: Starts two-game home stretch on Thursday with a visit from No. 23 Purdue.

NHL | Capitals 5, Kings 0

Capitals end Kings’ winning streak at five Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Philipp Grubauer starts rarely enough that he doesn’t want to show his face when he loses. He can show it plenty until his next chance.

Grubauer stopped a season-high 38 shots to shut out the Los Angeles Kings as the Washington Capitals ended Peter Budaj’s shutout streak in a 5-0 rout Sunday. Washington snapped Los Angeles’ winning streak at five and Budaj’s shutout streak at 147:21 in winning

its third game in a row.

Despite being outshot 38-20, the Capitals were opportunistic in shelling Budaj, limiting quality chances and relying on Grubauer to make the routine saves.

“He doesn’t get in there all the time, but when he does he’s just been really good,” said Brett Connolly, who scored his 10th goal of the season. “There was a couple times we turned the puck over and they had a good chance in front and he was there to bail us out.”

Grubauer denied Marian Gaborik from close range in the second period but didn’t have to make too many 10-bell saves for his third shutout of the season. Coach Barry Trotz liked the team defense in front of Grubauer, who compared the new NHL-mandated slimmer goalie pants to “European skinny jeans.”

“The guys did an amazing job keeping (shots) to the outside today,” Grubauer said. “I don’t think we gave up too many Grade-A chances.”

The Observer accepts classifieds every business day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Notre Dame office, 024 South Dining Hall. Deadline for next-day classifieds is 3 p.m. All classifieds must be prepaid. The charge is 5 cents per character per day, including all spaces. The Observer reserves the right to edit all classifieds for content without issuing refunds.

Paid Advertisement

Sports

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, february 6, 2017 | The Observer

13

Track & Field | Meyo INvitational

Harris takes second in Meyo Mile at home

By JOE EVERETT Sports Writer

Notre Dame hosted the annual Meyo Invitational this past weekend at Loftus Sports Center.

The Irish — donning green jerseys for the first time in program history — had several highlights throughout the weekend, which featured 42 teams. In the Meyo Mile — the calling card of the Invitational — junior Jessica Harris raced to second place in the women’s race, recording a personal best of 4:37.83 and improving to second in the conference and 13th in the country with her time this season. In the men’s mile, senior Jacob Dumford earned a third-place finish and his own personal record of 4:02.77.

Several other Notre Dame athletes recorded personal bests, including senior Patrick O’Connell’s eighthplace finish in the 800-meter dash, junior Parker English and freshman Grace Cronin in the 400-meter dash and freshman Shae Watkins in the shot put. Senior Anthony Rivers broke his own school record with a 20.27-meter toss in the weight throw Friday

— a toss that earned him the fifth-best throw by distance in the ACC and 28th-best in the country this season.

Staying in the field, senior Nate Richartz finished first in the pole vault. Although he just missed equaling his personal best, he still holds the third-best mark in the ACC and 12th in the country.

Those were just some of the many positives to take away from the meet, Irish head coach Alan Turner said.

Despite these several impressive performances, however, Turner said he is still looking for a more complete performance from his team.

“Overall, we need to get a little bit better,” Turner said.

“We had some outstanding individual performances … our quote-unquote ‘superstar’ athletes are getting it together like they should, but if we’re going to do something as a team, we need the bulk of our athletes to step it up. We had some spots where people really stepped it up but had some other sports where, hey, we really didn’t run as well or perform as we should have.”

Facing a plethora of quality programs, the Irish certainly looked overmatched

in several areas throughout the meet, especially in the sprints, Turner said. He said he believes running against national competition at the Meyo Invitational was good preparation for future competition as well as a launching point for jumpstarting the team, though he realizes improvements must come soon.

“If you want to finish in the top eight here, you better have a pretty good performance, and these types of meets get you ready for conference, for nationals and so on,” Turner said. “Overall, I think we’re just a little bit behind where we need to be. We got to really tie some things up here in the next few weeks when we come back for the ACCs.” Next up, the team will split up Friday and Saturday when they travel to the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa, the Spire D-I Invitational in Geneva, Ohio, and the Tiger Paw Invitational in Clemson, South Carolina. Graduate student Molly Seidel also will run at the Millrose Games in New York on Saturday.

EMMET FARNAN | The Observer

Contact Joe Everett at jeveret4@nd.edu

Irish junior Jessica Harris competes in the Meyo Mile during the Meyo Invitational at Loftus Sports Complex on Saturday.

W Bball Continued from page 16

EMMET FARNAN | The Observer

Irish senior guard Lindsay Allen brings the ball up the court during Notre Dame’s 82-74 victory over Virginia on Jan. 29. Allen leads the Irish with 185 assists this season.

with both teams vying for prime spots in the ACC tournament next month and the NCAA tourney after that.

“This is a huge game,” McGraw said. “I think a huge game for both teams, certainly one that we’ve really got to be ready [for]. They’ve got so many great weapons, so many terrific guards, great post play.

They’re an excellent team, and it’s going to be a battle.”

The Irish are no strangers to elite opposition, and McGraw had no misconceptions about the challenge her team faces in the Cardinals, whose talented roster includes all-ACC junior forward Myisha Hines-Allen.

“You say, ‘we’ve got to give up something.’ We can’t take away everything [that Louisville does well],” McGraw said. “The way they shoot the ball, the way they drive the ball, they play hard. Everything they do makes it a difficult matchup for us.”

Junior forward Kathryn Westbeld, who has been vital to the past three Irish wins despite a sore ankle severely restricting her minutes, agreed that it will be a tough game but said the team was looking forward to it.

“A big top-10 matchup is really good for us, especially coming off a few good wins,”

Westbeld said. “We’re really excited and energy is pretty high right now, so it should be a good game.”

The team’s struggles so far this season (compared to the program’s last couple years, at least) can also help fuel a lateseason surge, Westbeld said.

“I think it just kind of keeps us more focused,” she said. “We can’t lose focus at all, we have to keep our heads on the next game. I think we’ll be alright. “ ... Obviously we’re at home, the crowd is going to be a huge part of it [on Monday], but we have to just stay within ourselves and do what the game plan is.”

McGraw expressed a similar sentiment, saying she anticipated an electric crowd.

However, she also warned that Notre Dame wouldn’t be getting ahead of itself as the postseason, guaranteed to pit the Irish against many opponents as talented as Louisville, draws near.

“There’s great parity in the league this year,” McGraw said.

“This was a year when everybody thought anybody could win it, and it certainly looks that way right now. I think for us, we’ve just got to focus on one game at a time.”

Notre Dame and Louisville tip off at 7 p.m. at Purcell Pavilion Monday.

Contact Renee Griffin at rgriffi6@nd.edu

14

Sports

The observer | Monday, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

Hockey Continued from page 16

3:10 lef t. This was followed soon a f ter w it h a ga me-t y ing goa l by f reshma n for wa rd Ca m Morrison, sending Compton into a f ren z y a nd t he ga me into over t ime.

The Cata mounts dominated t he ex t ra period for t he most pa r t, but Peterson made si x huge saves — to bring his tota l to 43 on t he night — to preser ve t he 4-4 t ie. Irish head coach Jef f Jackson t hought his tea m showed a lot of resilience in a n impor ta nt ga me.

“I g ive t he k ids a lot of credit for coming back,” Jackson sa id. “We put ourselves in a bit of a hole t here in t he t hird period … but t hey ha nd led it, obv iously.

As fa r as where we a re, ever y ga me right now is like a playof f ga me.”

Going into Saturday, Not re Da me was look ing to cont inue its momentum f rom t he late stages of t he night before. The f irst period saw a number of pena lt ies but neit her tea m wou ld be ver y successf u l t hroughout t he night w it h t he one ma n adva ntage. Wit h si x minutes to go in t he f irst, a snapshot f rom t he point by f reshma n defensema n Matt O’Donnel l gave t he Cata mounts t he 1-0 lead at t he intermission.

Play wou ld la rgely sett le dow n t hroughout much of t he second period w it h neit her tea m developing ma ny st rong cha nces. The Irish f ina l ly capita li zed on t heir 19t h shot of t he night as Og lev ie ripped home a w rist shot w it h f ive to go in t he second. They tacked on a not her when junior defensema n Jorda n Gross was able to f ind t he back of t he net on a low w rister w it h just 18 seconds lef t on t he clock, g iv ing Not re Da me t he 2-1 lead heading to t he dressing room.

To sta r t t he t hird, it was Vermont t hat emerged as t he agg ressor ea rly on in t he period, yet t he score rema ined 2-1. Eventua lly w it h just about f ive to go, Not re Da me ex tended t he lead a nd gave itself a litt le room for comfor t of f a t ipin by O’Lea r y, t he f irst of his ca reer. Jackson sa id he was ver y pleased w it h t he play of O’Lea r y as wel l as ma ny ot her f reshmen a nd sophomores who cont ributed t hroughout t he weekend.

“It’s nice to see t he younger g uys as t he season prog resses, to get a litt le more understa nding in t heir ga me a nd how we have to play to be successf u l,” Jackson sa id. “A ll t hose g uys play w it h a litt le bit of energ y a nd edge, which you rea l ly need to have t his t ime of yea r.”

Freshma n for wa rd Ca l Burke wou ld score on a n

empt y net w it h less t ha n t wo minutes to go, g iv ing goa ltender Ca l Petersen a n unconvent iona l assist a nd putt ing t he ga me away. The Irish won by a f ina l score of 4-1 a nd wa lked away successf u l f rom t he weekend.

Mov ing onto nex t week, Not re Da me heads on t he road to Ma ine for a not her pa ir of conference ga mes.

Coming of f of a weekend of solid play, Jackson hopes his tea m ca n ca rr y t he momentum for wa rd. “[Ma in is] a tough tea m in t heir ow n building, a nd t hey’re a n improved tea m,” Jackson sa id. “We’re going to have to be prepa red as t hey’re a tea m t hat usua lly plays a high-tempo ga me, so it’s going to boil dow n to our puck decisions a nd our defensive t ra nsit ions which were much better t his weekend.”

KELLY VAUGHN | The Observer

Contact Alex Bender at abender@nd.edu

Irish sophomore forward Andrew Oglevie battles with a Vermont player along the boards during Notre Dame’s 4-4 draw with the Catamounts on Friday at Compton Family Ice Arena.

Paid Advertisement

Sports

M Bball Continued from page 16

guard Steve Vasturia turned the ball over, then missed a jumper, before junior guard Matt Farrell lost control on a drive with 1:33 to play. The Tar Heels corralled the loose ball; junior forward Justin Jackson slammed home a dunk; and the lead was six.

“We made a run at it, but Berry’s 15-footer was the shot of a big-time veteran guard who’s had a great year, to kind of stop any belief for us,” Irish head coach Mike Brey said.

By the time Notre Dame hit its next bucket, a junior forward Bonzie Colson 3-pointer, the deficit was at 10 with under 30 seconds to play.

“I’m proud of our group, we hung in there and gave ourselves a chance,” Brey said. “They’re really good; we knew we were gonna have to absorb some pounding in the paint ’cause we played small, we did that, and it helped us get back into the thing. We just couldn’t get over the hump.”

Notre Dame scored the game’s first bucket, a Vasturia jumper, but the Irish soon fell behind 9-2 in senior forward Austin Torres’ first start. Though they closed the gap to within a single point at various points in the first half, they never held the lead the rest

ndsmcobserver.com | Monday, february 6, 2017 | The Observer

of the way.

The Irish were plagued once again by a poor close to the first half — North Carolina led by just one, 2928, with just over five minutes to play in the half, but the Tar Heels closed on a 13-6 run to stretch their advantage to eight at the break, a lead that moved to 11 at the start of the second half off a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Kenny Williams. That bucket gave the Tar Heels their first double-digit margin of the afternoon.

North Carolina used a balanced scoring effort to down the Irish — six Tar Heels finished in double figures — and overcame the loss of senior forward Kennedy Meeks, who fouled out on a charge with 5:14 to play. It gave the Irish an opening and, for a few minutes, it looked like one they might take.

“We opened the f loor up [in the second half ],” Brey said. “Playing small was the only way we were going to have a chance. We didn’t play two bigs, certainly V.J. got going and we rode it as long as we could.”

But there were to be no late-game heroics from Notre Dame this time out, and the Irish will head home on a four-game losing streak.

It’s the first such streak since 2009, when Notre Dame dropped seven consecutive games in a season that ended in the NIT. The loss drops

the Irish to seventh place in the ACC and effectively ends all hope of a regular-season championship, with Notre Dame three games behind a team it wouldn’t win a tiebreaker with.

Beachem, a senior forward, led all scorers with 20 points, while Farrell pitched in 18 and Colson 17 — the three highest individual scoring figures of the day. But Vasturia managed just nine and didn’t hit a 3-pointer, while Notre Dame was outscored 40-18 in the paint.

Due to an emergency water crisis on North Carolina’s campus this weekend, the game was moved from Saturday to Sunday and from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to the Greensboro Coliseum.

The move off campus wasn’t enough to help the Irish snag a win, though.

Notre Dame will have a quick return to action Tuesday, when they host Wake Forest at Purcell Pavilion. The Irish tried to move the game to Wednesday, but the ACC office did not allow the change.

“Quite frankly, I’m disappointed that the game Tuesday wasn’t moved to Wednesday,” Brey said. “But I signed up for the ACC, so I’m a good soldier.”

15

nd women’s Tennis | MICHIGAN 6 , ND 1

Notre Dame falls to rival Michigan Observer Sports Staff

When No. 13 Michigan came to South Bend, Notre Dame looked to find a way to upset the Wolverines (4-0) after winning its first three matches of the spring season.

The Irish came up short, however, and dropped a 6-1 non-conference decision to the Wolverines on Friday afternoon at Eck Tennis Pavilion.

In the singles competition, freshman Zoe Spence recorded the only Irish victory on the day (7-5, 6-3), defeating her opponent, Wolverine freshman Chiara Lommer. The rest of the Irish players came close but could not grasp a victory in the end. Junior Allison Miller came up on the wrong end of a close 6-1, 7-6(1) decision, while freshman Bess Waldram fell by identical sets of 6-2, 6-2.

Junior Brooke Broda was defeated in straight sets (6-2, 6-3), while senior Jane Fennelly and sophomore Rachel Chong lost in almost identical ways. Both Chong and Fennelly won the first sets of their matches 6-1,

before ultimately dropping the final two sets 6-1, 6-2.

In the doubles competition, the No. 2 Notre Dame pair of senior Mary Closs/Miller dropped a 6-2 decision to the Michigan squad of junior Alex Najarian and sophomore Kate Fahey. The No. 1 doubles pair of senior Monica Robinson/ Broda fell 6-1 up against junior Mira Ruder-Hook and sophomore Brienne Minor. The No. 3 match with Fennelly/Waldram versus freshman Valeria Patiuk and junior Kara Hall was unfinished.

The Irish will be back in action Sunday, when they take on Illinois in a non-conference road matchup. And after that, another Big Ten opponent is on the horizon, as the Irish will travel to Bloomington, Indiana, to take on the Hoosiers in two weeks. After their road contest against Indiana, the Irish will begin conference play, as they matchup with Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. However, after short conference stint, the Irish will face more Big Ten competition.

Tuesday’s tip is set for 7 p.m.

Contact Alex Carson at acarson1@nd.edu

W Lax Continued from page 16

Paid Advertisement

foul gave the Irish the ensuing draw, which they converted to put the game back within one goal. However, the Wildcats won the final draw of the game, and although the Irish won the ball back, the five seconds remaining were not enough to tie the score.

“I’m disappointed with the result, but that’s on me,” Halfpenny said. “I’ve got to figure out a way to get us more prepared to not have 15 turnovers. We’re going to go back to the drawing board and clean up some of those errors. You’ve got to credit Northwestern; they, too, were playing with some new faces. They came after us, and they did a really nice job. They took advantage of those missed opportunities we had. Northwestern is so well-coached; they made adjustments.”

Pearsall controlled eight draws, while Buchanan scored four goals in her first ever game for the Irish. Halfpenny said she felt Buchanan’s performance was among the highlights of the day for her team.

“Everybody can see she’s certainly living up to all the hype,” Halfpenny said. “Her stat line is just incredible.

She’s a game-changer. Her smart and patient shooting was outstanding today. She

was a presence everywhere, right next to Casey [Pearsall], Cortney [Fortunato] and Grace [Muller].”

The Irish defense — starting a season without stalwart Barbara Sullivan for the first time since 2011 — caused only six turnovers, its lowest total since a 7-6 victory over Virginia in 2015 and 10 less than the total against the Wildcats in last year’s NCAA tournament meeting.

Halfpenny said she was confident her team would respond well to the defeat.

“I’m proud of our effort,” Halfpenny said. “I’m proud of this team. I love this team.

I love this team. They care so much. They sacrifice so much.

From top to bottom, this one’s not going to sit well with them, and I think that’s good. It’s a good reminder for them for the future. We’re looking forward to our next opportunity.

“We have a lot of the pieces to the puzzle, if not all of them. That’s awesome — the way our seniors played and showed their experience, their determination, that’s only going to bode well for this program going forward.

When you start off with this kind of test, the sky’s the limit for them.”

The Irish will play Liberty on Friday at Loftus Sports Center. The game begins at 7 p.m.

Contact Daniel O’Boyle at doboyle1@nd.edu

16

The observer | Monday, february 6, 2017 | ndsmcobserver.com

men’s basketball | North Carolina 83, ND 76

hockey | nd 4, Vermont 4 (OT); nd 4, vermont 1

Tar Heels squash Irish comeback attempt

ND tops Vermont in home matchup

By ALEX CARSON

By ALEX BENDER

Assistant Managing Editor

Sports Writer

Trailing by as many as 15 points in the second half, it looked as if No. 20 Notre Dame would make a run at completing a furious comeback when a V.J. Beachem 3-pointer cut No. 12 North Carolina’s lead to two with 3:47 to play.

But just like their last outing, where the Irish nearly erased a double-digit deficit at home against Duke, it wasn’t meant to be, as the Tar Heels pulled away for an 83-76 win Sunday afternoon in Greensboro, North Carolina.

After Beachem’s bucket, North Carolina (21-4, 9-2 ACC) had an immediate answer when junior guard Joel Berry II hit a jumper to stretch the advantage back to four. The Irish (17-7, 6-5) enjoyed three possessions with a chance to cut the game back to a onepossession affair, but none of them resulted in points. Senior

Play ing in a crucial weekend series against Hockey East foe and No. 12 ranked Vermont, No. 17 Notre Dame came away w ith a critical three points to move up the Hockey East standings as they push toward conference championship season.

Coming into Friday night’s matchup in sixth place in Hockey East play, the Irish (15-9-4, 8-5-3 Hockey East) came out in their first game w ith a sense of urgency.

The Irish drew first blood in the opening period when sophomore for ward Andrew Oglev ie sped through the Catamount defense to give the Irish an early 1-0 lead at the 5:59 mark. Near the end of the first period, junior forward Bo Brauer padded the lead off an assist from freshman for ward Mike O’Lear y, who earned his first career point w ith the assist after

see M BBALL PAGE 15

EMMET FARNAN | The Observer

Irish senior guard Steve Vasturia readies to take a shot during Notre Dame’s 84-74 loss to Duke on Tuesday at Purcell Pavilion.

ND WOMEN’S LACROSSE | Northwestern 14, Nd 13

Northwestern bests Notre Dame

By DANIEL O’BOYLE Sports Writer

Comeback attempts at the end of each half for No. 8 Notre Dame fell short in a close encounter with rival No. 9 Northwestern, as the Wildcats defeated the Irish 14-13 at Loftus Sports Center in Notre Dame’s season-opener.

In a rematch of last year’s NCAA second round game, the Irish (0-1) scored the opening goal when senior attack Grace Muller kept control of the ball under the challenge of a defender and fired her shot into the top-right corner of the goal.

The Wildcats (2-0) answered quickly though, scoring on their first two possessions of the game to take the lead.

After Notre Dame tied it up eight minutes into the half, Northwestern answered again with a 6-0 run to take an 8-2 lead shortly after the 15-minute mark. Irish head coach Christine Halfpenny said her team had some difficulties early on, though she was impressed by its performance for the remainder of the game.

“It’s a typical first game,”

Halfpenny said. “You saw a little bit of good, a little bit of bad.

At times, I feel like there was a little bit of ugly. If we could take out that first 20 minutes, we could stat it up and see what we did there. That’s the most encouraging piece of this.”

Some fancy stick work from senior forward Cortney Fortunato started a comeback for Notre Dame, and after five consecutive goals in six minutes, including two in nine seconds by senior attack Casey Pearsall, the Irish drew level at 9-9. Notre Dame could not take the tie into halftime however, as Northwestern took the lead back just over 40 seconds later.

A scoring drought for the first 15 minutes of the second half put the Irish back in a hole, trailing 13-9 before freshman midfielder Savannah Buchanan scored the first Notre Dame goal of the half.

With Notre Dame trailing by three goals with two minutes left, Buchanan helped the Irish bring the game back within reach when she was fouled immediately after scoring. The see W LAX PAGE 15

filling in for junior for ward Anders Bjork, who was out w ith an illness.

The Catamounts (16-9-3, 8-6-2) would begin to control the game from that point onward, putting pressure on the Irish defense and junior goaltender Cal Peterson. By the end of the second period Peterson had made 28 saves, but Vermont had made it a one-score game. In the third period, the offensive f loodgates opened for the Catamounts. Back-to-back goals w ithin the first t wo minutes of the period gave Vermont a 3-2 lead. Quick ly pushing the lead to 4-2 at the 7:43 mark, the Catamounts appeared to have the game under w raps against a tiring Notre Dame squad.

However, the Irish found a way to fight back and rejuvenate their offense. A goal by junior for ward Jake Evans brought the Irish closer w ith see HOCKEY PAGE 14

nd women’s basketball

McGraw’s squad hosts ninth-ranked Louisville

By RENEE GRIFFIN Sports Writer

When No. 9 Louisville visits No. 7 Notre Dame at Purcell Pavilion on Monday night, the Cardinals will bring not only skilled guards and top forwards but also an opportunity for the Irish to take away a crucial ACC win and get their regular season on track as they eye the postseason.

Notre Dame (21-3, 9-1 ACC) has won five games in a row since a disappointing loss to Tennessee on Jan. 16, and Irish head coach Muffet McGraw said she’s seen her team improve in areas they were struggling in that span, particularly on defense.

The Irish haven’t faced a ranked opponent since losing to ACC foe North Carolina State on Dec. 29. The Wolfpack now sit at No. 19. The squad’s first loss of the season was to another ranked team – No. 1 Connecticut.

That makes the top-10 matchup with Louisville (20-5, 7-3 ACC) even more important, see W BBALL PAGE 13

EMMET FARNAN | The Observer

Irish junior forward Brianna Turner shoots a jumper in Notre Dame’s 82-74 victory over Virginia on Jan. 29 at Purcell Pavilion.