SERVING THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN COMMUNITY SINCE 1900 @THEDAILYTEXAN | THEDAILYTEXAN.COM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2018
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 110
N E WS
O PI N I O N
LI FE &A RTS
SPORTS
Mother of the creator of The Silk Road, a site on the Dark Web, speaks on campus. PAGE 2
Executive Alliance candidates lay out their visions for student government PAGE 4
Movement Tracks Project uses music to help those recovering from traumatic events.PAGE 8
Longhorns blowout No. 23 LSU, 11-1, to avoid the series sweep in Baton Rouge. PAGE 6
MEN’S BASKETBALL MEN’S BASKETBALL
Smart, Texas players call for change amid NCAA scandal
OKLAHOMA STATE (16 - 13)
64 – 65
UT AUSTIN (17 - 12)
ROACH SAVES TEXAS — FOR NOW
By Dalton Phillips @ dalton_tweet
The Longhorns’ thrilling, last-second victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon was largely overshadowed by the fallout from documents from a federal investigation published Friday in an explosive Yahoo Sports report on corruption in college basketball. The report asserted that junior guard Eric Davis Jr. received improper benefits in the form of a $1,500 loan from ASM Sports. UT athletic director Chris Del Conte announced Friday evening that Davis will not play “for precautionary reasons until further notice” while Texas investigates the situation. Texas was one of more than 20 Division I programs involved in the federal investigation, including North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State, Alabama and USC. A number of high-profile active players were also linked to receiving improper benefits, among those included Michigan State’s Miles Bridges and Duke’s Wendell Carter — potential future NBA lottery picks. Texas head coach Shaka Smart released a statement on the situation, stating, “I am, and always have been, fully committed to ensuring that our program operates within NCAA rules.” After Saturday’s victory, Smart and several Texas players spoke publicly about the situation for the first time. Smart reaffirmed
SCANDAL page 2
angela wang | the daily texan staff Junior guard Kerwin Roach II goes up for a contested layup during Texas’ 65-64 victory over Oklahoma State at the Frank Erwin Center on Saturday afternoon.
Kerwin Roach II’s buzzer-beater keeps Texas’ hopes alive. By Steve Helwick @s_helwick
I
t was a movie that many Texas and Oklahoma State fans have seen before — but the sequel reversed the roles. On Jan. 13 in Stillwater, the Longhorns led Oklahoma State by double digits in the second half,
but a late run by the Cowboys swung the entire momentum of the game. On the final shot of the game, Oklahoma State claimed an unlikely 65-64 victory. Down 64-63 as the seconds dwindled down on Saturday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center, Texas junior shooting guard Kerwin Roach II navigated around the court, then crossed over on a dime and pursued the basket, driving down the left side of the hardwood. A potential shot-blocker, Oklahoma State power forward Mitchell Solomon, stood in his
way. Roach switched to the right hand mid-air to avoid Solomon and finished with an acrobatic, buzzer-beating layup with 1.2 seconds left. Against all odds, Texas escaped a dramatic afternoon with an identical 65-64 victory. “Coach just believed in me to go ahead and play and get the winning bucket,” Roach said. “At one point, I thought I (had to give it up), but I just wanted to see what I could do.” The Longhorns’ bizarre win over Oklahoma State on Saturday
1
team
2 final
UT
33
32
65
OSU
28
36
64
can best be described as a pitchblack indoor roller coaster. When it seemed as if the Longhorns (17– 12, 7–9 Big 12) would plummet into the ground, Texas rose out of a freefall, gaining enough energy to claim its 17th win as the buzzer
ROACH page 2
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CITY
‘Shawnparna’ plans to impact student life through small changes at UT
City task force will address gentrification By Meara Isenberg
By Brianna Stone
@mearannee
@bristone19
Aparna Chandrashekar and Shawn Killian said if they are elected Student Government president and vice president, they will work to accomplish small — but important — changes to help UT students. Chandrashekar, running for president, is a civil engineering and Plan II senior. Killian, running for vice president, is an aerospace engineering senior. “(People) can do anything, so we thought, ‘Why can’t we run for Student Government’ and so we did,” Killian said. “We are ‘Shawnparna for,’ meaning that we are Shawn and Aparna and there are a lot of things we want to stand for. We are open to any ideas from students and we want to represent all students. It started off as a joke, but then we realized we actually have good ideas and there are things that actually need change on this campus.” Killian said there are many small, impactful changes that could be made at UT to help students and said they don’t want to make large promises to students that would not be possible. “More people are trusting us with their ideas and it’s been
juan figueroa | the daily texan staff Civil engineering and Plan II senior Aparna Chandrashekar, right, is running for Student government president with aerospace engineering senior Shawn Killian as vice president. really exciting,” Chandrashekar said. “We’ve been receiving a lot of messages from professors, friends, family and people we don’t even know who say they are proud of us for running. We’re excited to see where this goes.” Chandrashekar and Killian said no idea is too small for them to look into. “Our main platform point is free transcripts,” Killian said. “If we actually win, that’s the main
thing we want to do. I just think (the cost of transcripts are) ridiculously too much.” Chandrasheka and Killian also said they hope to bridge different communities across campus and close disconnects that may exist as a result of having such a large University. “Another idea we had was to have to headphone dispensaries around campus,” Chandrashekar said. “(Everyone) has had headphones break on
(them) or have forgotten them at home. Imagine if there was an airport-style vending machine with headphones. We want headphones to be accessible for everyone on campus.” Chandrashekar and Killian said they have never been involved with SG, but they believe that because they are so far removed from SG, it will give them a more objective perspective of the University and of the real issues students face.
A new city task force, working with University professors to tackle gentrification, hosted its first community forum on Saturday. “Coming out to hear people speak, we are hearing what (Austinites are) going through, what could be done or should have been done a long time ago,” task force member Yvette Crawford-Lee said. “It will help us to come up with hopefully a solution to solve the issues that have been going on for too many years.” Crawford-Lee was one of the more than 50 people who attended the Anti-Displacement Task Force forum at the Conley-Guerrero Senior Center. She said that while she was appointed to study gentrification, it’s also something that has affected her personally. “I was in a way forced out from my family home where I grew up and I was able to raise my children,” Crawford-Lee said. “I could just not afford the taxes, and I had to make that difficult choice to move. I would have loved to live in East Austin for the rest of my life,
but if I moved back now, I wouldn’t be able to afford it, unfortunately.” Eric Tang, associate professor in African and African Diaspora Studies, was one of the speakers at the forum. Tang discussed his findings on a similar city task force assembled last year. “The gap in housing between those who could afford what’s on the market and what’s on the market is vast,” Tang said. “You have to make that up quickly because the more time that passes that you don’t, the wider the gap gets. The rate of displacement will then grow as a result.” Tang said the task force sent recommendations to the city last year, including increasing low-income housing and giving families who are being pushed out of their neighborhoods the ability to stay. “This is a critical moment to talk about and implement key solutions, and build … actual affordable housing on land that is held in trust by the city,” Tang said. Tang put some input into the People’s Plan, a proposal created by a group of community activists this
TASK FORCE page 2