2-21-17

The Pitt News

SGB election coverage online today

The independent student newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh | PIttnews.com | february 21, 2017 | Volume 107 | Issue 127

Faculty discuss immigration

ALL ABOUT THAT BASS

Rebecca Peters Staff Writer

University administrators gathered in a closed-door meeting in the Barco Law Building Monday afternoon to discuss immigration.

Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, Provost Patricia E. Beeson and about 50 other Pitt faculty members met in the Alcoa room of the law building to discuss former-President Barack Obama’s DACA program and recent national immigration policy changes under President Donald Trump.

The Obama administration passed DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, to allow undocumented immigrants who arrive in the United States before they turn 16 to receive a renewable two-year deportation deferral and work permit.

In support of this policy, Gallagher was among more than 250 college presidents to sign a statement urging Trump to save the program.

“America needs talent — and these students, who have been raised and educated in the United States, are already part of our national community,” the letter said. “They represent what is best about America, and as scholars and leaders they are essential to the future.”

Lawrence Feick, a professor of business administration in the Joseph M. Katz See DACA on page 3

Aidan Epstein plays the bass while Hezreel Robertson plays the keyboard during a Jazz Jam Session in Nordy’s on Monday night. Anna Bongardino STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

POLICE OFFER SAFETY TIPS AT FAIR James Watkins

For The Pitt News While some students admitted that the smell of free pizza lured them into the William Pitt Union Assembly Room Monday afternoon, most stopped by to learn more about campus safety.

The Student Government Board and Pitt Public Safety and Emergency Management hosted the Spring Safety Fair Monday, which had an attendance of about 50 faculty and community mem-

bers at any give time between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Attendees milled around the room to engage and learn about safety organizations and resources around campus.

Though Pitt spokesperson Joe Miksch said the event had been planned for a while, it was especially timely in light of the 13 violent crimes that have occurred in the Oakland area since December 2016, according to Pitt police crime logs. This number includes five aggravated assaults and three robberies, and is in addition to

nearly 30 robberies and burglaries that have plagued Oakland since October.

Most recently, on Jan. 25, a man was shot on the corner of Hamlet Street and the Boulevard of the Allies. The victim walked into Magee-Womens Hospital for treatment.

Both Pitt police and city police searched for suspects in an armed robbery at Mckee Place Jan. 27, when See Safety on page 3

News

simply speak of gender or of race as if they are not intertwined and mutually influential factors in individual and national lives.”

It was a specific interest in intersectionalism that brought together President of Panthers for UNICEF Gabrielle Arguello-Abramson and Israeli fellow Elina Lipov of Hillel JUC in Jerusalem.

Lipov — whose job includes informing Hillel members about Israeli culture — and Arguello-Abramson were both in Israel while women’s marches were breaking out in cities across the United States.

The pair struck up a conversation over coffee about intersectional feminism and decided that upon returning to the United States, they would involve students from various backgrounds in a discussion on womanhood — and its intersection with race and religion — in various cultures.

“That’s one of the things I like about the intersectional word being before feminism is that we’re all fighting the patriarchy,” Arguello-Abramson said.

The women’s marches — which received scattered criticism for being largely focused on white women’s feminism — have fostered discussions on intersectionality for many.

Accusations of white feminism on Natalie Cheuk, a junior political science and linguistics major, discusses keeping her Chinese identity while moving to North Carolina at age 10. Facebook prompted a group to form in Kyleen Considine STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER opposition to the Pittsburgh Women’s March on Jan. 21. The second march was called the Our Feminism Must Be Intermovement — focusing on issues that af- sectional Rally.

MarySandra Do fect women of all races and classes, disFeminist makerspace Prototype foStaff Writer abled women and trans women, among cuses specifically on creating a space for After scrawling words like “empowothers. The intersection of these issues intersectional feminism and opened in erment” and “equality and opportunity” across cultural boundaries formed the the city Feb. 1. Prototype’s founders Erin on colorful sticky notes, students stuck basis for Monday’s discussion, as well as Oldynski and E. Louise Larson also plan them to a large blank sheet of paper in the movement as a whole said anupama on hosting community discussions on Dining Room B of the Union Monday. jain, part-time professor in the Gender, the topic.

The prompt that elicited these reSexuality and Women’s Studies program The post-it note activity followed sponses: “What is feminism to you?” at Pitt. an opening statement from ArguelloAbout 12 students attended a discus“Intersectionality was an intervention Abramson and Lipov. The hosts then sion on intersectional feminism hosted that pointed out previous mainstream encouraged other attendees to share perby Panthers for UNICEF and the Hillel feminists and how other social justice sonal stories.

Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh at advocates failed to notice how identiOne of the first to speak was Natalie 4:30 p.m. Monday. ties and systems of privilege are always Cheuk, a junior political science and linIntersectional feminism is specificalmulti-faceted,” jain said. “So, one cannot guistics major, who talked about her exly centered on diversifying the feminist

STUDENTS SHARE EXPERIENCES, DISCUSS FEMINISM, RELIGION, RACE

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February 21, 2017

periences as an Asian-American woman.

She moved to the United States when she was 10 years old, and although she was old enough to understand social cues, she struggled to find a place amongst classmates.

“I didn’t feel like I was American enough. ‘Was I Chinese or was I American?’” Cheuk said.

Eventually, she came to the conclusion that she and other Asian-Americans shouldn’t have to choose — they can be both.

“Now I’m like a leader, and I feel proud that I’m Asian-American,” Cheuk said.

In addition to race, individuals such as Rachel Rudnicki, a sophomore studying neuroscience and psychology, talked about their various struggles with religion.

“I felt like there was a sign hanging over me, ‘Not a real Jew — I’m an imposter,’” she said.

She recalled a particular incident when a Jewish classmate moved to her school who practiced Judaism more loyally than she did. The new classmate had a bat mitzvah and engaged in a lot of what a “real Jew” typically is expected to do — like traveling to Israel to learn about the culture or having extensive knowledge about the Torah. This made Rudnicki question whether she was “Jewish enough” in comparison. After joining Hillel and finding people similar to her, Rudnicki, like Cheuk, came to a realization. “[If ] you are Jewish, don’t let somebody tell you you’re not,” she was told at one point by a member of Hillel.

The event concluded with a conversation about feminists’ portrayal in society.

Lipov said feminists are often stereotyped as angry, loud protesters, but that’s not true since there are different types of feminists in the world.

“It’s like fifty shades,” she said. “You don’t need to be radical ... For me, being a feminist is being a leader in my own way.”

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Safety, pg. 1 one of the victims was assaulted with the butt of a firearm.

Pitt Police Commander Robert Holler said these numbers were not abnormal for the Oakland area over the course of a few months.

The Pitt News’ crime logs — which correspond with Pitt Police crime logs — did not track any violent crime during January and February of last year.

“We try to stay as diligent as possible, but there’s no way to prevent every crime,” Holler said. “We’ve bumped up our patrol numbers in the evenings, but the best way to deter crime is to make sure you are aware of where you are on campus.”

Organizations including Technology Services and the Center for Victims — a non-profit organization that assists victims of crimes in Pittsburgh — offered safety tips for personal electronics and contact info for potential crime victims at their respective tables. In addition, six tables for the Pitt Police Department, including a booth for canine police work and stations handing out general infor-

mation, such as how to contact the department through social media, were lined up around the edges of the assembly room.

Angela Radack, assistant to the associate vice chancellor of public safety and emergency management at the University and coordinator for the event, said students often aren’t armed with the kind of knowledge they need in an area as deceptively large as Oakland.

“I think some students don’t realize that Oakland is a city, and that they need to remember that when thinking about safety,” she said. “It’s important to let students know about the organizations that don’t get as much attention, such as [the Graduate School of ] Public Health or Technology Services.”

While the Pitt Police have not given any further details on how they’ve stepped up patrols in Oakland, representatives on Monday said students should be alert at all times.

“It’s much easier to avoid danger if you have your eyes up and open to what is going on around you, and if you notice anything suspicious, don’t hesitate to let the Pitt police know about it,” Holler said.

Deputy Chief Holly Lamb of North Fayette said students should also keep distractions to a minimum when walking the streets of Oakland.

“Students walk around on their phones and have their earbuds in around campus,” she said. “In order to truly be aware, you have to tear yourself away from that while you are out and about.”

Sophomore Yue Chen came to the event after seeing flyers posted around campus. Though she came mostly for the free swag and the OCC credit, she said she could use the extra information.

“I feel kind of comfortable on campus, but not extremely,” Chen said. “I think it’s above average for a college in terms of safety.”

Neuroscience sophomore Satya Yaramati thought the fair provided her with more information about how to be safe than she knew as a first-year student.

“I was interested in coming to this and learning about the different organizations and resources we have at our disposal, since I felt the school didn’t give us quite enough information about it during my [first] year,” she said.

DACA, pg. 1 Graduate School of Business, said Monday’s discussion was the second part of a series called the University Forum on Current Issues. This first part was a public immigration forum that took place last month in the Teplitz Memorial Moot Courtroom of Pitt’s School of Law. Gallagher said the discussion Monday was restricted to faculty and that reporters were not allowed to attend, but he and others spoke to The Pitt News after the meeting.

“This was designed to be a discussion and address any immediate concerns that faulty has about the recent event,” Gallagher said. “We wanted to create a venue where administrators and faculty could share their experiences and talk about it.”

Immigration and civil rights came into question after Trump passed an executive order Jan. 27, suspending visas and banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days after the order’s release, which would end June 2.

Find the full story online at

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The Pitt News SuDoku 2/21/17 courtesy of dailysudoku.com

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February 21, 2017

3

Opinions column

from the editorial board

Forced treatment wrong STRONG STUDENT answer for opioid crisis PARTICIPATION Bipartisanship is finally catching on in the state Senate, but the most recent product of this cooperation isn’t a productive piece of legislation.

In an act of desperation against Pennsylvania’s intensifying problems with opioid addiction, state Sen. Dom Costa, D-Allegheny, introduced an amendment to the Mental Health Procedures Act last Thursday. Senate Bill 391 would grant a spouse, relative or guardian of an accused drug addict the right to petition for the drug user’s involuntary commitment, according to a press release from the senator’s office.

This would follow the same process that already exists to institutionalize mental health patients considered a danger to themselves or society.

According to Costa, the amendment would “put the resources in place to support [addicts’ families] in their time of need.”

Protecting both addicts and the people in their lives is a valid and noble goal, as is offering rehabilitation rather than incarceration. But the proposal doesn’t so much help in the fight against addiction as it merely gives families the power to put addicts away.

The senator and his supporters, on both sides of the aisle, may be supporting this legislation because of a dedication to addicts’ families. But forcing addicts into recovery does little to address the worst symptoms of the opioid crisis, and even less to address its root causes.

According to a 2010 study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the results of rehabilitation for addicts who don’t make the choice to be there themselves are ambiguous

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at best and detrimental at worst. What’s more, there is already-scarce space in the state’s public rehab facilities from those willingly there, and the act proposes no solution to creating additional space.

The Costa amendment ignores both inconvenient facts of the state’s rehab system and the addicts’ rights themselves in its sweeping range. The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has threatened to litigate the amendment if passed, citing the bill’s ease of misinterpretation.

“We have concerns about this approach undermining people’s fundamental rights to liberty,” ACLU spokesman Andy Hoover said on Monday.

Beyond the amendment’s dubious justifications, the organization pointed to parts of the legislation that were cause for concern. The bill’s language makes it unclear who it would consider an “immediate danger” to themselves or society, leaving the door open for abuses. What’s more, it would only require the signature of one doctor to medically prove that a person has an addiction.

It’s impossible to know whether Costa believes that his amendment will actually help addicts and their families in Pennsylvania, or if it’s just part of a political PR campaign. Either way, Senate Bill 391 falls far short of aiding families truly concerned with helping relatives with opioid addictions.

Sweeping problems under the rug is a long-running tradition in the state capitol. But doing the same with people suffering from opioid addiction is unacceptable.

MAKES SGB WORK Rashi Seth

For The Pitt News It’s that time of year again: A high number of electable candidates running for Student Government Board contrasts with strikingly low interest in the race from Pitt students.

When a student casts a vote in the SGB elections, they’re making an important choice: selecting the person who’s going to be their voice to the administration. Unfortunately, not many students are taking the opportunity to participate in the process.

College-aged millennials’ political behavior in the past few years has leaned toward apathy and non-participation — usually with adverse effects. In last fall’s national elections, voters under 30 showed a clear preference for Hillary Clinton, with majorities in 42 states backing the Democratic ticket. Yet faltering turnout among young voters, particularly in swing states like Pennsylvania, all but handed victory to the Republican Party.

Turnout in the presidential election was poor — but it was nothing compared to the lack of interest students showed in

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last year’s SGB elections.

Out of the 18,296 undergraduate students at Pitt during the 2015-2016 academic year, only 2,636 voted in the 2016 elections — a mere 14.8 percent of the student body. The highest voter turnout in recent years was in 2014 with 4,127 votes cast, making up about 23 percent of students. These levels of participation

Jordan Mondell LAYOUT EDITOR are far too low to reflect a truly comprehensive account of what the student body wants to see in its leadership.

Cassidee Knott, RSA secretary for Panther Hall in charge of encouraging student participation in her residence See Seth on page 5

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Seth, pg. 4 hall, explained that students typically don’t know — and don’t care — about politics on campus.

“People aren’t really educated when it comes to things like elections and the entire process,” Knott said. “They don’t vote unless their rights are in trouble.”

Low voter turnout rates for SGB elections each year reflect a strong indifference among the student body. It’s difficult to determine who really is to blame for the apathy — the students or the campaigning process. It’s probably a bit of both.

For many students, SGB campaigns can feel repetitive, distant and unimportant. Students rarely get a chance to interact with the candidates outside of campaign literature on campus or on Facebook. The SGB presidential debate, held last Wednesday, is the only public and official event where students can see the candidates speaking about issues.

And of course, attendance for the event is typically feeble at best — fewer than 50 students came to watch this year.

While SGB campaigns already aren’t particularly long, the shortening of the process this year by one week was a new move.

“The four-week campaigning period last year was overwhelming and draining to the candidates running, and voter turnout was lower than the previous year’s three-week campaigning period, said SGB Elections Chairwoman Julia Lee. “We shortened it by a week this year to make the process less exhausting for our candidates.”

While shorter campaigns likely help the candidates running, three weeks is simply not long enough for voters to get to know the candidates’ intentions and policies. By the time a student realizes they should probably look into who is running and make a choice, it’s already election day and they’re being swayed by whichever campaign has reached them first with a smile, a piece of candy and a reminder to vote for their candidate.

Students generally don’t have the time to invest in elections — school, extracurriculars and social life often all take precedent over informing ourselves about the candidates and the issues.

Plus, it’s easy to be indifferent to the en-

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tire election process when students don’t see the result as something that directly affects them.

This is partly our fault as students — we should be informed and excited to decide which of our peers will lead us.

But it’s also on the candidates and the Board to do more to engage students.

Increased social media presence and accessibility could help students see what SGB really does and advocate for their concerns. Even this year’s presidential candidates themselves recognize that they need to push more thoroughly

for student participation outside dominant social circles. If candidates spend more time interacting with students, advertising their platforms and issues, they can touch students on a more personal level and are more likely to impact their vote.

Reaching out to a large number of students and organizations on campus clearly paid dividends for Natalie Dall, current SGB president, who won the presidency last year with 65 percent of the vote.

“My slate and I reached out to over

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100 organizations both times I ran for SGB and we would go to as many meetings possible for the organizations that responded,” Dall said.

Of course, no matter how a campaign plays out, individual students are the ones who have to actively contribute and cast a ballot in the end.

So log on to your my.pitt page today and click the link to cast your votes. If you need information on the candidates, each slate has a weebly website – or you can check out TPN’s SGB voting guide online.

5

Culture

FROM PITT TO HOLLYWOOD:

EUGENE GARCIA-CROSS

Kelechi Urama Staff Writer

Eugene Garcia-Cross was one of us just over a decade ago: holed up in the Cathedral of Learning and studying for exams.

“The Cathedral was the center of my universe,” said the Pitt alum, who graduated in 1999 with a degree in history and English, and completed his MFA in creative writing in 2006. As an undergrad, he would often spend hours on the fifth floor of the educational pantheon, studying with classmates.

Now, Garcia-Cross has traded Oakland’s most iconic study spot for a work space near Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, ditching study sessions for table reads. But he’s still writing about the city.

The 35-year-old became a creative writing professor and then a screenwriter after leaving Pitt. Garcia-Cross, who is half Puerto-Rican, got his start in the television industry through the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s 2015 television writers program.

The fellowship helped him get a job as a writer’s production assistant on ABC’s upcoming “Downward Dog” primetime series. The show, which takes place in Pittsburgh, features a recently single woman, Nan, and her changing relationship with her dog, Martin. As a production assistant, he sat in the writers room, taking notes and preparing scripts for table reads with the actors.

“When the writers would finish a script, [ABC] and network executives would read it and give their notes,” Garcia-Cross said. “I was basically the go-between the writers and the facility.”

Garcia-Cross took a meandering path to Hollywood. As a first-year at Pitt, he wasn’t even interested in writing — like so many other students, Garcia-Cross was pre-med. With no passion for the material, he started skipping classes and struggled to get passing grades. It wasn’t until his sophomore year, when he took a class under the late poet Bill Kushner, that he realized his passion for fiction writing.

“I completely fell in love [with writing],” Garcia-Cross said. “I went from being a C student to one who took every language, literature and writ-

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ing class I could.”

He joined The Pitt News as a staff writer, where he primarily covered local news, and while working on his master’s, he became an editor for an on-campus magazine called “Nidus,” now known as “Hot Metal Bridge.” On the weekends, he would listen to various authors read Downtown, always looking for ways to improve his own writing.

Even after discovering writing, Garcia-Cross still wasn’t looking to Hollywood. He started writing short stories, which have appeared in publications including Narrative Magazine and American Short Fiction, and he published a book of short stories, “Fires of Our Choosing,” in 2012.

“I thought I would be a short story writer for the rest of my life,” Garcia-Cross said.

Following short stories as a career after his MFA, Garcia-Cross spent years working as an adjunct professor of creative writing at Penn State Behrend College, in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, and writing short stories.

His former colleague, Tom Noyes, a professor of English at Behrend, remembers Garcia-Cross as an open and receptive professor who often met with students to continue discussions brought up in class.

“He was always eager to learn just as much from them as [they] learned from him,” Noyes said.

Cathy Day, currently a creative writing professor at Ball State University in Indiana, has similar memories of Garcia-Cross. Day was on GarciaCross’ thesis committee when he completed his MFA at Pitt in 2006, and has continued to be his mentor. She was initially drawn by his “clean, graceful” writing and eagerness to learn outside of the classroom. “[Garcia-Cross] is always really good about asking for help,” Day said. “I would give him advice and he would come visit me in my office and bring some of his mom’s jelly.”

The two stayed in touch after he finished his MFA, and Garcia-Cross even read drafts of her book, “Comeback Season,” to give her notes.

But the life of a writer in academia isn’t for

everyone. According to Day, Garcia-Cross is an extrovert, and would often struggle when he would seclude himself for hours to write on his own.

“It doesn’t surprise me that he’s found new ways to be a storyteller,” Day said.

Garcia-Cross took his first step toward this new path once he underwent open heart surgery in 2010, after doctors discovered he had a congenital heart defect. After the experience, he realized he wanted to see new cities, and relocated to Chicago with his wife in 2011, where he taught as a visiting professor at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago.

He stayed there until 2014, when he and his wife moved to New York, and he began teaching at Drew University. But he felt the pay didn’t compensate for the effort professors put into their work.

“I saw how tough it is to make a living in academia,” Garcia-Cross said. “There are so few tenure positions, and it’s just very competitive.”

As he considered his other career options, Garcia-Cross thought of a screenwriting course he’d taken in grad school, taught by Carl Kurlander, Pitt film professor and writer of “St. Elmo’s Fire.” “[Kurlander] would bring people like Louie Anderson to class, and he was always talking to us about Hollywood,” Garcia-Cross said.

Thinking back to those classes again in the Spring 2015, Garcia-Cross locked himself in his apartment, and in two weeks cranked out his first scripts since grad school. The first was a speculative episode of Netflix’s “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” used to demonstrate his writing ability and not as a produced script for the show.

The second script was an original pilot called “Rice and Dreams,” about a Puerto Rican chef who starts a food truck with her family after her once-successful restaurant goes bankrupt.

With those scripts, Garcia-Cross placed as a finalist in the highly competitive ABC/Disney TV writer’s fellowship, and ultimately secured a spot in the television writing fellowship by NHMC,

February 21, 2017

COURTESY OF EUGENE GARCIA-CROSS a month-long intensive screenwriting workshop geared toward preparing Latinos for writing jobs at major television networks. While visiting his mother in Erie in May 2016, he received a call offering him the job on “Downward Dog.” “I felt a little validated,” Garcia-Cross said. “I left Erie looking for something different, and I felt like this was that something different.”

Those successes gave him the confidence to pursue screenwriting full time. He’s currently working with Pittsburgh-based director Ryan Postas to turn his short story “The Brother,” from his book “Fires of Our Choosing,” into a short film this summer.

Garcia-Cross has also been working closely with Al Madrigal — best known as the Latino correspondent from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” — on a variety of new projects, including a pilot recently sold to CBS studios called “Call Me Al.” He’s had a considerable amount of success for a burgeoning screenwriter less than one year into his career, but Garcia-Cross said students interested in the entertainment industry can achieve the same.

“Take advantage of the organizations available to you. Go to all the meetings and all the lectures around you, and research, research, research,” Garcia-Cross said. “The more you know, the more prepared you are to do this kind of work.”

6

PITT A CAPPELLA GROUP SNAGS SECOND PLACE COURTESY OF PITTCH PLEASE

Emily Brindley Culture Editor

Pitt’s all-male a capella group, Pittch Please, took the stage over the weekend with song choices as wide-ranging as their vocals.

At a quarterfinal competition for Varsity Vocals International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, Pittch Please sang Andy Grammer’s peppy “Good to be Alive” and James Arthur’s slow-burning “Train Wreck.”

Repeating last year’s ranking, Pittch Please again took a second-place win in quarterfinals, earning them a spot in semifinals and a chance to sing their way to finals in New York City.

Pitt groups make up five of the 367 competing a cappella groups in this year’s ICCA. Each of the 367 groups first competes in a quarterfinal competition within its region, and the top two groups from each competition advance to semifinals. The nine winning groups at semifinals advance to finals in New York, along with one “wild card” group.

Judges choose the wild card group from among the second and third place groups at semifinals.

Two of the Pitt groups — Pittch Please and C Flat Run — competed at the quarterfinals in Ithaca, New York, on Feb. 18. Pittch Please trailed first-place winner IC Voicestream from Ithaca College by 42 points.

Pittch Please also won the Outstanding Soloist special award for Maurice Goodwin and Danny Mayhak’s performance in “Train Wreck.”

Zach Donovan, a sophomore computer science and jazz studies major as well as the

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music director for Pittch Please, said the group was excited but not entirely surprised to place second in quarterfinals.

“I think we knew that our group really had the potential to place,” Donovan said. “[But] it was obviously a pleasant surprise — the quarterfinal we were put into had a lot of talented groups.”

During Pittch Please’s first year as an official student organization in 2015, the group placed first at their quarterfinals for the Great Lakes region. The next year, Varsity Vocals reslated Pittch Please to the Central Region, and they took second place at their quarterfinals.

As second-place winners this year, Pittch Please will advance to the ICCA semifinals in Buffalo, New York, on March 25. Then, if the group either wins their semifinals competition or gets selected as the wild card group, they’ll perform in New York City’s Beacon Theater on April 22.

The remaining three Pitt groups who have not yet competed in quarterfinals — Pitches & Tones, Sounds Like Treble and The Songburghs — will compete March 4, at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall.

Donovan said the judges at the quarterfinal competition gave Pittch Please notes on their music and choreography, which the group will use to improve their performance before the next level of the competition.

“We’re going to take a couple weeks and kind of rework the set and once we get back from spring break we’re going to start rehearsing,” Donovan said. “We’re taking the recommendations of the judges to change around a couple things to really make a strong set for semifinals.”

February 21, 2017

7

Sports

shel-don je-ter: fans praise senior’s sensational showing Steve Rotstein Sports Editor

It was happening again.

The fans knew it. Pitt’s players knew it.

Hell, even Florida State’s players probably knew it.

The Pitt men’s basketball team had built a 15-point second-half lead against the No. 17 Florida State Seminoles after a 3-pointer by senior point guard Jamel Artis with 13:14 remaining. Nick Smider, a sophomore computer science major at Pitt watching from the upper level of the Oakland Zoo, figured Pitt had the game wrapped up.

“It’s hard to imagine them blowing a lead that late in the game,” Smider said. “I couldn’t even see [Artis’ 3-pointer], because the kid in front of me stood up ... everyone around me just kind of like stood up screaming, couldn’t believe what they were seeing.”

Still, the Panthers were only four days removed from letting an 11-point secondhalf lead slip away in a crushing 66-63 loss versus Virginia Tech. And sure enough, in a little more than five minutes of game time, the Seminoles whittled that 15-point deficit down to three.

Another seemingly comfortable doubledigit lead trimmed to just a single-possession game, with still more than eight minutes to play. All of a sudden, Smider wasn’t feeling so confident.

“I’m thinking that they probably lost it,” Smider said. “Because how can you lose that much momentum and that many points in such a short amount of time?”

Pitt sophomore guard Cameron Johnson knew his team had been here before, but he wasn’t about to let the Zoo faithful down again.

“We looked at each other like, ‘It’s not gonna happen again. We’re going to step it up,’” Johnson said at a Monday press conference.

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The teams traded buckets for a couple of minutes, and Pitt held a slim 66-62 lead with five minutes left. That’s when senior forward Sheldon Jeter buried a corner 3-pointer to stretch the Panthers’ lead back to seven, and Pitt cruised the rest of the way to an 80-66 win.

“That was when they really needed a momentum shift, and as soon as he hit that, the other team just fell apart,” Smider said. “I think the next couple of possessions they just kept turning it over. That just sealed it, that shot right there.”

Jeter shouted and strutted back down the court with both hands cocked by his side signaling “three,” as the frenzied Zoo showered him with praise. Chants of “Shel-don Je-ter!” rained down throughout the Petersen Events Center for the remainder of the game. “[Jeter’s 3-pointer] lit up the entire arena, I felt. I mean, everyone else showed up to play, but he was like next level on that,” Smider said. “I think everyone was really noticing the effort he was giving, and that definitely helped feed the win.”

Jeter said he’d heard the crowd chant his name before — but never in a moment like that.

“At the time, when they started chanting my name, the game was secured, so I went back and watched the game and I kind of just drank it in,” Jeter said Monday. “My whole tenure here, I’ve had a great relationship with the Oakland Zoo. So for them to chant my name in such a big game, it just made me feel appreciated.”

With the Panthers’ two leading scorers — Artis and senior forward Michael Young — combining for only 27 points in the game, Pitt needed a third scoring option to step up.

Johnson has usually been that third option, averaging a solid 12.1 points per game on the season.

But this time, it was Jeter who took over.

The Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, native outscored Artis and Young put together, tallying a career-high 29 points while shooting at a 12-of-14 clip.

Jeter is averaging a career-best 8.4 points per game this season, but his field goal percentage has nosedived from 53.3 percent last season down to 43.8 percent this year. Still, he’s played his best basketball of late, scoring 17 and 14 points, respectively, in Pitt’s wins against Boston College and Syracuse prior to the Virginia Tech debacle.

“It’s not a two-person show anymore,” Jeter said. “Now, you’ve got four or five people who can score over 10 points any game.

I’m finally starting to be aggressive, Cam’s hitting his stride, Chris [Jones] is still making plays, and it relieves the pressure off [Artis] and Mike. Now the whole defense can’t just focus on them, they have to respect me, Cam and Chris, as well.”

He said his teammates have been pushing him to be more aggressive on offense after a slow start to the year. That approach seems to be working, as he’s averaging more than 17 points per game over his last four outings.

The Panthers now sit at 15-12 overall and 4-10 in the ACC, tied with Clemson for 12th place in the loaded ACC. With four games left in the regular season — including two against top-20 teams North Carolina and Virginia — Pitt has little to no margin for error.

It’s not too late to put together a late-season surge and sneak into the NCAA Tournament, but the Panthers can’t afford any more letdowns like the one they experienced against Virginia Tech — and it sounds like they’re well aware of that.

“At the very minimum, we should use [the Virginia Tech loss] as motivation to go out and get as many as we can these next four [games], go out and beat North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Vir-

February 21, 2017

Sheldon Jeter scored a career-high 29 points in Pitt’s 80-66 win over Florida State. John Hamilton VISUAL EDITOR ginia,” Johnson said. “Just knowing that we dropped some that we should have won, we’re just now like, ‘OK, let’s go win some that people might not expect us to win.’”

As for Jeter’s career-best performance that gave the Panthers a chance to make a postseason run, Smider said he hasn’t seen anything like it during his time at Pitt.

“Not in person, I definitely haven’t,” Smider said. “You’d probably have to go back a couple of years to get something similar, to be honest.”

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February 21, 2017

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