LIE £id igan Bait Ann Arbor, Michigan Friday, March 13, 2009 In Big Ten opener, 'M'routs Iowa Led by strong, inside presence of forward DeShawn Sims, Blue all but seals NCAA bid By JASON KOHLER Daily Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS - Standing by a locker in Conseco Fieldhouse, redshirt freshman Laval Lucas-Perry radiated the confidence of Michigan fans throughout the country: "I think we've already made it to the NCAA Tour- nament," Lucas-Perry said. Junior forward DeShawn Sims scored Michigan's first 14 points on 7-of-7 shooting to lead the seventh- seeded Wolverines to a 73-45 win over No. 10 seed Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament yesterday afternoon. The victory all but cements Michigan's spot in the NCAA Tournament, its first tournament bid in 10 years. The Wolverines will learn if they made the tour- IOWA 45 nament, their tournament MICHIGAN 73 seed and where they'll be headed for NCAA first-round play on Sunday. - Although the Wolverines tried not to think about the Big Dance, they knew they could ill afford to drop a game to a team with a sub-.500 record. "We didn't want to put too much stress on it and stress it too much to where we felt like we had pres- sure on us," sophomore forward Manny Harris said. "But it was definitely a goal. We thought about it." Sims used the pressure as motivation early. Hes exploded for 27 points - 18 of them in the first half - ------ and hit 12 of16 shots. "You can tell from the start, even from the hotel room, you know when you're ready to go," Harris said. "He talks about it. He says something about it. His whole body language is different.", And Michigan (9-9 Big Ten, 20-12 overall) didn't shy away from feeding the hot hand. "You feel like when you give it to him, he's going to score," Harris said. "You sometimes don't even go rebound, which we got to do. But that's how our team builds off him scoring and him getting into it." ; No other Wolverine scored until redshirt freshman guard Laval Lucas-Perry drained a 3-pointer eight SAM WOLSON/Daly minutes into the first half. Manny Harris soars past owa defenders during Michigan's 73-45 victory over Iowa in the first round of See FIRST ROUND, Page 3 the 2009 Big Ten Tournament yesterday in Indianapolis. Michigan will play Illinois in the next round. michigandaily.com UNIVERSITY RESIDENCE HALLS Stockwell:. Not. for freshmen University Housing policy change part of effort to retain. upperclassmen By VERONICA MENALDI Daily StaffReporter Many upperclassmen on cam- pus might shy away from resi- dence hall life after their first years of sharing rooms and halls mostly filled with freshmen. But University Housing is trying to change that. Stockwell Residence Hall, a former all-female dorm current- ly undergoing renovations, will reopen in Fall 2009 as a coedu- cational residence hall geared toward sophomores and upper classmen. University Housingspokesman Peter Logan said the residence hall will not house any freshmen and will feature programming to enhance the second-year experi- ence. "It will be unique among any of the residence halls," he said.. Logan said the prevalence of single rooms in Stockwell was one of the main reasons Housing offi- cials chose to gear the residence hall toward sophomores. "Since returning students tend to prefer single rooms, we made a decision to create more of a second-year and older com- munity for Stockwell," Logan said. Ashley Londy, president of the Residence Halls Association, said Stockwell has a majority of single rooms available in a rela- tively central location, making it a desirable option for returning students. "Stockwell has a lot of single rooms, and it's interesting to see more single rooms available to both men and women," Londy said. "That way they areboth able to enjoy having that option that's a limited commodity." Londy said she hopes the uniquely sophomore experience offered in Stockwell will at least draw more students into consid- ering continued living in the resi- dence halls after their freshman year. "I hope it attracts more people to stay in the residence halls," she said. "I really hope people recognize that the University is responding to the needs of the .students to make sure the stu- dents have whatthey want, which is amazing." See STOCKWELL, Page 3 CAMPUS LIFE AND THE ECONOMY Student groups struggle to raise money in tough times. AMERC A'S OTHER WAR Panel: Local governance key in Afghan. Michigan Student Assembly officials report increase in funding requests By AMY MUNSLOW Daily StaffReporter Few organizations have found sufficient cover from the fallout of the nation's economic downturn and student groups on campus are no different. With students forced to bud- get more carefully, some campus organizations are facing decreased recruitment and alack of funds. LisaAverill, the treasurer for the Michigan Student Assembly, said rising numbers of funding requests from various student organizations are overwhelming MSA's Budget Priorities Coinmittee and Com- munity Service Commission, the two MSA committees that allocate funds for organizations on campus. "Right now, we absolutely have had to explore where we could pull money from to fund the massive influx of legitimate, well-filled out BPC/CSC applications," she wrote in an e-mail. Averill, an LSA junior, added that the primary reason for this flood of funding applications is decreased participation in campus groups, especially those with membership fees. "With lower recruitment, these organizations have to reach out even more to fund their events, See STUDENT GROUPS, Page 3 Anthropologists say Taliban could serve purpose in fixing country's problems By MALLORY JONES Daily StaffReporter Three anthropologists said yesterday that the solution to the increasing violence in Afghani- stan might just be to put the Tali- ban back in power. In a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Russian and East European Studies yesterday, the experts discussed their solutions to the conflict in Afghanistan. David Edwards, professor of social sciences in the anthropol- ogy and sociology at Williams College, Nazif Shahrani, profes- sor of anthropology at Indiana University and Alessandro Mon- sutti, a social anthropologist and postdoctoral fellow at Yale Uni- versity, spoke to a room of about 60 people. The event was also broadcast to two other locations on campus. Douglas Northrop, director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies, said the depart- ment decided to host the event after students expressed interest in the complex country. "(These speakers) spent years livingthere, learningits languages, and understanding its cultures," Northrop wrote in an e-mail. "Given that the USA is now send- ing tens of thousands of troops into Afghanistan, surely it is critical for all of us to learn more about the See PANEL, Page 3 THIS GUY'S GOT TALENT - AND A BIRD. INVESTING OVERSEAS TAMID connects business students with Israeli economy Organization educates members on economic matters, sends them to Israel By MALLORY BEBERMAN Daily StaffReporter Sometimes a person's best ideas are generated around 3 a.m., while hanging out with friends in your freshman residence hall. At least this was the case for Sasha Gribov and Eitan Ingall, the co-founders of TAMID Israel Investment Group, a student-led nonprofit organization aiming to bridge the gap between American business students and the Israeli economy. "We've started something that we think could revolutionize the connection between our genera- tion of business students and the state of Israel," said Gribov, a Busi- ness junior. Ingall is an LSA junior concentrating in organizational studies. Gribov added that the group's members were motivated to create this opportunity for students, out of their lovefor Israel. "Israel is a huge part of our iden- tity and who we are as young peo- ple, as Americans and as Jews and we wanted to create somethingthat would facilitate that connection for other members of our generation," he said. At thebeginning of this semester, 20 freshmen and sophomores with a shared interest in business and Israel joined forces with TAMID's 15-member executive board to cre- ate the group's first membership class. Business junior Garrett Leven- See TAMID, Page 3 Freshman magician Alan Smola, who has been doing shows since the age of 10, performs at the Michigan's GotTalent show last night in the East Quadrangle Residential College Auditorium. For more photos of the event, check out michigandaily.com. WEATHER H :49 TOMORROW Lo:28 GOT A NEWS TIP? Cali 734-763-2459 ore-mail news@michigandaily.com and let us know. NEW ON MICHIGANDAILY.COM Michigan lands a QB. Close on another one? THEGAME.BLOGS.MICHIGANDAILY.COM INDEX NEWS ........ . . 2 ART'S.....................S.............5 Vo.cXiX,No.108 SUDOKU...............................3 CLASSIFIEDS............6 m2009TheMichiganlaily OPINION...........................4 SPORTS .......................7 ,A