Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
WATER POLO
Wolverines settle for third at
Eastern Championships
MEN'S GOLF
Thompson finishes third
at Big Ten Tournament
By JEREMY SUMMITT
For the Daily
Coming off its 11th straight Col-
legiate Water Polo Association
Western Division championship,
the 10th-ranked Michigan wom-
en's water polo team (4-2 CWPA,
23-12 overall) was looking to con-
tinue its success at the Eastern
Championships at Brown Uni-
versity this past weekend. But the
Wolverines fell short of a cham-
pionship with a 2-1 record in the
tournament.
On Friday, Michigan jumped
out to a quick start in its first game
against Bucknell (2-4, 15-24),
taking a 5-3 lead into halftime.
Michigan's attackers - sophomore
Lauren Dudley and junior Kiki
Golden - led the way with two
goals each in the first half.
As the second half began, the
Wolverines did not let off the gas.
Golden picked up a hat trick early
in the third quarter, and Michigan
took an 8-5 lead into the final quar-
ter.
Bucknell tried to make a come-
back off two quick goals to start the
fourth, but the Wolverines man-
aged to tally three of their own in
the final four minutes of play. The
scoring outburst by both teams led
to a final score of 12-8, and Michi-
gan headed to the semifinals the
next day.
With much excitement and opti-
mism, the Wolverines hopped into
the pool to face their 14th-ranked
division rival, Maryland. With a
championship berth at stake, the
Terrapins struck first.
Maryland scored first, as the
Wolverines managed to miss a pen-
alty shot shortly after conceding
the first goal. Following the missed
penalty were two more goals, giv-
ing the Terrapins a 3-0 lead after
the first quarter.
"If I knew (what caused the
slow start), we wouldn't have
been slow," said Michigan coach
Matt Anderson. "(Possibly) it was
because we missed the penalty
shot so early."
Whatever Anderson said in
the huddle after the first quarter
worked for the Wolverines, as they
rebounded nicely to knot the score
at four heading into the halftime
break.
The third quarter was a back-
and-forth affair, with the Wolver-
ines and the Terrapins exchanging
goals until the quarter ended, leav-
ing Maryland up, 7-6, heading into
the fourth quarter.
With the championship game
in sight, the Wolverines came
together to make one last attempt
at achieving glory.
The alternating trend of goals
continued in the final quarter, and
Maryland led Michigan, 9-8, head-
ing into the final possession.
The Wolverines drew a penalty
with two seconds remaining and
had one last chance to send the
game into overtime.
Golden was chosen to take the
final penalty shot, but the Mary-
land goalie stepped up and won the
game for the Terrapins.
"If we had to do it again, the best
player takes the final shot," Ander-
son said. "(We) missed two penal-
ties this game so maybe it wasn't
meant to be. They worked hard,
By PETER BROWN
Daily Sports Writer
Matt Thompson was too busy
to attend his graduation ceremony
on Saturday. '
While his fellow peers were
taking in Sanjay Gupta's com-
mencement speech at Michigan
Stadium, the senior was hitting
the links for his now-alma mater
at the 2012 Big Ten Champion-
ships in French Lick, Ind.
He didn't disappoint either.
Thompson (74-73-70-72) shot a
one-over-par, four-round total of
289, six shots behind champion
Luke Guthrie of Illinois - good for
third place individually.
"I felt like I got off to a good
start pretty much every round,"
Thompson said. "(The) first two
rounds, I ended up with a couple
higher scores than I would've
liked to."
The same could be said for a
majority of the competitors as
well. As the first-ever neutral site
of the men's golf Big Ten Cham-
pionships, the Pete Dye Course
at French Lick Resort gritted
its teeth all weekend long. Dye's
course layouts frequently are
given the moniker "Dye-abolical."
"(It) was probably one of, if not
the toughest course we've played
all year," Thompson said. "Every
hole was a grind. There wasn't
really one hole where you stood
on the tee box and you felt like you
had to make birdie. Par was a good
score on every hole."
Following Saturday's third
round, Thompson was in sole
possession of second place, seven
strokes behind Guthrie, who shot
a stellar five-under-par 67 in the
round.
"Unfortunately, Luke (Guth-
rie) played so well in that third
round," Thompson said. "After
he triple-bogeyed one of his first
holes, he then had eight birdies.
That's just crazy."
During Sunday's final round,
Thompson shot an even-par 72,
complete with two birdies and
two bogeys. Guthrie finished his
tournament with a one-over 73,
good for a five-under-par total,
four strokes ahead of second-place
finisher Sam Chien of North-
western and six shots in front of
Thompson.
"There was a pretty good gap
for (Thompson) to make up at the
start of the day," said Michigan
coach Chris Whitten. "This golf
course does not really allow for
someone to go out there and tear
it up."
It's been an uphill battle for
the Wolverines this spring. In
order to make their fifth-straight
NCAA Regional appearance, they
needed to win the the tourna-
ment outright for an automatic
bid. Ultimately, the Wolverines'
inexperience that made them fall
short.
"We had four guys who had
never played in the Big Ten Cham-
pionship before," Whitten said.
"So, I think it was a learning expe-
rience for them. I know all of them
wish that they had played better,
and they're capable of playing bet-
ter.
"We're just going to take this
tournament and learn from it, and
it'll help us get motivated for the
summer and for next year."
Junior Miguel Echavarria was
Michigan's second-best scorer of
the tournament, ending with a
21-over-par total and tied for 33rd.
The other three Wolverines mak-
ing the trip down to French Lick
were freshman Noori Hyun, who
finished 55th, freshman Andrew
Wong, who finished 56th, and
junior Matt Alessi, who finished
59th.
The Wolverines finished in 10th
place in the team standings, one
place behind their initial seeding
for the tournament.
As for Thompson - Michigan's
record-holder for lowest scoring
average in a season - his steady
play all season long will more than
likely warrant an individual berth
at the NCAA Regional. On May 7,
the NCAA will release its choices
for individual at-large bids. If
Thompson receives a bid, then
he'll be playing at his home course
come mid-May.
"(Matt) has had a great year
and he just keeps getting better,"
Whitten said. "The thing about
him is his consistency. He just
shows up at every single tourna-
ment playing well and he did that
again this week."
The NCAA Central Region-
al will be held at the U-M Golf
Course May 17-19.
NOTABLE QUOTABLE
"Remember when the country
rallied around you in hopes of a
better tomorrow? That was
hilarious.
- Jimmy Kimmel addressing President Barack Obama at the White
House Correspondents' Dinner, as reported by The Washington Post.
WILLIAM LEAF AND BENNETT STEIN W
A step too far
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Its news, not drama
15
but there were a couple keys to the
rnm
game that allowed Maryland to get
their goals."
After a tough loss to rival
Maryland, the Wolverines had to
rebound quickly for their third
place game against Brown Univer-
sity (3-2, 20-18).
Michigan jumped out to a quick
lead with two goals from Gold-
6 en before surrendering the lead
before halftime.
In the third quarter, however, it
3 2 1 was all Golden. She scored three
goals in the third to bring her game
7 total up to five heading into the
fourth quarter.
3 With the game tied at six head-
ing into the final quarter of play,
6 2 Michigan secured a 9-7 victory
6 over Brown, taking the third place
crown.
4 "We exceeded everyone's
expectations, but we didn't meet
9 our own, which is to play to be the
best," Anderson said.
4 7 1This young Michigan team will
take home a new piece of hard-
ware, the third place crown from
S Eastern Championships, which
will rest nicely alongside its 11th
consecutive Western Division title.
Almost everyone is a criminal.
If you have ever smoked marijua-
na, consumed alcohol underage
or walked on railroad tracks, you
are guilty of a misdemeanor. You
would most likely be in prison
right now if you were convicted
for every single offense you ever
committed.
We want the police to use
their authority to punish people
who injure others, however, they
often use their power to harass
and imprison those who have not
harmed anyone. Many think that
the police only enforce the law, and
that anyone who goes to prison is
getting whatthey deserve. But this
is not always the case. We are all
criminals, but those of us who are
not in a targeted group can, for the
most part, ignore this. The police
rely on individual complaints and
don't always enforce the law in a
just manner. If every crime were
prosecuted,>courts and prisons
would be overflowing with pris-
oners. If this were the case, politi-
cians and their supporters would
be caught in the system, making
it necessary to reform laws and
restrict police authority.
To avoid criticism, police offi-
cers often only arrest those who
they can get away with target-
log. Officers respond totvalid
complaints, but they also harass
homeless people, radical politi-
cal groups and religious groups
who have little political power.
The process of choosing whom to
watch and arrest is largely invis-
ible to the public. Police depart-
ments, such as the University of
Michigan's Department of Public
Safety (DPS), have internal poli-
cies and individual officers that
can choose when to arrest people
or let them off with warnings.
-Surveillance cameras make this
process even more secretive and
powerful. With cameras readily
available, the police do not need
citizens' complaints to justify
who they choose to target. Video
surveillance is not limited by the
size of a police staff, and officers
are held less accountable by the
public, when they use surveillance
cameras. In order to promote a just
community that protects peopies'
civil liberties and rights, the peo-
ple need a say in police authority,
and installing more surveillance
cameras does just the opposite.
University Vice President for
Student Affairs E. Royster Harper
and DPS leaders have suggested
installing more cameras because
of the recent increase in larcenies.
Administrators must not agree to
this and can support this argu-
ment with evidence from around
the world showing that surveil-
lance cameras are often ineffective
in preventing crime. Regardless
of such data, some students will
support the plan and many will
remain apathetic because they do
not think the police will be inter-
ested in targeting them. While
these students may be right, we
must not endanger the civil liber-
ties of those whom the police are
likely to target.
We should only accept increased
police surveillance if it will bring
us great benefits along with this
cost. While DPS has a unique duty
to promote campus safety, it must
not be given free rein to unnec-
essarily control our civil liber-
ties. It is critical that DPS and
University administrators look
carefully at the potential costs of
surveillance cameras on campus.
Slightly reducing the chance that
our laptops are stolen is not a good
enough reason to give up what
little oversight we have over our
campus police.
Bennett Stein and William
Leaf are members oftthe ACLU-
UM Undergraduate chapter.
It's finally summer vacation.
After many months of wait-
ing, it's time for long weekends
with friends, movie marathons
and, in some
households, the
sound of cable
news com-
mentators fill-
ing the home
as families go_
about their
daily lives.
It's no secret MICHAEL
that cable news SPAETH
isn't always the
most objec-
tive. In fact, studies have shown
that cable news often misinforms
its viewers. In November 2011, a
study by Fairleigh Dickinson Uni-
versity found that Fox News view-
ers were "less likely to know that
Egyptians overthrew their gov-
ernment" than people who didn't
watch any news at all. The study
also found that MSNBC viewers
were "most likely to think the
(Occupy Wall Street) protestors
are Republicans" than people
who didn't watch any news.
The large amount of viewers
absorbing this misinformation is
certainly troubling. The real prob-
lem, however, lies in the common
belief that watchingtelevision is a
passive experience. This, in turn,
makes it difficult for viewers to
rationally consider political issues
and events. As The New York
Times columnist Jane Brody stat-
ed in 2004, watching television is
a "mentally passive activity." Nor-
mally, we watch television when
we are relaxing, texting a friend
or doing another activity. Let's be
honest - we don't carefully ana-
lyze everything we see on televi-
sion. Instead, we just sit back and
enjoy the show.
Most of the time, there's noth-
ing wrong with that. Sitcoms,
sports games, home improvement
shows, dramas and most other
shows on television aren't sup-
posed to be carefully scrutinized.
They're meant to be enjoyed.
These shows are clearly adver-
tised as entertainment and should
be treated as such.
News programs, however,
aren't supposed to be entertain-
ment. They're there to be actively
analyzed and critiqued by view-
ers when the information isn't
correct or when politicians aren't
being held accountable for their
actions by the news media. Yet,
cable news is becoming a form of
entertainment in which commen-
tators compete to be the loudest
voice in the room, catering to the
preferences and beliefs of specific
viewers at the expense of provid-
ing a vital service to our country.
If we treat cable news as enter-
tainment, we will naturally sit
back and enjoy the show, instead
of scrutinizing the content of the
programs. When watching cable
news becomes a passive expe-
rience, we consciously give up
our willpower to fight back with
our own logical reasoning. Most
importantly, without rational and
informed citizens, our country is
weakened greatly.
When we read bodies of text,
our minds are more engaged than
they are when watching televi-
sion. In 2009, Dr. Jennifer Otten
of Stanford University's School
of Medicine told The New York
Times, "compared to watching
television, you burn more calories
reading, writing, doing desk work
- pretty much any activity other
than sleeping." In November,
Associate Professor Dr. Ahmad
Salehi of Stanford University also
told The New York Times, "for
everyone, the evidence is very,
very strong that physical activity
will ... improve cognitive health."
Since we are more physically
active when we read than when
we watch television, reading bod-
ies of text can help to improve our
cognition and, in turn, improve
our understanding of the facts
underlying important political
issues.
Although some articles in news-
papers, news magazines and other
publications may contain con-
tent that is similar to the content
of cable news shows, the notion
that our cognition improves when
we read bodies of text suggests
that our minds are more capable
of fighting back against illogical
arguments when we read. Even
the Internet - which poses another
set of problems for our cognitive
processing, according to writers
like Nicholas Carr - is likely to be
better for our minds than televi-
sion because we choose what we
read on the Internet, we read at
our own pace and our minds are
actively processing the informa-
tion. When we read, the television
does not determine what informa-
tion we absorb or the rate at which
we receive that information.
News
programs aren't
entertainment
As the future leaders and great
thinkers of the world, we need to
get in the habit of actively ques-
tioning and analyzing informa-
tion in the political arena on its
own terms, without the interfer-
ence of cable news commentators
who could possibly be spreading
misinformation. Even if news net-
works won't meet their respon-
sibilities toward our country, we
can still meet our responsibilities
to ourselves and our futures. We
can start by reading about news
to further exercise our cogni-
tive abilities. But when the TV is
inevitably turned on, we need to
separate entertainment from sub-
stantive content that impacts our
lives and think about the material
accordingly.
I plan to watch some comedies
during my summer vacation. I
might even watch a drama or two.
But cable news won't be the source
of my relaxation this summer.
Michael Spaeth can be reached
at micspa@umich.edu.
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