The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts & Sports
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 — 7A

Jon Stewart set to 
leave ‘Daily Show’

The comedian’s 

17-year run as host 
will end this year 

By ALEX INTNER

Daily Arts Writer

I’ve been in denial about this 

day since rumors surfaced that 
Jon Stewart may leave “The Daily 
Show” at the end of his current 
contract. I just couldn’t believe 
that he – someone who has held 
the same job for 17 consecutive 
years – would actually consider 
moving on to something else. I 
couldn’t consider that someone 
who has been on my television 
every day for the past few years 
might not be there anymore.

But that day is almost here. 

Comedy 
Central 
officially 

announced today that Stewart will 
leave “The Daily Show” at the end 
of the year. When he does, we’ll 
have to say goodbye to someone 
who has been the face of comedic 
satire in the ’00s. Who did we turn 
to after 9/11 to help us understand 
the tragedy? Who did we turn to 
when we wanted to hear about 
the hypocrisy of fundamental 
issues? Who else would tell us 
about the problems with a certain 
North Dakotan winter driving 
campaign?

Just watching those videos – it 

reminds me how critical his voice 
is to today’s discourse surrounding 
current 
events. 
Whenever 

something happened, whether it 
was Brian Williams inflating the 
truth, a president getting elected 
or deep-dish pizza needing to be 

taken down, I turned to Stewart 
for commentary that would both 
make me laugh and inform me. His 
insight, while sometimes crude, 
brought intelligence to discussions 
about cable news. Just watch his 
“Chaos on Bullshit Mountain” 
segment, 
which 
embodied 

everything about the hole that will 
be created by his retirement from 
the show.

Stewart has also launched the 

careers of so many of comedy’s 
most powerful voices. He helped 
propel the careers of Steve Carell, 
John Hodgman, Larry Wilmore, 
Ed Helms, Rob Corddry and Rob 
Riggle. Each of these comedians 
have achieved great successes, 
partially due to their exposure 
and work on “The Daily Show.” 
Most 
importantly, 
Stephen 

Colbert and John Oliver received 

their grassroots training first 
under Stewart, before moving on 
to launch their individual shows. 
Collectively, 
the 
three 
have 

worked to provide a humorous 
lens on discussions about the 
United States – Colbert with his 
satirical right-wing character and 
Oliver with his long segments on 
lesser-known, but serious issues.

Nevertheless, 
though 
his 

presence will be greatly missed, 
“The Daily Show” will go on. 
There are so many potential 
candidates, both in-house and 
outside of Comedy Central, that 
would also do a fantastic job in 
the role (though never in the same 
way as Stewart). Stewart’s long-
lived presence has rooted him 
as one of the most distinguished 
and respected figures in the 
world of television.

TV NOTEBOOK

COMEDY CENTRAL

We forgive you for “Death to Smoochie.”

NCAA Tournament Bubble Watch

By ERIN LENNON 

Daily Sports Editor

It’s never too early to check the 

PairWise Rankings.

That’s a lesson the Michigan 

hockey team learned the hard 
way last season. After a loss to 
Penn State in the first round of 
the Big Ten Tournament, the 
Wolverines held their breath and 
refreshed their web pages for 
two days before learning they 
would finish 16th in the rankings, 
effectively becoming the first 
team 
out 
of 

the 
NCAA 

Tournament.

While 

college 
basketball and 
college football 
teams are at 
the mercy of 
a 
selection 

committee, 
the 
NCAA 

Tournament 
in hockey is all but decided by 
the Pairwise system, which puts 
heavy emphasis on strength 
of schedule and quality wins. 
That 
means 
early-season 

losses 
to 
inferior 
opponents 

— like Michigan’s loss to New 
Hampshire in October — can 
come back to haunt teams on the 
bubble.

Now ranked No. 12 after a 

4-1 win over Michigan State 
at Soldier Field on Saturday, 
Michigan will likely have to 
finish the regular season at No. 
12 or higher — as the 16-team 
post season includes automatic 
bids for conference tournament 
champions — if it wants to avoid 
a repeat of last March. If not, 
the Wolverines will be forced 
to win at least one game in the 
conference tournament for the 
third straight season.

Even one loss to conference 

bottom-feeders 
in 
Wisconsin 

or Ohio State could keep the 
nation’s top offense — a favorite 
to win the Big Ten title over 
reigning champion Minnesota — 
from competing against the top 
defenses in the postseason.

And the Wolverines are well 

aware of the situation.

“I definitely look at it all the 

time,” said senior forward Zach 
Hyman. “I know (junior forward 
Andrew) Copp does too. We talk 
about it a lot.

“You want to be in a position 

where, if something does go 
wrong, your season’s not hanging 
on one game.”

With so many qualified teams 

in the hunt for those 16 spots, the 
Wolverines will simply have to 
win.

In the meantime, Michigan 

will root for teams like No. 
5 Michigan Tech and No. 16 
UMass-Lowell and hope that 
No. 19 Penn State and Minnesota 
continue to win against anyone 
but 
the 
Wolverines. 
They’ll 

look 
for 

consistently 
strong teams 
like 
Boston 

University 
and 
Boston 

College 
to 

stumble 
heading 
into 

the 
final 

stretch of the 
season.

Here’s 
the 

Daily’s look at “the bubble” as it 
stands with six weeks remaining 
in the regular season:

No. 11 Boston College: If 

Boston College played Michigan 
10 times, the Eagles would win 
five.

That is to say that these 

two teams have been neck and 
neck in the rankings all season 

and have been comparable in 
almost every aspect of their 
games. And like the Wolverines, 
Boston College has played just a 
handful of games over the last 
few weeks.

The Eagles are competing in 

one of the toughest conferences, 
though, meaning their next four 
games against ranked opponents 
will likely determine their fate 
before March.

No. 13 Quinnipiac: A program 

that appeared in the Frozen Four 
out of the ECAC just three years 
ago, Quinnipiac is no stranger 
to late-season hot streaks. It’s 
unbeaten in its last four contests 
against ranked opponents. The 
Bobcats sit atop the league with a 
13-2-1 record and stand to benefit 
from conference challengers who 
have beaten up on one another — 
Quinnipiac boasts five more wins 
than Dartmouth, Harvard and 
Yale, who sit at third, fourth and 
fifth place, respectively, in the 
ECAC.

No. 16 Harvard: Once a 

surprise top-five team that stuck 
around long after nonconference 
play, 
Harvard 
has 
dropped 

significantly in the rankings 
after losing three straight games, 
including losses to rival Yale and 
Boston University. In addition to 
Boston College, the Crimson will 

take on Cornell — another team 
looking to return to the rankings 
— on Monday.

No. 19 Yale : Having navigated 

through the first half of its 
conference schedule with only 
one loss, the Bulldogs were 
most recently lifted by a win 
over Harvard. From here, Yale 
will play Union, RPI, Princeton, 
Colgate and Cornell — all of 
which have struggled this season 
— which stand only to improve 
Yale’s standing come March.

No. 20 Penn State: Michigan 

is all too familiar with the 
Nittany Lions’ season-ruining 
potential. Penn State is coming 
off of a sweep of Wisconsin after 
having beaten No. 15 Vermont at 
home. The third-year program is 
second in the Big Ten, only one 
game behind the Wolverines in 
the win column. Penn State has 
proven it can win over ranked 
opponents throughout the year 
and should be considered a 
favorable candidate to win the 
Big Ten Tournament if it can’t 
sneak its way in on record alone.

And as luck would have it, 

Michigan and Penn State will 
meet for their final regular-
season series in Happy Valley on 
March 7 in what could be another 
make-or-break 
matchup 
for 

these two bubble teams.

PAUL SHERMAN/Daily

Senior forward Zach Hyman admits to regularly checking the PairWise Rankings to see where his team stands.

“I definitely 

look at it all the 
time. ... We talk 
about it a lot.”

Days from opener,
‘M’ looks forward 

By BEN FIDELMAN 

Daily Sports Writer

Whether it’s been indoors 

at Oosterbaan Field House or 
on the frosty turf of Ray Fisher 
Stadium, the Michigan baseball 
team is tired of being teased with 
practices and scrimmages — it’s 
ready for the real thing.

Not only will Friday’s opening 

day satisfy that craving for real 
gameplay, it will also usher 
in this fresh 2015 season for 
a program that has the talent 
and experience to make a 
push for the postseason. At 
the team’s Leadoff Banquet 
on Saturday night, Michigan 
coaches and players highlighted 
the program’s rich history and 
tradition.

During his opening remarks, 

coach Erik Bakich asked all 
former 
Michigan 
baseball 
players 
in 

the 
crowd 

to 
stand, 

summoning 
about 
15 

alumni. Next, 
he asked for 
all 
players 

that had won 
a 
Big 
Ten 

Championship to rise, which 
resulted in nearly all of the 
former players rising again. As 
a climax, he asked for all former 
players who had won national 
championships to stand, but just 
two rose.

Bakich, along with senior 

captains Eric Jacobson and 
Donnie Eaton, said that the 
Wolverines have always played 
with the knowledge of their rich 
heritage, but this year will be a 
little different.

“We 
tried 
to 
take 
(that 

tradition) on the team this year,” 
Eaton said. “The block ‘M’ is 
something that means a lot to us, 
and is very special. Seeing the 
guys in this room that have won 
the Big Ten, and have been to 
Omaha, that’s something that’s 
tough for us to watch and that 
we want to go after.”

Michigan 
last 
won 
the 

conference in 2008, which was 
also the last time the Wolverines 
made it through to the 64-team 
NCAA Tournament.

Multiple publications recently 

released 
their 
preseason 

predictions for the conference, 
and Michigan was mentioned 
often. Baseball America projects 
that the Wolverines will make it 
back to the regionals this year, 
playing as a No. 3 seed in the 
Nashville region.

Though 
the 
team 
travels 

to California this weekend to 
begin the season, conference 
play doesn’t begin until March 
20, and the NCAA tournament 
starts in late May. The coaching 
staff recognizes the lengthy 
season, and while there’s always 
a goal to make it to Omaha, it 
finds it more important to worry 
about the day-to-day progress of 

the team.

“There 
are 

two types of 
goals,” Bakich 
said. “There are 
process 
goals 

and 
there’s 

result 
goals. 

It’s important 
to know what 
your 
result 

goals are. For 
us, we want to 

go to the College World Series 
and win a championship. That’s 
a long way away, so it can’t be 
our focus. Our focus has to be 
on what can we do today to be 
the highest and best version of 
ourselves today, because today is 
all that matters.”

Most 
of 
the 
preseason 

polls have Michigan finishing 
somewhere in the middle of the 
conference, around fourth or 
fifth place, but nearly all have 
the Wolverines as a potential 
sleeper team to take the Big Ten 
crown.

Getting off to a solid non-

conference start is going to be 
key for the Wolverines if they 
have hopes of an at-large bid to 
the NCAA field — something 
that will be especially hard 
with the team on the road 
for the first six weeks of the 
season.

BASEBALL

“There are 

process goals 
and there’s 

results goals.”

Late collapse dooms ‘M’

By JACOB GASE 

Daily Sports Writer

When 
Kim 
Barnes 
Arico 

became the coach of the Michigan 
women’s basketball team in 2012, 
she inherited a team that hadn’t 
just struggled in rivalry games — 
it had been 
dominated 
in them.

In their first 41 seasons, the 

Wolverines 
had 
a 
combined 

26-113 record against Michigan 
State and Ohio State. In the most 
hotly contested games of each 
season, Michigan simply could 
never match up to its rivals.

But 
Tuesday 
night 
in 

Columbus, Team 42 had a chance 
to accomplish a never-before-seen 
feat: completing season sweeps of 
both the Spartans and Buckeyes.

And with a 62-49 lead with 

9:10 remaining in the game, the 
Wolverines seemed poised to 
do just that. In a game where it 
controlled the rebounding battle, 
50-40, Michigan was on its way 
to a second straight road rivalry 
victory after beating Michigan 
State last Thursday.

But 
with 
senior 
forwards 

Cyesha Goree and Nicole Elmblad 
in foul trouble, the Wolverines 
allowed a 12-0 Ohio State run that 
cost them their chance at history. 
The Buckeyes (9-4 Big Ten, 17-8 
overall) 
dominated 
Michigan, 

28-11, in the final nine minutes 
to pull off an improbable 77-73 
victory.

Ohio 
State 
guard 
Kelsey 

Mitchell, the nation’s leading 
scorer, scored 19 second-half 
points to lead the comeback. Her 
layup with 4:41 remaining put the 
Buckeyes on top, 65-64, for the 
first time since early in the first 
half.

Michigan (6-7, 14-10) briefly 

took the lead back on a pair of free 
throws by senior guard Shannon 
Smith before Ohio State guard 

Cait Craft put her team ahead 
for good with another contested 
layup.

Goree 
spent 
an 
extended 

period of time on the bench, but 
with the Wolverines struggling 
on both sides of the ball without 
her, Barnes Arico was forced to 
send her back out with four fouls. 
Goree ultimately fouled out with 
5:12 to go.

“I don’t think we really had 

a choice,” Barnes Arico said. 
“Nicole Elmblad had four fouls, 
too. Every time we made a run, it 
felt like, (Goree) was in the game. 
It was important for us to try to 
get her back in.”

Despite playing with four fouls 

and without Goree alongside her, 
Elmblad made an admirable effort 
to keep the Wolverines in the 
game. In addition to her season-
high 14 points, Elmblad grabbed 
a career-high 15 rebounds, many 
of which came in the form of put-
backs on the offensive glass.

“She was unbelievable, she was 

all over the place,” Barnes Arico 
said. “She just was a presence out 
there today. I was so happy for 
her. It was so great for her to have 
a night like this. But I’m sure she 
would’ve preferred the victory 
over her career night.”

Michigan’s early dominance 

in the paint put it in a position 
to run away with the game. The 
Wolverines’ 17 offensive rebounds 
gave their shooters several second 
chances — the most notable being 
a 
3-pointer 
from 
sophomore 

guard 
Siera 
Thompson 
that 

gave Michigan a lead it didn’t 
relinquish for over 20 minutes.

But the Wolverines’ physical 

play quickly caught up with them. 
After the defense held Mitchell to 
just three points for the majority 
of the first half, Thompson 
fouled Mitchell on a desperation 
3-pointer 
with 
1.4 
seconds 

remaining — the shot dropped in, 
and Mitchell converted the four-
point play.

The foul was one of 25 for the 

Wolverines, who saw both Goree 
and Smith foul out. Elmblad 
and sophomore guard Danielle 
Williams each finished with four.

Though 
freshman 
forward 

Jillian Dunston contributed a 
career-high seven rebounds off 
the bench, Michigan’s defense 
couldn’t prevent a late-game 
collapse with so many key players 
limited by foul trouble.

And 
just 
like 
that, 
the 

Wolverines’ shot at history was 
gone.

DELANEY RYAN/Daily

Nicole Elmblad recorded a double-double in Michigan’s loss.

MICHIGAN
OHIO STATE 

73
77

