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February 11, 2015 - Image 7

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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.

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