The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports & News
Wednesday, January 27, 2016 — 7A
Behind the mask
Freshman guard’s
protective gear
dates back to
high school
By CHRIS CROWDER
Daily Sports Writer
Sunday,
in
the
Michigan
women’s
basketball
team’s
matchup
against
Nebraska,
freshman
guard
Boogie
Brozoski entered the game with
5:10 left in the first quarter.
Multiple players on the floor
were
sporting
headbands,
but Brozoski’s headwear was
different.
She was wearing a clear,
plastic mask. It was her first time
donning
the
face-protecting
accessory as a Wolverine, but
Brozoski has worn it in the past.
During her high school days
in New York, Brozoski broke her
nose twice. Injuries are nothing
new to her — she also fractured
her hip in eighth grade.
But despite the two nose
injuries, she never missed a game
in high school. Brozoski was able
to play through the injury and
after-effects of the pain because
of the mask. Playing with it on
wasn’t simple, though, and she
had to get used to it.
“I had to get used to sweating
a lot, keeping it on when it’s
sweaty, and taking it off really
quick and wiping it off,” Brozoski
said. “Visibility was something I
had to get used to as well, but it
was a smooth adjustment (this
week).”
In practice Friday, Brozoski
was hit in the face by as
inadvertent elbow. She describes
her current injury to her nose as
a small fracture, and she chose
to wear the mask for protection
from further injury on the court.
Her mother had the mask she
wore in high school shipped to
Ann Arbor in time for Sunday’s
contest. Though the mask is
the same, Brozoski has no
sentimental
value
attached
to it. By this point, she’s used
to playing with it on, and the
routine that comes with it, but
she would rather play with no
obstructions to her comfort or
visibility.
Some
well-known
NBA
players
have
sported
many
different styles of the mask
after facial injuries. Long time
Pistons shooting guard Richard
Hamilton
wore
one
after
breaking his nose in Detroit’s
2003-04 championship season.
And even after Hamilton’s nose
healed, he wore the mask until
he retired nine seasons later.
Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and
many other players have had to
wear it for shorter time spans.
LeBron James even wore a black,
carbon-fiber one, different than
the more common clear one
Brozoski wears.
Brozoski has no plans to wear
the mask after her nose heals, but
she found the transition to wear
it for the meantime easy because
of her previous experiences
playing with the mask on.
“I don’t really like it that
much,” Brozoski said. “But if I
have to wear it for protection, I
will. It’s not something I would
prefer to wear.”
In Sunday’s contest, Brozoski
recorded five points, an assist
and two steals — not far off
from her season averages of 6.4
points, 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals —
proving the mask doesn’t affect
her play too much. No matter
how long she has to wear the
mask, Brozoski will continue
her role as a budding backup
freshman point guard.
And if Brozoski’s past is proof,
it shouldn’t slow her down.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Behind enemy lines: Eddie Jordan
Rutgers coach
talks recruiting,
transitioning to
the Big Ten
By LEV FACHER
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan men’s basketball
team plays host Wednesday to
Rutgers,
a
program
that,
in
its
second
season
in
the
Big
Ten, is still
struggling
to gain traction in its new
conference. The Scarlet Knights
won just two Big Ten games last
season and are currently 0-7
in the league. Rutgers’ roster
rebuild is very much a work in
progress, making the Wolverines
heavy favorites in the teams’ only
meeting of the year.
The Michigan Daily sat down
with Scarlet Knights coach Eddie
Jordan — formerly the head
coach of the NBA’s Sacramento
Kings, Washington Wizards and
Philadelphia 76ers — at Big Ten
Media Day in October to talk
about the difficulties of breaking
into the Big Ten and Rutgers’
recruiting philosophy within the
geography of its new conference.
The Michigan Daily: How
tough has it been seeing so little
success in your first two years
as a Big Ten team and how has it
affected your recruiting outlook?
Eddie Jordan: I was taught
(that) you either sell winning
or you sell hope. If you aren’t
winning, have a future in front
of you. Develop your future. And
we’ve got a great future. Our kids
are great kids. They work hard.
Our talent base is much better,
although they’re young. In a
three-hour practice, we don’t fall
off so much, and we have eight
guys who could possibly start. I
just think that it keeps everybody
excited. You’ve got to deal with
their mistakes as the season goes
along. As I’ve said before, in June,
July and August, everybody says,
‘We’re young, let’s take some
time.’ In December and January,
when they’re making youthful
mistakes, people are saying,
‘What the heck’s going on,
Coach?’ You have to expect that.
You have to have some patience.
TMD: Is it tough, cyclically, to
lose so many scholarship players
as you continue to try to break
into the conference? Does it
feel like you need to take a step
back before you can take a step
forward?
EJ: Well, I don’t want to take a
step back. We had two wins in the
conference last year, and I would
love to be more successful in
the conference. We’re just going
to have to rely on some of our
youthfulness to maybe surprise
some people and stay in games
and be exciting. But you know
what? Our talent is good, our
talent base is good. But one thing
I’ve learned over the years is that
talent just doesn’t win itself. You
have to have experience along
with talent, you’ve got to have
toughness along with the talent,
you’ve got to have good kids with
good character. Toughness alone
doesn’t win. Experience alone
doesn’t win. Talent always has
to be involved, along with the
previous two.
TMD: Some coaches might
try to take advantage of the new
geographical
footprint
when
their team switches conferences.
If and when you find yourself
in Iowa or Michigan, are there
selling points for the Rutgers
brand that might lure an athlete
from a Midwestern area?
EJ:
Well,
we
don’t
go
to
Iowa
and
Michigan
to
recruit.
What
happens
in
recruiting is, with all the AAU
tournaments, everything is in
Vegas. Everything is in Florida.
Everything is in Texas or New
York or California, wherever. So
if there’s a kid who’s on an Illinois
AAU team, we’ll obviously make
some contact if he has interest.
But look — our hotbed is New
York through northern Virginia,
and we’ve recently gone to
Florida and Carolina, because my
assistants are really good in those
areas. So our top kids are from
Carolina and Florida. Although
we want to recruit New Jersey as
hard as any other place, it’s just
that’s the way life is.
TMD: So the intent, long-
term, isn’t necessarily to compete
in Indiana for recruits with
offers, for example, from Indiana
and Purdue?
EJ: I wouldn’t say that, not
necessarily. We want to go after
the best kids — that’s number
one. Number two is (we want to
go after) the best kids that we
have a chance at getting. We’re
not going after the best kids
when we know they’ll go to a
top-10 program. Corey Sanders
(a freshman from Lakeland, Fla.)
has been one of our highly rated
recruits, and we had a connection
there, we recruited him hard, he
had great interest in me being an
ex-NBA coach. So again, you’ve
got to connect the dots that will
help you form the picture of what
this kid is about, and do you have
a chance?
BEHIND
ENEMY
LINES
COURTESY OF THE DAILY TARGUM
Rutgers coach Eddie Jordan used to coach the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers.
matic weapon. Buttons for sale
displayed sayings like, “Jail Hill-
ary” and “BOMB the SHIT out of
ISIS.” Another button trumpeted
Thomas Jefferson, George Wash-
ington and Andrew Jackson as
“the original right wing extrem-
ists.”
When Trump told the coun-
try in June he planned to run for
president, a number of pundits
deemed his candidacy a grab for
the spotlight. And with rheto-
ric as brash and controversial as
Trump’s has been, he certainly
got it. But now, as he leads the
polls in Iowa amid a crowded
field of Republican candidates, it’s
clear not only that Trump is play-
ing to win but that for many, the
message he has spent the last six
months peddling has resonated
in a huge way. Trump has consis-
tently painted himself as the only
candidate willing to say what oth-
ers will not — the only person with
the business acumen and, more
importantly, the balls to take on
everything a sizable chunk of
voters find scary — immigrants,
radical Islamic terrorism, China,
Iran, you name it.
A handful of protesters on
Muscatine High’s front lawn
were trying to counter that nar-
rative when I arrived. They, too,
held signs. “Donald’s economy
is no good for working Iowans,”
one read. Another: “Love Trumps
Hate.” When cars drove by on
their way to the parking area,
the group chanted, “What do we
want? No hate. When do we want
it? Now.” A five-year-old girl in a
Hello Kitty hat and pink gloves
held a “Dump Trump” sign,
clearly written in her own shaky
script. Two cars on the way to the
rally slowed long enough to roll
down their windows and bran-
dish middle fingers.
Others, clearly not Trump sup-
porters but apparently interested
in seeing the Trump show for
themselves, obliged a sign asking
rally-goers to honk if they con-
demned the candidate’s rhetoric.
On the way in, another woman
told me she wasn’t a supporter,
but wanted to see the guy in per-
son.
Jean Clark, a retired teacher
who taught for 30 years at Musca-
tine High, was on the lawn with a
“Fear + Hate = Trump” sign. She
said Trump’s language would not
have been tolerated in her class-
room, let alone in a presidential
campaign.
“We want a president that our
students and our young can chil-
dren can look up to, and I don’t
think this is it,” she said. “I think
people oftentimes do vote their
fears, and that’s why people vote
for extremes, but I think my mes-
sage would be that this kind of
fear, intolerance, hatred really
isn’t acceptable and it doesn’t rep-
resent our country.”
Inside
the
school’s
yellow
gymnasium, where a crowd of
about 1,000 people stood bunched
around a stage set up below a
large “Muskies” logo painted on
the wall, I wandered around the
gym floor with the aim of asking
supporters why exactly they’re in
Trump’s camp. Some told me they
were only leaning toward Trump,
while others, like Judith Knut-
hson and Rod Treimer, said they
were committed to caucusing for
Trump. Knuthson, a 72-year-old
who owns a real estate business in
Muscatine, explained it this way:
“I think he is the only one that can
save the country at this moment.”
Treimer had just met Knuth-
son a few minutes before and was
chatting with her about Trump
when I interrupted.
“He is big on everything,” Tre-
imer told me. “He says it like it is.
I believe in the borders. I believe
in the security. I don’t believe in
lying to people. I’d rather have
him say something bluntly and
that’s the way it is, not lie. I don’t
want him to be two-faced. I think
Obama has done a terrible, ter-
rible job.”
Knuthson agreed with that
assessment, noting she has been
forced to work 72-hour weeks
to make ends meet. I asked her
which of the president’s policies
have posed the greatest chal-
lenges for her business. She told
me I shouldn’t really be asking
her that. However, she did agree
that Trump’s business experience
could not be matched by anyone
else in the Republican field.
For Treimer, a corn farmer who
told me I probably eat his corn if I
eat Cap’n Crunch cereal, national
security was his biggest priority,
especially in light of ISIS’s rise
and what he deemed a bad Obama
administration deal with Iran. So
I asked: Why Trump, the guy with
virtually no traditional back-
ground in foreign affairs?
“He’s got so much security and
national background,” Treimer
told me, raising his voice slightly
and speaking more quickly. “Look
at all his businesses. He has to
have security in all his buildings
he’s built, he oversees business he
does, the contacts he’s got, he has
more than all the other politicians
together. He knows more people,
he knows how business works
in the world, world economics,
everything about the monetary,
on the Wall Street, how they
manipulate the currencies across
the world.”
Derek Wolfe, a columnist for
The Michigan Daily who accom-
panied me to Iowa, asked about
Trump’s stance on immigration.
Did they support his proposal to
ban the entry of all Muslims into
the United States? Treimer said
he would go further.
“Our founding fathers got
separation of church and state
because they knew how Islam
religion would not work in this
country,” he said, as Journey’s
“Don’t Stop Believin’ ” played in
the background. “That’s why we
have separation of church and
state as much as we can possibly
get it. Anyone who says they want
Islam in the United States, they
need to get out.”
Both Knuthson and Treimer
said they plan to caucus on Mon-
day. Treimer said his goal is to
get as many supporters of U.S.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is
currently polling second in Iowa,
to switch over to Trump. That’s
because in a caucus, part of the
process entails supporters trying
to convert caucus-goers to their
camp before the official numbers
are tallied.
“I had never been to a caucus,”
Knuthson told me. “I vote, but I
have never been to a caucus, and
I would never dream of not going
to that caucus (this year). I would
never vote for any candidate
beside Trump, and if he doesn’t
make it, I will write his name in.
He is the only one that can pull us
out of this mess.”
When Donald Trump took the
stage, he told the crowd he had
just come from church. The ser-
mon, he said, focused on humility.
“I don’t know if that was aimed
at me — perhaps — but the church
I don’t think knew I was coming,
so maybe it was just by luck,” he
said.
The crowd loved it.
Trump
wasted
little
time
before ticking off his poll num-
bers. According to an aggregate
from Real Clear Politics, Trump
is leading Cruz, widely seen as the
anti-establishment alternative to
Trump, by 16.9 points nationally
and 5.7 points in Iowa. Trump and
Cruz have ramped up the inten-
sity of their attacks against one
another in the last week as both
try to secure a first-place finish in
Iowa. Over the weekend, U.S. Sen.
Marco Rubio (R-FL), currently
polling in third place in Iowa and
vying for the state’s compara-
tively moderate Republican vot-
ers, secured the endorsement of
the Des Moines Register. Trump
has not shied away from sparring
directly with the opposition, and
spent much of the early portion of
his stump bashing other contend-
ers — both Democrat and Repub-
lican.
“We’ll talk about individual
candidates for a while,” Trump
began. “Should we do that?”
The crowd responded with
cheers.
“I thought so.”
Trump started in. He hit U.S.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), the
Democratic candidate who has
also tapped into populist fervor
and is consistently hammering
a message centered on the eco-
nomics of income and wealth
inequality. Trump said his attacks
on Democratic frontrunner Hill-
ary Clinton, who by the way, as
Trump told the crowd, might be
in jail by the time she takes office,
were solely responsible for Sand-
er’s surge in the polls.
“This guy Bernie Sanders, give
me a break, how does he figure
into this whole thing?” he said,
adding that the Vermont senator
is probably a communist. “I could
hit him so hard, he’s too easy, he’s
really too easy.”
The insults kept rolling from
there: former Florida Gov. Jeb
Bush (“It’s time to give up, Jeb.”),
Cruz (“He has no principles.”)
and Obama (“Just a bad guy.”) all
received their share of the Trump
treatment. As he finished the
introductory takedowns, which
as it turns out, never really end
in a Trump speech, he began to
roll out a vision for America that
largely relied on projecting his
own strength in making deals and
standing up for the country in the
face of China, Mexico and even
fiscally-related interests like big
oil. He told the crowd he would be
“the greatest jobs president God
ever created” and that he is “the
most militaristic person.” At one
point, he explained that his pre-
vious interactions with Chinese
firms provide proof of his apti-
tude for winning.
“I do great with China,” he
said. “Where I win, I win, that’s
how I got them. I beat China.”
At this point, chants of “We
love Trump” roared through the
gym.
“We’ve got to have wins,”
Trump said. “We got to have
wins. Our country doesn’t win
anymore.”
Trump kept emphasizing that
he would help the country win
again, particularly in the context
of the only concrete policy pro-
posal he presented during the
course of his speech: approving
the Keystone oil pipeline.
“I want 25 percent of the deal
for the United States,” he said.
“When they do this pipeline, it’s
going to be a very profitable thing
… I want the developers of the
pipeline to give the United States
a big, big chunk of the profits or
even ownership rights like I do in
business. That’s what I do. That’s
what I do … They will give us a
lot… I don’t want to be too greedy,
but if I’m greedy, I’m greedy for
the country. I want to be greedy
for the country. I want a piece
of the deal? Doesn’t that make
sense?”
And to the crowd gathered
here in Muscatine, it totally did.
Sometime after a Sikh protester
wearing a red turban and unfold-
ing a cloth “Stop Hate” banner
was escorted out by security
staff and the wild applause of the
gymnasium, he lamented what he
said were the media’s continued
efforts to downplay the size of his
rallies.
At one point, he told the thou-
sand or more people gathered in
the gym to turn toward the “slea-
zebags” in the media risers as he
explained the press would likely
misrepresent the one empty por-
tion of the bleachers closed for
safety concerns as evidence that
the rally was really not that wide-
ly attended.
“What sleaze, what sleaze,
they’re disgusting,” he said.
In doing so, Trump was driv-
ing home a message articulated
by Jeff Kaufmann, the Iowa
Republican Party chair, when he
introduced Trump at the begin-
ning of the event. And it’s a mes-
sage that’s been internalized by so
many of the people who had come
to see Trump in Muscatine. Every
day, Kaufmann said he wakes up
to headlines trumpeting civil war
in the Republican Party. That’s
not so, he told the crowd.
“We’re
having
a
vigorous
debate because the last eight
years has made us mad, made us
angry,” he said, voice cracking as
he spoke, talking about his short
meeting with Trump prior to the
event. “Most of our conversa-
tion was about how to give voices
again to the people that don’t
believe they have a voice. I can’t
think of anything more Republi-
can than that.”
Campaign
observers
say
Trump has capitalized on some
of the same kind of feelings that
Bernie Sanders has tapped into
— frustration with the political
system, a desire for political revo-
lution.
“I’m angry and the American
people are angry,” Sanders said at
a Saturday rally in Clinton, about
an hour away. “What Trump is
doing with the anger he sees, is
he is using it to scapegoat minori-
ties. What he is doing is trying
to divide us up. And what we
are saying, which is profoundly
different, is that when we stand
together as a people, Black and
Latino
and
Asian
American,
when we stand together, gay and
straight, male and female, people
born in this country and people
who have come from another
country, when we stand together
there is nothing that we cannot
accomplish.”
“This is a movement folks,”
Trump said on Sunday. “This
is not like a normal situation.
There’s never been anything like
this. They’re going to study it …
Our country is divided, and it’s
divided very badly. And we have
to bring it back. And if we don’t
bring it back, we’re going to have
a problem. But we’re going to
bring it back. I’m going to bring
it back.”
As Trump shook hands and
posed for pictures after the
speech, I asked people still stand-
ing around in the gym what poli-
cies of Trump’s they supported.
Most referred abstractly to his
business experience or his will-
ingness to tell it like it is, his
ability to keep the country safe
or create new jobs, but very few
could pinpoint a specific, tangible
policy item.
I thought about what Knuth-
son told me earlier in the after-
noon when I asked her whether
the people she knows are as angry
and fearful as many pundits say.
“Oh they’re scared, period,”
she said. “Everywhere.”
TRUMP
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