Sports & News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 — 7A

Michigan searching for an identity

Michigan hockey coach Red 

Berenson knew right away.

At 
Thompson 
Arena 
on 

Saturday night, he saw his 
players 
disheartened 
and 

discouraged. After battling with 
Dartmouth the whole game, his 
then-11th-ranked Wolverines let 
up a late goal to lose 3-2 to the Big 
Green. Michigan’s players looked 
to their coach for a message of 
motivation in a weekend when it 
lost both of its games.

“His message was that we did 

good things, but there’s still some 
things we have to get better at,” 
said senior defenseman Nolan 
de Jong. “It was a glimpse of 
what we can be, rather than the 
Vermont game where we pretty 
much struggled throughout the 
entire game — there wasn’t very 
much pushback from us. 

“At least we kind of see the 

team we can be. See the energy, 
the legs, the enthusiasm that we 
can play with. It’s a good sign. 
We gotta keep improving every 
day.”

Through seven games, the 

Wolverines stand with a .500 
record and many questions. 
Michigan’s lines continue to 
shift nearly every period, and its 
goaltending situation remains 
a mystery until just before puck 
drop. If the Wolverines had 
consistently 
outplayed 
their 

opponents, these aspects would 
be solidified. But until they do, 
Berenson believes it necessary to 
constantly tinker with his lineup 
and netminders.

As the third-youngest team in 

college hockey — with an average 
age of 20.9 — another coach 
might be easily frustrated having 
to teach his new system to a fresh 

set of players. But Berenson — in 
his 33rd year in Ann Arbor — is 
used to it.

“Even 
though 
we’ve 
had 

maybe not as many freshman, 
you look at the age of our team, 
it’s always been around 18,19 
or 20,” Berenson said. “... We’re 
helping them develop and learn 
how to play at this level and 
they’re already ready. You’ve 
seen 
Lockwood 
and 
Slaker, 

they’ve already made an impact 
on this team. It’s not like they 
have to be reinvented. These kids 
know how to play hockey. Some of 
them are more ready than others. 

It’s our job as a group to help 
them all make the adjustment on 
where to fit in.”

In De Jong’s 

freshman 
year, the team 
struggled 
at 

times, including 
a 
four-game 

losing streak and 
a month when it 
won just four of 
nine games. As a 
first-year player, 
he looked to his 
older leaders (former Michigan 
defenseman Mac Bennett and 

former forward Derek DeBlois) 
for guidance. 

“They 
were 

the 
guys 
who 

no matter what 
happened, 
whether we lost 
10-1 or we won 
10-1 they were 
always in here 
putting 
their 

work 
in,” 
De 

Jong said. “Doing 
extra things in 
the weight room 

or on the ice, they were always 
trying to get better, which is 

something I looked up to a lot.”

Now 
as 
a 
senior 
leader 

and captain, De Jong says he 
“absolutely” sees himself in that 
role.

“It’s not always going to be 

things that I say, but it’s going to 
be things that have to show,” De 
Jong said.

“That’s going to be if we have 

a conditioning skate at the end, 
even if I’m not the fastest guy 
out there, I’m gonna be the guy 
that’s gonna push it all the way 
to the goal line or get those 
extra few strides in. Whether I 
have to block a shot in practice 

or whatever to kinda show guys 
that I’m all in.”

The 
Wolverines 
have 

spent these first seven games 
constructing their own identity, 
one that already looks drastically 
different from last season’s, in 
which its prolific offense had an 
immediate impact in games. This 
year, though, Michigan is still in 
the midst of developing its own 
distinct character.

The growing pains that the 

Wolverines inevitably have faced 
are simply a part of the game, 
according to Berenson. He will 
keep readjusting and focusing 
in order to find groups that work 
and succeed together.

“This is our team now and it’s 

about creating an identity and 
creating the personality for our 
team,” De Jong said. “I think 
we have a lot of youth and that 
should bring a lot of excitement 
and I think at this point in the 
season, we can’t be using youth 
or a young team as an excuse.

“(It is) time to push forward. 

We’re going to have to be a hard 
team to play against. A fast team, 
stingy defensively and I think 
goaltending is going to be a big 
part of our team. I think we’re 
still working on the identity but 
we’re going to get there.

Added Berenson: “We haven’t 

really played the kind of hockey 
that I think our players think we 
can play, or the coaches think 
we can play. We gotta build 
whatever identity that is. Our 
next game is our best chance 
to take a step in that direction. 
You’re not gonna do it all in one 
game, or a week or a weekend, 
but I think if we start seeing 
the same results, better results 
in certain areas then we’ll start 
getting an identity that we can 
believe in as a group.”

AVI SHOLKOFF
Daily Sports Writer

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Senior defenseman Nolan De Jong is tasked with leading a young Michigan hockey team that is still looking to find firm footing early in the season.

With a sputtering offense and a young team, the Wolverines are pressing ahead in hopes of finding a suitable style

Panel tackles issues of polling, Twitter and cybersecurity

With the general election six 

days away, topics dominating 
the national conversation such 
as the influence of Twitter on 
the election, the vulnerability of 
America’s voting technology to 
hackers and whether a shift to 
electronic voting could solve it 
were discussed at a University 
of Michigan Information and 
Technology 
Services 
panel 

discussion 
titled 
“Disrupting 

Democracy: How Technology is 
Influencing Elections.”

The event was moderated by 

the host of Michigan Radio’s 
Morning Edition, Doug Tribou, 
and attended by approximately 
60 students, faculty and staff 
members.

Alex Halderman, a professor 

of engineering and computer 
science who was a panelist 
at 
the 
event, 
researches 

polling technology and voting 
machines 
by 
deconstructing 

government 
machines 
and 

conducting 
security 
analyses 

on them. During his remarks, 
he 
emphasized 
cybersecurity 

concerns that surround polling 
technology in an age of increasing 
digital connectivity, as well as 
increased cyber concerns over 
hacking by non-state and foreign 
actors.

“Unfortunately, the security 

is nowhere near where it should 
be,” 
Halderman 
said. 
“The 

problem is that about a quarter of 
American voters, even today, will 
be voting on technology on voting 
machines that don’t produce any 
form of physical record.”

To illustrate more specific 

concerns 
over 
exclusively 

electronic 
voting, 
Halderman 

spoke 
about 
how 
in 
2010, 

Washington, D.C. staged a mock 
election in which all polling 
would be conducted via the 
Internet. Officials in D.C. invited 
computer scientists and hackers 
to infiltrate the voting system’s 
network so as to learn about 
potential 
issues 
with 
online 

voting. Halderman and a team of 
UM students took up the district’s 
offer and, within two days, they 
were in complete control of the 

voting system.

“I am not sure how many 

people 
can 
be 
reading 
the 

newspaper 
or 
watching 
TV 

today, and think that it would be 
a good idea to take our election 
system and just put it at a website 
somewhere that could be reached 
from anywhere in the world,” 
Halderman said.

Chris 
Dzombak, 
another 

panelist, 
also 
stressed 
the 

vulnerability of America’s polling 
infrastructure, saying it has not 
received nearly enough attention 
this election cycle. Dzombak 
is an Ann Arbor resident who 
works for The New York Times 
as 
a 
software 
engineer 
for 

iOS development. He said he’s 
discussed the increasing issue 
of cyberattacks on governments 
with his coworkers.

“We have seen more and more 

higher profile sort of Internet and 

computer security issues as these 
sort of things are becoming more 
and more common,” Dzombak 
said. “A paper audit trail and 
checking it against the results 
are important and they seem like 
common sense security measures 
and I am really disappointed 
we have not implemented these 
measures.”

Panelist Walter Mebane, a 

professor of political science 
and statistics, also discussed 
his research on U.S. elections 
and election forensics, a field 
of study that analyzes ballot 
formats 
and 
compares 
the 

merits 
of 
voting 
machines. 

Mebane said when a social 
media site like Twitter becomes 
the central place that voters 
to turn for information on 
the election, the inability to 
disprove a lot of the information 
disseminated on the site allows 

rumors and misinformation to 
run rampant.

“Twitter can certainly be 

used to spread rumors and 
misinformation … as it is a 
kind of weird universe where 
credible information is hard to 
establish,” Mebane said.

Beyond the issue of spreading 

misinformation, Mebane said 
Twitter and social media is 
often bifurcated, or divided 
based on the preferences of 
the consumer. Noting the high 
polarization characterizing the 
current election, he said this 
bifurcation lets users only seek 
out like-minded individuals and 
consume political information 
that aligns only with their 
previously held viewpoints.

“If the post-election behavior 

mirrors 
the 
pre-election 

behavior, one set, one group 
saying big fraud, big rigging, big 

problems … regardless of what 
happens there,” Mebane said. 
“That would be an issue and the 
question would be to counteract 
that message if it deserves to 
be counteracted to and have 
that message be supported or 
refuted by evidence.”

LSA sophomore Jamie Pew, 

an attendee, agreed with some 
of the sentiments voiced at the 
event, saying he has noticed his 
Twitter feed features views and 
opinions predominantly in favor 
of 
Democratic 
presidential 

nominee Hillary Clinton and 
related topics.

“I 
have 
a 
very 
narrow 

perception of what’s going on 
in the election and what the 
outcome will probably be,” Pew 
said. “It is definitely a challenge 
to find the right people to 
follow, both Democrats and 
people who are conservative.”

ARNOLD ZHOU/Daily

Engineering Prof. Alex Halderman and Political Science Prof. Walter Mebane discuss the influence of technology in elections on a panel moderated by Michigan 
Radio Host Doug Tribou in the Michigan League on Tuesday.

TYLER COADY
Daily Staff Reporter

‘M’ third 
in playoff 
standings

If 
the 
college 
football 

season 
ended 
today, 
the 

Michigan football team would 
have a chance to compete for 
the national championship.

The Wolverines ranked No. 

3 in the first College Football 
Playoff poll released Tuesday 
night. At the end of the year, 
the top four will reach the 
playoff, with the first- and 
fourth-ranked 
teams 
and 

second- 
and 
third-ranked 

teams playing each other and 
then the winners of those 
games playing for the national 
title. 
The 
semifinals 
this 

year for the teams that make 
the playoff are in Atlanta 
and Glendale, Ariz., and the 
championship 
game 
is 
in 

Tampa, Fla.

Alabama (8-0) earns the 

top-ranked spot this week, 
with Clemson (8-0) at No. 
2. Texas A&M (7-1), despite 
losing to the Crimson Tide, 
33-14, is the final team in the 
top four, ahead of undefeated 
Washington at No. 5.

Michigan’s opponents also 

earned a strong showing in the 
poll, with Wisconsin (6-2) at 
No. 8 and Colorado (6-2) at No. 
15. The Wolverines beat the 
Badgers on Oct. 1, 14-7, and the 
Buffaloes on Sept. 17, 45-28. 
One of the biggest surprises 
in the rankings is Penn State 
at No. 12. The Nittany Lions 
struggled earlier in the year 
and lost at Michigan Stadium, 
49-10, on Sept. 24. They make 
an appearance in the poll in 
large part because of their 
upset of then-No. 2 Ohio State 
on Oct. 22.

The Buckeyes (7-1) come in 

at No. 6 in the rankings and 
play Saturday night at home 
against No. 10 Nebraska (7-1), 
the fourth Big Ten team in the 
top 10.

FOOTBALL

JAKE LOURIM

Managing Sports Editor

“At least we 

kind of see the 
team we can 

be.”

