11-13-14

@thepittnews

Vol. 105Issue 70

Thursday,November 13, 2014Pittnews.com

The cast of “Avenue Q” performs the fi nale. The show runs Wednesday through Sunday till Nov. 23. Theo Schwarz | Visual Editor

AN ORDERLY “Q”

After Hurricane Sandy, the Haitian earthquake and Hurricane Katrina razed cities and towns years ago, donations poured in to help the sur-vivors.

Businesses across the nation pledged roughly $141 million to support the victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, almost $300 mil-lion for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and more than $147 million for the 2010 Haitian earthquake, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Add to that about $2.2 billion raised by the Red Cross.

The reaction to the Ebola outbreak is quite

Pitt lags behind in Ebola

donations Sabrina Romano

Staff Writer

Pittsburgh may not be the perfect place to build a white picket fence, but, for veterans, it’s the top place to begin their American Dream se-quence.

Pittsburgh was the top-ranked city on the United Services Automobile Association 2014 list of best places for veterans to start their careers after service, which was released at the end of October. Some of Pittsburgh’s largest employers, such as Alcoa, a metal manufac-turer, and FedEx, actively seek veterans for starting positions according to company policy.

When Ryan Sheets, a 25-year-old Pitt un-dergraduate, fi nished his four years in the Air Force in 2013, he faced a di! cult decision: what to do next. Sheets began researching and found that Pittsburgh claimed the top spot in USAA’s 2012 rankings, so he chose Pittsburgh as his next destination.

“I don’t think I would be here if it weren’t for the O! ce of Veterans Services,” Sheets said. “[Pittsburgh] also has a strong contingency of veterans. I don’t feel like an outsider.”

Victory Media designated Pitt a “2015 Mili-tary Friendly School,” which the Pittsburgh-based, military services fi rm awards to the top 15 percent of schools working to dedicate

resources to military students. Additionally, Pittsburgh is home to a VA Healthcare System with a campus in Oakland. Pennsylvania also does not tax military retirement pay, as op-posed to the majority of other states.

Hiring Our Heroes, which partnered with the USAA to create the list, utilized Sperling’s BestPlaces and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University to study three categories: starting out, mid-career and military retirement. Within the categories, Hiring our Heroes surveyed factors like G.I. Bill enrollment, unemployment rate, certifi cation

Pittsburgh named top spot for veteransEmma Solak Staff Writer

Ebola 3

Vet Ratings 2

Sizing up the Sizing up the competitioncompetition

Panthers appear primed for a Panthers appear primed for a succesful basketball seasonsuccesful basketball season

page 12page 12

2 November 13, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

and license transfers, VA hospital proximity and o! erings and military pension taxation.

By chance, in one of Sheets’ classes, he sat next to another veteran who retired from the Air Force.

“He retired from the Air Force, and I only did four years,” Sheets said. “We had very simi-lar jobs, but we joke about it because he was management, and I was a nobody.”

Outside of classes, Sheets said veterans are “easy to spot.”

“There’s a whole litany of things, really, but they will be older, and it’s more obvious in the way they look. It’s a hard thing to shake o! completely. I’ll see someone who has a close haircut and they just have that look,” Sheets said.

Sheets came to Pitt last fall and is study-ing media and professional communications. Aside from classes, Sheets interns with the media relations department of Pitt Athletics and has a work study job in the o" ce of Uni-versity Communications.

He said he considered the job opportuni-

ties for veterans in Pittsburgh before moving here.

“I thought [Pittsburgh] would be a good place to set me up for success,” Sheets said. “It has a great network of veterans, all of whom are looking for jobs, and I wanted to be near that at least.”

Sheets also said the job fairs put on by the College of General Studies for veterans are known to be successful in helping veterans fi nd jobs.

Kevin Farkas, who formerly served in the Navy, is the creator of Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh in conjunction with the Veterans Breakfast Club, a nonprofi t educational media organization that preserves the oral histories of veterans from Pittsburgh.

Farkas said one of the biggest reasons Pitts-burgh is such a great city for veterans is because of all the organizations, such as Steel City Vets, the Veterans Leadership Program of Western Pennsylvania and the Department of Veterans Services in Allegheny County .

Farkas fi nds the camaraderie between vet-erans in Pittsburgh to be terrifi c.

“I’ve lived in a lot of di! erent places, and it’s really comforting to be in Pittsburgh with so many veterans around,” Farkas said. “We

have that fraternity, that shared experience.”Amy Dawson, a freshman studying Russian

at Pitt, is part of the NROTC program. She attended Pitt’s Veterans Day ceremony

on Tuesday and picnicked with patients at the veterans hospital with her NROTC unit.

Here, Dawson said she got to speak with veterans and listen to their stories, and found them to be nice, happy and willing to talk to students.

“I occasionally meet veterans on the street and on the bus and chat with them. These ran-

dom veterans are often older and less happy than the ones at hospitals or homes, though, which I fi nd odd,” Dawson said.

Farkas, too, attended Veteran’s Day activi-ties in the city. At the Veteran’s Day parade, Farkas said he experienced a sense of “com-mon company” he never felt before.

“I just looked around, and I saw so many people wearing a ball cap or their uniform, and I knew what they experienced and they knew what I experienced,” Farkas said. “That’s a pretty amazing thing.”

VET RATINGSFROM PAGE 1

Pittsburgh’s industry, healthcare system and resources make it a top spot for veterans. MCT Campus

3November 13, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com

the opposite. Donations on the same scale might be seen as a trickle rather than a torrent. So far, U.S. businesses have donated roughly $26 million to the Ebola cause.

Even though the Ebola virus has ravaged countries in West Africa, such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, many people haven’t been motivated to donate to help stop the spread of the disease.

Experts in philanthropy say it’s harder to raise money for causes where the outcome for the victims may be bleak.

Many members of the Pitt community haven’t donated to stop the deadly virus.

Hannah Robinson, the president of Alpha Phi Omega, a large service fraternity on cam-pus, said that the organization “has not done direct fundraising for Ebola.”

Several student organizations, including the Student Government Board and the New-man Club, a Christian student group, refused to comment on their donations.

Masaki Okazawa, a senior majoring in biology and student leader in Global Ties, a student organization that facilitates cross-cultural communication, said he blamed the media for not publicizing how people could help.

“It came as a surprise to me when I read [your] email and it said there were ways to donate to Ebola,” Okazawa said. “It wasn’t mentioned at all in the media. It would be something that you would have to look out for yourself.”

Allison Hydzik, a manager of media rela-tions at Pitt, couldn’t fi nd specifi c information on what UPMC has done to help stop the out-break in Africa but said UPMC supports Global Links, a Pittsburgh-based medical relief and development organization.

Eric Andrae, a campus pastor at First Trin-ity Lutheran Church, said his parish hasn’t raised money to fi ght Ebola because there are other causes closer to the parish.

“We are not an especially large church or student group,” Andrae said. “With limited resources, what can we focus on? Who are our neighbors?”

Andrae said that the Ebola outbreak is not the only cause in need of donations.

“I know there are so many worthy causes out there,” Andrae said. “On an individual level and a collective level, you have to be selective.”

While donation rates still falter beside

other causes, some Pittsburgh groups and organizations have made helping Ebola vic-tims a priority.

Brother’s Brother Foundation in North-side, a charity that focuses on medical and educational needs, sent multiple 40-foot con-tainer shipments of gloves, face masks and hospital gowns to a hospital in Sierra Leone this summer. To contribute to Ebola e! orts, the United Nations Foundation is running an online Ebola response fundraiser where people can select the amount they would like to donate and if they would like it to be an

automatic, reoccurring donation.Nicole Coleman, a business faculty mem-

ber, researched the lack of donations to the Ebola cause.

The fi rst reason is that people don’t feel they can make a di! erence.

“If you contract it, you have a slim likeli-hood of making it through,” Coleman said. “The donations of hazmat suits and Lysol [are] about protecting people who haven’t gotten it yet, rather than people who have contracted it.”

Coleman said that the tsunami in Haiti was

an easier cause to donate to because people knew how they could make a di! erence.

“After the Haiti earthquake, we needed to build a tent so people [didn’t] get rained on,” Coleman said.

The second reason is because the disease frightens them.

“What causes people to donate is an emo-tional connection,” Coleman said. “If we are feeling afraid, it is di" cult to have a sympa-thetic response. Those who have the disease and that are ill make us more afraid, and we feel helpless.”

EBOLAFROM PAGE 1


OPINIONSBurdening schools does not equal good policy

EDITORIALEDITORIAL

Sometimes, government can be a vehicle of positive change. Other times, it can be an obtrusive bur-den. Good policy should work to ensure the former and prevent the latter. Recent Obama admin-istration education e! orts have not accomplished this.

According to The New York Times, the Obama administra-tion is mandating that an equity in experienced and high-quality teachers exists among school districts . The measure is espe-cially aimed at helping minor-ity and impoverished students. While helping underprivileged students is of course admirable, poor public policy should never go unexcused.

Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a conference call with reporters that, “It is important to remind our states that one step in front of the other is the way to begin to deliver for all our students ... We are all dismayed by the lack of compliance and lack of satisfac-tion and delivery on this point.”

The problem with these ef-forts is that although they are laudable, they are not true so-lutions. Daria Hall, K-12 policy director at the Education Trust, a nonprofi t group that advocates for racial minority students and low-income children, told the Times that, “The very real risk is that this just becomes a big compliance paperwork exercise.”

If someone working to curtail education inequity considers the Obama administration’s policy

ineffective, then Washington should rethink its approach. When dealing with high-quality education disparities, policy makers must not only take a quantitative outlook, but also a qualitative one.

Joshua Starr, superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, puts this idea into perspective. Starr told the Times that it is not e! ective to, “just fi nd the best teachers and best principals and put them where they need to be.” Instead, Starr argued that, “a teacher works in an ecosystem.”

Instead of artificially ap-proaching education inequal-ity, both federal and state policy should focus on the socioeco-nomic factors that lead to a de-crease in the quality of education in impoverished districts. Educa-tors should be given more incen-tives to teach in such districts. Additionally, federal and state education departments should allocate more funds to districts for hiring teachers and providing adequate supplies.

Overall, federal policy aim-ing to bridge the inequity gap is well-intentioned. However, wast-ing administrative time without addressing socioeconomic reali-ties is ine! ective and a drain of resources.

To ensure high-quality edu-cation, we must fi rst implement high-quality policy. Hopefully the Obama administration keeps this in mind.

MCT Campus

Last Tuesday, as each hour after 8 p.m. brought more Republican congressional victories and more disappointed Democratic sighs — at least, everywhere outside Penn-sylvania — one vote went almost entirely unnoticed by the nation. Though it didn’t attract the hours of tedious statistical analysis or po-litical commentary, the defeat of Oregon’s Measure 86 squashed the possibility for a replicable and suc-cessful model of state-level higher education funding.

Ballot measures never receive the same publicity as elections, perhaps because they can’t be per-sonally criticized in mudslinging advertisements and are not subject to the dreaded “October Surprise.” Still, Measure 86 didn’t even prove

the most popular ballot measure in Oregon. The state received far more media coverage for its strong sup-port for the legalization of recre-ational marijuana use than it did for its disinterest in reformed higher educational funding. Perhaps col-lege students were too overjoyed by the former to realize their legisla-tive loss with the defeat of the latter.

The contentious ballot measure would have altered the Oregon con-stitution to allow the state govern-ment to sell bonds to raise capital, the return on which would be in-vested in programs to give direct fi -nancial assistance to students pur-suing post-secondary education. The earnings on the fund would go directly to student assistance, with-out the approval or appropriation of the Oregon state legislature. The measure’s wording did not stipulate the specifi c distribution of goods: to

students or to institutions, in-state or out-of-state, public or private.

Supporters cited two parallel trends that necessitated such a pol-icy. The fi rst was the accelerating proportion of jobs in the state and the nation that demand college-lev-el education. This incentivizes the state to open access to universities. The second was the consistently rising cost of higher education at the state and national levels.

Unfortunately, these nationally ubiquitous arguments could not persuade the 58 percent of Orego-nian voters who responded with a resounding “no.”

Even if Oregon voters could not see the merit in the proposal, other states can. As twentieth century Su-preme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, states have historically

What failed in Oregon could succeed elsewhere

Simon Brown Columnist

Simon Says 5

SIMON SAYSSIMON SAYS


T P NS U DO K U

Today’s di! culty level: Very HardPuzzles by Dailysudoku.com

E S T A B L I S H E D 1 9 1 0

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Matt Reilly

functioned as “laboratories for democracy,” insofar as they enact policies that could be replicated across the country if successful and dismissed if unsuccessful. But if one labora-tory isn’t willing to conduct an experiment for fear of failure, that only means it is more imperative that a di" erent one take up the challenge.

Although the conditions cited could be

mustered in support of any legislation in-creasing fi nances for college access, the unique funding mechanism in Measure 86 recommends it to many states struggling with mercurial higher education funding through legislatures . Specifi cally, the constitutional guarantee on a particular proportion of the fund apportioned to students improves upon a system whereby the dominant political party at the time determines students’ access to higher education.

In Pennsylvania, we have borne the conse-quences of entirely unpredictable budgetary

allocations from Harrisburg for public and state-related universities. Universities have to consistently lobby for more funding, and the governor’s response varies depending on his own popularity. Soon-to-be-former-Gov. Corbett, for instance, drastically slashed funds to state-related universities, including Pitt, in his fi rst year, only to incrementally increase the allotment as he recognized a backlash of public opinion. In the meantime, universities cannot project their own budgets until the state makes its fi nal decision.

If more state support, either to students

or to institutions, could bypass the political ebbs and fl ows of legislature, then students could be more confi dent of the possibility of attending a university, and universities could be more confi dent in their plans for future spending.

Pennsylvania stands to benefi t from a constitutional amendment in the spirit of Oregon’s Measure 86. We are lucky to receive a new governor more avowedly dedicated to higher education, but in four years, we may not. Therein lies the problem.

Write to Simon at [email protected].

SIMON SAYSFROM PAGE 4


ARTS ARTS and and ENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

The most intimidating villain you’ll see on the big screen this year doesn’t have horns, fire a gun or come close to de-molishing a city — but he sports a Lex

Luthor haircut and a stark, tight-fitting, black T-shirt that reveals his chiseled, middle-aged muscles.

He’s Terence Fletcher ( J.K. Sim-mons), a long-time jazz instructor at a prestigious (and fictional) New York music school. Fletcher doesn’t believe in telling his students “good job,” but he instead hurls chairs at them, screams in their faces and makes a few of them cry. In Fletcher’s eyes, that’s the way to sort out the good students from the great.

Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller), one of Fletcher’s newest drum students, dedicates his life to reaching the lat-ter category — and not just within his school, but of all time. The film opens

with Fletcher walking in on one of An-drew’s private rehearsals at the school. Fletcher seems to dismiss him, but he offers Andrew a spot in the school’s top jazz band the next day. From then on, Andrew surrenders his entire physical and emotional being to Fletcher’s band, choosing the bloody blisters and late rehearsals over a satisfying relationship with his girlfriend (Melissa Benoist).

As an audience member, it ’s hard not to similarly submit yourself to Sim-mons’ towering performance. Whether he’s bursting through doors, lobbing slurs at his students or silently observ-ing from behind a closed door, Sim-mons is a magnetic force. Fletcher is a

nightmare of a musical drill sergeant, but Simmons nails the comic delivery enough to make the character a charis-matic villain. His snappy barbs lighten the battlefield, but they prompt more nervous laughter than guffaws — it’s hard to laugh knowing there’s a violent outburst constantly looming around the corner.

Although “Whiplash” is very much driven by an extraordinary performance by Simmons and an adequate near-star turn by Teller, the real star sits behind the camera. Director and screenwriter Damien Chazelle’s second film follow-ing 2009’s “Guy and Madeline on a Park

Villainous Simmons brings thriller-like urgency to ‘Whiplash’Shawn Cooke

A&E Editor

Andrew (Teller) can barely keep up with Fletcher’s (Simmons) fi erce demands. Sony Pictures Classics

Whiplash 9

“Whiplash”Directed by: Damien ChazelleStarring: Miles Teller, J.K. SimmonsRated: R for strong language, includ-ing some sexual references

Starts Friday at The Manor Theatre

Grade: A


ACROSS1 Japanese yes4 “Get lost, kitty!”8 “The Taking of __

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it” or before “doesit”

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27 Obliged to pay28 Industry leaders31 Egg-hiding times35 Heavy Brit.

reference set36 With 39- and 40-

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56 Rep. and Dem.,e.g.

58 Stickysubstance

59 Whence an iciclemay hang

60 Sports great born11/25/1914

63 Pro __: for now64 Actress Dahl65 New Rochelle

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Worth, Tex. toFort Lee, N.J.

67 Undergrounds68 NCO rank69 Allowance

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Monday’s Puzzle SolvedBy Peter A. Collins 11/25/14

©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 11/25/14

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All the way back in 2009, when a bushy-tailed and gray-free Barack Obama became our president and Beyoncé released “one of the best videos of all time,” according to Kanye West, Disney acquired a little company called Marvel Entertainment. Ever since, the golden age of everything Marvel has dominated the cinematic medium and accumulated

repeated financial and critical success. “Big Hero 6,” based on a Marvel

graphic novel series, is the first Disney foray into the possibilities of feature-length, animated Marvel properties. Whether or not there is a plan to ex-pand the world of “Big Hero 6” into a shared universe, like its live-action counterparts, it’s a wholeheartedly fun family film.

The film is centered on 14-year-old Hiro Hamada (Ryan Potter), a power-house robotic engineer specializing in underground “bot fights.” He has mind-bending intelligence and an abundance of snark that foils him nicely against his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) — a mild-mannered and selfless guy. He tries to convince Hiro to use his genius at the elite San Fransokyo Institute of Technology — and the robotic “health-care companion” Baymax (Scott Adsit), Tadashi’s magnum opus and one of the most irrevocably sweet characters ever put to film.

When Hiro’s latest invention, “mi-crobots” — which link together and perform tasks in accordance with the thoughts of their controller — myste-riously goes missing, Hiro and Baymax team up to bring down the masked su-pervillain they suspect is responsible. Along for the ride are Hiro’s friends, rounding out the titular team of six: cynical Go Go Tomago ( Jamie Chung), neurotic Wasabi (Damon Wayans Jr.), sweet-as-sugar Honey Lemon (Génesis

Rodriguez) and new-wave hippie Fred (T.J. Miller).

The setting of “Big Hero 6” is one of the film’s most distinct qualities — it’s a blend of East Asian and North Ameri-can culture that culminates in the city of San Fransokyo. The city serves as an interesting example of family entertain-ment becoming increasingly aware of

!Big Hero 6" has heart beneath layers of visual candy Hannah Marshall For The Pitt News

Big Hero 9

Baymax serves as a lovable father-fi gure for Hiro.. MCT Campus

“Big Hero 6” Directed by: Don Hall and Chris Wil-liamsStarring: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, T.J. MillerRated: PG for action and peril, some rude humor and thematic elements

Now showing at AMC Loews Waterfront, SouthSide Works

Grade: A-


This Weekend ...Thursday, Nov. 13

ShaggyMr. Smalls Theatre

400 Lincoln Ave., MillvaleTime: 8 p.m.

Admission: $20

Believe it or not, Shaggy has released four albums in the last four years. The reggae fusion singer hasn’t scored a hit like “Angel” or “It Wasn’t Me” on any of those LPs, but both of those songs still are played in college dorms across the country (“It Wasn’t Me” has almost 25 million plays on Spotify alone). This tour marks his second leg supporting 2013’s Out of Many, One Music.

Friday, Nov. 14 (through 16)

Sci-Fi SpectacularHeinz Hall

600 Penn Ave., DowntownTime: 7:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. on Sun-

day)Admission: $24.75-$84.75

Facebook superstar George Takei stops by to host the Pitts-burgh Symphony Orchestra’s “Sci-Fi Spectacular” event. Con-ducted by Jack Everly, the celes-tial weekend will feature scores from classic sci-fi movies and television, including Takei’s “Star Trek,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.”

Saturday, Nov. 15

Avenue QStudio Theater (in the basement of the Cathedral of Learning)Time: 8 p.m. (2:00 p.m. on Sun-

day)Admission: $12-$25

Pitt Theatre Arts continues their Mainstage production of the Tony Award-winning puppet spectacular, “Avenue Q.” The book, which was writ-ten by Je! Whitty, is a satirical coming-of-age tale that sends up the rosy futures promised by “Sesame Street” and other children’s programming. Bria Walker directs the Pitt staging.

Sunday, Nov. 16

Robyn HitchcockClub Cafe

56 S. 12th St., South SideTime: 8 p.m.

Admission: $35 (21+)

The acoustic-folk jour-neyman makes a rare Pittsburgh appearance this weekend at Club Cafe. Hitchcock tours in support of his latest collection of covers and originals, The Man Upstairs, which fea-tured his takes on Roxy Music, The Doors and The Psychedelic Furs.


the rise in multiculturalism in American families — all of the signs and writing in the film’s world are in Japanese charac-ters, the citizens of San Fransokyo are of all shades and ethnicities and the super-hero team itself covers a wide spectrum of ethnicity and personality.

The invention of San Fransokyo al-lows for a vibrant atmosphere that, in many ways, forms its own character, and influences the overall feel of the movie. Its color palette is also one of the strongest assets, sporting a strong visual vivacity and a sense of playfulness with the design of the characters, all of whom have distinctive appearances and superhero disguises that also pertain to their personalities. Racecar driver Go Go has a streamlined chrome outfit with massive wheelies for shoes, and geek-culture aficionado Fred sports a costume reminiscent of “The Creature From the Black Lagoon.”

Beyond the surface level, for all of its bright colors and wise-cracking

protagonists, “Big Hero 6” has several moments of thematic darkness and pes-simism. Death, as well as the conflict between pacifism and violence, serve as the primary themes of the film and are addressed in simple yet poignant ways. Baymax, also Hiro’s closest friend, is essentially his therapist, accompanying him on his increasingly personal and vindictive mission against the masked supervillain.

Although it’s popcorn fodder and mass entertainment, the film also be-comes a study in coping with loss in a healthy manner, with Baymax serving as Hiro’s conscience on his journey toward acceptance. Their tender relationship is enhanced by strong voicework from Potter and Adsit. Potter brings bitter-ness with undertones of suppressed emo-tional vulnerability to Hiro, and Adsit’s Baymax is childish in regard to the reali-ties of the world, but he also serves as a father figure and all-sacrificing guard-ian. The Marvel Universe has set a new bar for sweetness — we’ll have to see if the next “Avengers” follows suit.

BIG HEROFROM PAGE 7

Bench” suggests that his career will be a rich and exhilarating one to follow. In “Whiplash,” Chazelle wrings more tension out of a band rehearsal than you’d find in a Jason Bourne car chase. While an ordinary band practice might be characterized by monotony and repe-tition, Fletcher’s rehearsals make these conventions sinister. An error on the fourth play-through could draw some shouting, but the fifth mistake could get a chair thrown at your head.

Chazelle distances “Whiplash” from other performance movies by making the concert scenes even more visceral. In Chazelle’s universe, these are the big, dramatic action set-pieces. The camera zips back and forth between zoomed-in views of individual instruments. In the movie’s final performance, the camera sharply pans between Fletcher and An-drew to visualize their conflict and the breakneck, snappy pace of a jazz show.

But the jazz scenes aren’t Chazelle’s only opportunities to build tension.

When you write a character as absorbing as Fletcher, he can swallow the whole movie — and also inject fear into scenes where he’s not onscreen. Whether An-drew sleeps through his alarm set for a rehearsal or cruises through traffic to retrieve forgotten drumsticks, Fletch-er’s imminent wrath gives these scenes the urgency of a thriller. Perhaps Cha-zelle included the line about “good job” being the most dangerous words for a young artist to hear so critics would feel more comfortable showering “Whip-lash” with all of the more hyperbolic adjectives it deserves.

WHIPLASHFROM PAGE 6

November 13, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com10

November 13, 2014 | The Pitt News | www.pittnews.com 11


SPORTS

As I prepare myself for college bas-ketball to start on Friday, a number of questions run through my mind. Most of them involve Arizona and whether or not they can find a way to blow the Pac-12 title, which they’ve basically already been handed. But, above all, I’ve been trying to figure out where Pitt fits into this year’s ACC.

Nearly every publication has pre-dicted Pitt will finish sixth, behind Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Lou-isville and Syracuse, but I’m not con-vinced this will be the case. Louisville and Duke will be legitimate contenders; that I won’t argue. But the Pitt fan in me sees flaws in the remaining three.

Starting in reverse, I don’t think Syracuse will be better than Pitt. Had Tyler Ennis not provided the most heartbreaking moment in the last de-cade of Pitt basketball — save for Kem-ba Walker shattering Gary McGhee’s ankles, that is — Pitt would’ve split the season series with the Orange. But Ennis isn’t around to save the day for Syracuse anymore. Instead, they’ll rely on a new freshman point guard — Ka-leb Joseph — who isn’t nearly as pre-pared for the college game as Ennis was

last year. Pitt’s steady play at the point and its top-20 defense, coupled with a more balanced offensive attack in the absence of Lamar Patterson, makes the Panthers a more complete team.

Next is Virginia, in whom I don’t believe. Go-to guy Joe Harris is gone to the pros, as is last year’s leading re-bounder Akil Mitchell. The same argument has been made for Pitt losing Patter-son and Talib Zanna, but Pitt returns much more depth and experience than Virginia. Non-conference games with VCU and Harvard could give us an early glimpse into the Cavaliers’ strength, but I think Pitt will win more critical games in conference play, as well as the head-to-head matchup in Charlot-tesville, Va., on Feb. 16.

My reasons for bringing North Caro-lina down a few pegs are based both in history and in the present. I’m as big a believer as anybody that the past is the past and that this is a new team, but it seems that every time UNC is billed as a Final Four contender, they have an off

year. They’ll always be a top-10 team to start the season, but since ever Tyler Hansbrough left in 2009 they never seem to be around at the end.

Talking tangibly, though, I can’t re-member a time that Roy Williams will rely as heavily on freshmen as he will this year. Granted, it’s an impressive crop, and returning point guard Marcus Paige is, deservedly, a preseason first-team All-American. However,a the rest of the veterans — J.P. Tokoto and Brice Johnson, namely — have underachieved since arriving in Chapel Hill. The talent is there, whether or not it’s utilized — especially in the low post — will dictate the Tar Heels’ season.

Will the Panthers finish in the top three in the ACC? Probably not. But Pitt is a deeper, more balanced team than most in the ACC. They’ll lose some games. I’ll bite through my fingers during the Syracuse-Louisville-UNC-Virginia-Syracuse stretch in February. But all things considered, I’m thinking optimistically for the Panthers: 25-7, including an appearance in the Maui In-vitational final against Arizona and an ACC-Big Ten Challenge win over Indiana at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind.

The journey to the tourney starts tomorrow at 7 p.m. I expect to see the Zoo filled because this could be the start of a very fun season for the Panthers.

Upcoming basketball season looks promising for Panthers Alex Wise

Staff Writer

When dealing with youth, sometimes win-ning isn’t everything.

The Pitt women’s soccer team walked o! the fi eld in disappointment after suf-fering through a merciless 6-1 defeat at the hands of the No. 3 Virginia Cavaliers, but the Panthers know better than to hang their heads for long.

The Panthers were unable to attain their preseason goal of earning 11 victories

and reaching postseason play — a target that was set over a year ago. It is true that, at times, Pitt was overwhelmingly frustrat-ing to watch not only for fans, but also for the players and head coach Greg Miller.

With that said, their 6-12-0 record does not speak for what they truly accomplished in 2014.

“[Our goal of 11 wins] was intended to try and give our kids something to sink their teeth into,” Miller said. “It might have been a little bit out of our reach ... but we just tried to have that be the big picture

and then focus on all the things that were going to lead up to that.”

Pitt looked decent in the nonconfer-ence schedule, going 4-4-0 with a roster that consisted of 23 of 28 players who were freshmen or sophomores.

Lack of intensity early on in games is what killed Pitt through the middle por-tion of their season. They fell into a trend of getting down early and failing to give themselves a “fi ghting chance,” as Miller likes to call it, to win games.

For senior co-captain Jackie Poucel, it

was the 3-0 loss to the Duke Blue Devils in mid-September that helped Pitt diagnose their issues.

“I defi nitely think we all looked back at that game and had feelings of regret,” Poucel said. “We could have played much better ... it defi nitely made us realize we couldn’t just let [early goals] happen again, and we were determined to fi ght harder and last longer.”

After playing Boston College tough on

Mixed results leave women!s soccer optimistic, wanting moreKevin Wheeler

Staff Writer

Soccer 14

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“The only guy that has stopped [Georgia running back Todd Gurley] was the autograph guy,” Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis John-son was quoted as saying earlier this week.

This happens to be the case more and more often in college athletics: The titans of the NCAA are being toppled not by strong defenses, intri-cate game plans or severe injuries. Instead, their downfalls are the result of archaic, prohibitive rules by the NCAA — rules so stripped of logic that it’s amazing they are still in place.

These rules, of course, are the ones that are in place to ensure that collegiate athletes maintain the status of “amateur.” The main stipulation of this is that the athletes may not profi t o! of their own likenesses. That means no selling autographs, no advertisement deals and no jerseys sold with their names on the backs.

The fi rst issue with this is the overt hypoc-risy of the rules. The NCAA expects the athletes not to earn a dime from their likenesses, yet the organization itself and the universities can squeeze every ounce of cash out of the play-

ers through merchandising, advertising and ticket sales.

Schools like Penn State and Michigan rou-tinely sell out stadiums with capacities of over 100,000. Imagine the revenue generated each Saturday from those ticket sales. The schools see all of the profi t, while the athletes serve as modern-day gladiators without even sni" ng payment.

Even here at Pitt, promotional posters and tickets feature pictures of star athletes Tyler Boyd and James Conner, and the jerseys on sale at the team store just so happen to feature the numbers 23 (Boyd) and 24 (Conner).

When star quarterback Johnny Manziel was at Texas A&M, the highest-selling item on NCAA.com just so happened to be the No. 2 Texas A&M jersey (his number). Manziel would not see a lick of those earnings.

The issue of autographs is just as madden-ing. Gurley, a Heisman trophy frontrunner, was suspended four games for signing 300 dif-ferent items, earning between $8 and $25 per item. For writing his name down on 300 items, Gurley was suspended a third of the season.

To put how seriously the NCAA takes this

“infraction” in perspective, in 2004, Univer-sity of Miami safety Brandon Meriweather stomped on an opposing player’s head with his cleat. He was suspended one game. The message from the NCAA is clear: Violence is not as concerning as holding on to the grand illusion of amateurism.

And that’s where the source of the problem lies. These athletes are not amateurs. They are always in the public spotlight. They are on-cam-pus celebrities whose actions are constantly being scrutinized. Their games are televised to national audiences that care as much, if not

more, about college games than they do about the NFL or NBA. ESPN keeps track of every pass they throw and every shot they attempt. They are being monitored by millions upon millions of people and are not the equivalent of some Independent League baseball player living in anonymity.

To blindly say that these athletes are ama-teurs because they are attending college is simply inaccurate. They work as hard, if not harder, than professionals and perform on just as big a stage. It’s about time that they are allowed to reap the benefi ts.

Hypocrisy apparent in recent Todd Gurley suspensionDan Sostek

Assistant Sports Editor

MCT Campus


the road in a losing e! ort, the Panthers earned their fi rst ACC win in program his-tory against Syracuse in a grind-it-out-type match, 1-0.

“[The ACC win] was huge,” Miller said. “It was a huge monkey o! our back ... I think it took a lot of pressure o! of a whole lot of things and it just gave us the confi -dence we needed at that point.”

After defeating N.C. State on the road in the next contest to earn their second ACC victory, Pitt ended the season on a six-game losing streak in conference play with three of them coming to top-15 teams in Notre Dame, North Carolina and Florida State.

Sophomore co-captain and forward/midfi elder Siobhan McDonough — who will assume a heavier leadership role in the absence of Jackie Poucel next season — took the end of 2014 as a learning ex-perience.

“I hope the stretch of losses showed the team how hard playing in the ACC is,” McDonough said. “We made progress,

won two league games and we were feel-ing good. League play is a grind, though, and, towards the end, I think we lost some of our focus. [The losing streak] taught us that we need to be focused, hungry and prepared every time we step on the fi eld.”

Pitt was picked to fi nish last in the ACC in the preseason coaches’ poll. Behind their two ACC wins, the Panthers fi nished just above the N.C. State Wolfpack – who fi nished their season winless in confer-ence play – which was good enough for 13th overall.

Despite slightly overachieving, Greg Miller isn’t satisfi ed with where his Pan-thers sit right now.

“I think we’re in the bottom tier [of the ACC],” Miller said. “In this conference, you’ve got to be prepared for every single game ... I just don’t feel like we put as much value in every single game, especially down towards the end of the season.”

Having said that, Miller cannot deny the fact that his program is fi nally begin-ning to mold into something with which he can work.

“Looking back on the season, I’m more pleased than I am disappointed,” Miller

said. “Being patient, at times for me, was hard, but you’ve got to look back on it and say that we did make a good amount of progress with a pretty aggressive schedule. I’m excited about the future.”

Miller and Pitt’s returning players will face the o! season as a time to work on their individual skills, as well as forming a more committed, responsible group at the team’s core.

Before departing, Poucel had some

words of advice for her former teammates.“They have to learn to just be better,”

she said. “They have to learn mental tough-ness and how to push through the tough times and score goals. They need to know that they can win games, even the tough ones. They have to realize that, even if another team is all around more technical or more athletic, the hardest working team can win, and they need to learn how to be that type of team.”

Departing senior Jackie Poucel expects big things from the Panthers next year. Jeff Ahearn | Assistant Visual Editor

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