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POLICY

THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSIT Y SINCE 1884

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SATURDAY SUNDAY6642

MONDAY5140

BY JOHN GALATAS

Campus News Editor

The Mississippi State University Student Associ-ation created a new transfer student affairs program within its cabinet to assist in providing academic, so-cial and leadership opportunities to transfer students.

With transfer students comprising 50 percent of MSU graduates, and an increase in transfer student enrollment, SA President Shelby Balius said she recog-nized the necessity for a transition program.

In an email interview, Balius said the new program will connect transfer students to MSU and help the students transition to campus involvement.

“This will be an organization to promote network-ing and friendships among transfer students and provide assistance with their arrival at MSU,” Balius said. “It is not only an organization that will help in opportunities for connections between current MSU students, but also in networking with past transfer student MSU graduates and involvement to boost a student’s resume.”

Taylor King, co-director of transfer student affairs,

said the main purpose of the organization is to help transfer students to connect socially, academically and professionally.

“Socially, we want to help them meet each other. We want to create programs to have them come to-gether, even if it’s just a meeting,” King said. “We want to kind of make this a sorority or fraternity for them so they will be able to be with each other. Also, within the meetings, we can have the Career Center come over and speak about co-ops, resumes, grades or anything like that.”

King also said the program aims to get students in-volved with leadership organizations some may not know are available.

“It’s still not too late to rush, it’s still not too late to try out for an SA position, orientation leader, road runner or anything like that,” she said. “(Students) might have done that at their previous college, so they can get involved with things here that they were in-volved in beforehand.”

Balius said the inspiration for creating the new posi-tion came from her experience as an orientation leader in 2011.

BY EMMA CRAWFORD

News Editor

Mississippi State University was the target of a hacking attempt on one of the university’s serv-ers, but Information Technology Services found no secure data was stolen.

On Wednesday, the website Hack Read News posted that information from 535 MSU individuals had been compromised by a Brazilian hacker.

According to a news release, Presi-

dent Mark Keenum directed MSU’s chief information offi cer to launch an investigation into the incident.

MSU Chief Information Offi cer Mike Rackley said in a press release most of the information obtained by the hacker is available from existing public domain print or digital univer-sity directories.

He said no “social security numbers, credit card information, health infor-mation or grades” were compromised.

MSU’s ITS is notifying users who may have been affected by the incident and working with them to change their account passwords as a precaution.

Sid Salter, director of University Re-

lations, said in a phone interview the information accessed by the hacker was faculty information, not student information.

He also said MSU is constantly working to avoid cyber-attacks on its systems.

“MSU constantly monitors and updates and changes data security and strategies to avoid attacks of this na-ture,” he said. “Data security is an on-going battle that rages 24/7, hackers are attempting, not just at Mississippi State, but all over cyberspace to pene-trate the system.”

Salter said ITS’s procedure for pro-tecting the university’s servers proved

successful in the incident. “The takeaway from Wednesday

was that the system ultimately func-tioned as it should,” he said. “Secure data, things that actually have an im-pact on peoples privacy, the ITS up-held that information stayed secure.”

In a news release, Keenum said cy-ber-crimes are a university concern and MSU is aware of their potential for harm.

“Cyber-crimes and ‘hacking’ plague Fortune 500 companies, the federal government and unfortunately, is a reality in higher education as well,” said Keenum. “We’re very sensitive to the concerns such attacks generate,

but at this point we believe that the se-cure data of these individuals remains safe.”

In the event that a hacker did obtain secure data from MSU faculty or stu-dents, Salter said the university would assist individuals whose information was compromised as well as revaluate the security wall protecting secure in-formation on the MSU’s servers.

“The university would have to re-act just as individuals do when they are victims of identity theft,” he said. “They would do everything possible to help the victims of the hacking and then rebuild the wall to make it stron-ger and higher.”

SA introduces transfer student affairs cabinet position

SEE TRAFFICKING, 2

No secure data lost in MSU cyber-attack

Salter

Transfer student affairs program

BY JAMIE ALLENStaff Writer

January is Human Traffi cking Awareness month and agencies across the United States are bring-ing awareness to this issue as it is one of the fast-est-growing criminal activities in the world.

According to the United Nations’ website, thou-sands of women, men and children are traffi cked for sexual or labor exploitation each year.

Human traffi cking is sometimes referred to as modern-day slavery and victims are subjected to force, fraud or coercion by their traffi cker.

Advocates for Freedom is an organization locat-ed in Mississippi that is designed to bring aware-ness to human traffi cking.

Susie Harvill, executive director of AFF said hu-man traffi cking occurs in Mississippi.

“It is in most all of our towns, either labor traf-fi cking or sex traffi cking or both,” Harvill said. “It is usually a fraud type of situation, they are being told that they are going to make great mon-ey, but that is not the case.”

From January 1 to 4, about 60,000 college stu-dents attended Passion, an annual conference that takes place in Atlanta, Ga., where over $3 million were raised to stop human traffi cking.

Advocates for Freedom raises human trafficking awareness

SEE TRANSFER, 2

BEST WORSTOF 2012LIFE | 5

KAITLIN MULLINS | THE REFLECTOR

ZACK ORSBORN | THE REFLECTOR

NEWS THE REFLECTOR2 | FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

TRANSFER continued from 1

BADDAWGS

Sunday, January 6• 7:12 p.m. A student was arrested in Columbus for possession of paraphernalia and driving under the influence.

Monday, January 7• 8:56 a.m. An Aramark employee was arrested on Stone Boulevard for speeding, expired tag and suspended driver’s license.• 9:19 a.m. A non-resident/visitor reported welfare concern for his son, a student.• 11:56 a.m. A non-resident/visitor needed medical assistance at the Phi Delta Theta house. Subject refused transport to OCH.• 1:47 p.m. A non-resident/visitor was arrested on a warrant for destruction of intellectual property.• 1:49 p.m. A student was arrested in Starkville for disregard of a traffic control device.

Tuesday, January 8• 1:33 p.m. A non-resident/visitor was arrested on Stone Boulevard for speeding, suspended driver’s license and no insurance.• 1:54 p.m. An employee reported fuelman cards stolen from an MSU vehicle.• 5:19 p.m. A student reported suspicious activities taking place in Cresswell Hall.

Wednesday, January 9• 11:22 a.m. A student reported she fainted in Carpenter Hall. She refused an ambulance and stated that her grandparents were picking her up.• 2:45 p.m. A student reported her vehicle was damaged while parked in the Sanderson Center parking lot.• 5:15 p.m. A student reported damage to his vehicle while parked at the Industrial Education building.• 5:42 p.m. An employee reported her vehicle was on fire at the entrance of Garner Hall. Starkville Fire Department and A1 Towing were dispatched. Driver was out of the vehicle and no one was injured.

Citations:• 6 citations were issued for speeding.• 1 citation was issued for an expired tag.

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“Since I am from Geor-gia where we do not have a community college system, I was taken aback by the ap-parent stigma that is placed on transfer students. I have never really understood why – even our own univer-sity president is a transfer student. I noticed the need to reach out to transfer stu-dents during my time as an orientation leader in sum-mer 2011,” she said. “Many of the questions I would receive during the Dawg Talk session from trans-fer students centered on how to get plugged in and meet people, versus fresh-man students who would mostly ask questions about classes. Transfer students are already in the swing of

college classes so the culture shock of a new school is different for them.”

B a l i u s also said she stayed in touch with some trans-fer students in her orien-tation group to generate ideas as to how to im-prove the transition to MSU.

When she decided to run for SA president, she included the creation of the cabinet posi-

tion as part of her platform.In ad-

dition to the cabinet position, a new website has been created to connect po-tential stu-dents to the university.

“ T h e B u l l d o g Bound web-site will be l a u n c h e d later this s e m e s t e r with infor-mation that is compiled

according to recommenda-tions from the existing Trans-

fer Student Affairs committee and the new Transfer Student Association,” Balius said. “In the future, we hope to partner with the Offi ce of Admissions with their new ‘TAG’ (Tui-tion Admission Guarantee) program for transfer admitted students.”

The fi rst transfer student affairs meeting will be held Jan. 24 in the Union Dawg House. Speakers will include Balius, representatives from the Career Center and Aca-demic Advising Center and MSU baseball player Luis Pol-lorena, who is also a transfer student.

For more information on the transfer student affairs programs and events, students can follow @MSU_Transfer on Twitter.

The Bulldog Bound website will be launched this semester with information that is compiled according to recommendations from the existing Transfer Student Affairs committee and the Transfer Student Association.”Shelby Balius,SA president

“

Brittany Farley, junior secondary education major, was one of these students. She said Passion encour-aged her to become more aware of the products she uses that slaves may have made.

“There’s a website called Slavery Footprint which you can go to and see how many slaves work for you. I went and found that my total was 55 slaves. That’s incredible to think that there are 55 people forced to do stuff for me,” Farley said.

Megan Grice, freshman secondary education major, also attended Pas-sion. She said she was surprised to hear how prevalent human traffi cking is in the United States.

“A lot of times, people push so-cial problems on the other countries

and think that America doesn’t have any, but we have a whole lot more than we see,” Grice said. “I also found out about a ho-tline number that you can call in the U.S. and they will contact someone in your state that will help you.”

Harvill said college students can take action to raise awareness and help stop this fast-growing crime.

“I suggest that they get involved,” Harvill said. “They can fi nd either a

home they want to work in and lend support, use their computer skills for enhancing different programs that will bring about awareness, or volun-teer and work with an agency.”

TRAFFICKING continued from 1

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According to the Polaris Project, Mississippi is ranked a Tier 3, and encompasses three of the 10categories believed critical to a comprehensive anti-trafficking legal framework. Tier 3 states are noted tto have made nominal efforts to pass laws to combat human trafficking, and should take major steps to improve and implement its laws.

3TIER


OPINION the voice of MSU studentsInDesign is very

friday, january 11, 2013 | 3REFLECTOR-ONLINE.COM

CONTACT INFORMATIONEditor in Chief/Hannah Rogers

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sent to the Meyer Student Media Center or mailed to The Reflector, PO Box 5407, Mississippi State, MS. Letters may also be emailed to [email protected].

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CORRECTIONSThe Reflector staff strives to maintain the integrity of this paper through accurate

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Editor in ChiefHannah Rogers

Managing EditorKaitlyn Byrne

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Copy EditorRachel Burke

ReflectorThe

Gallaudet University, a liberal arts college located in Washing-

ton, D.C., recently awarded a Ph.D. to Angela McCaskill.

Interestingly enough, Mc-Caskill, who was given the position at Gallaudet as a diversity officer, was also re-cently put on paid leave by Gallaudet.

Why? Because she signed a petition which might make it possible for voters in Mary-land to be able to vote on overturning the state’s same-sex marriage laws.

Does the school think Mc C a s k i l l is intolerant and bigoted for doing this?

It would appear so. The school’s reasoning is insane.

If you don’t understand what I mean, I encourage you to think about tolerance a lit-tle harder.

To tolerate something is to put up with something, or to endure it.

But as we know, we don’t put up with or endure things in which we do not agree. That would be absurd.

Not only absurd, but it wouldn’t be tolerance.

Practicing true tolerance requires disagreement; it re-quires dissension.

But as the administrators at

Gallaudet prove, our society has discarded real tolerance and has replaced it with a kind that says, “You disagree with me? Then you’re intol-erant.”

It necessitates complete neutrality, and it limits peo-ple from picking sides on so-cial issues.

This is dangerous. As with the Gallaudet ex-

ample, this kind of thinking puts people on administrative leave for holding views that don’t run with the status quo.

It invari-ably fore-closes the possibility of actually p r a c t i c -ing true tolerance, because it r e m o v e s any discord from the conve r s a -tion.

Another problem with the modern notion of tolerance is that it is contradictory in nature.

The folks responsible for removing McCaskill seem to be oblivious to the fact that they are doing the very thing that they accuse McCaskill of doing — they are being intol-erant of her view.

Isn’t there something wrong here?

If this example seems a bit far off, think about conver-sations you’ve had with your peers.

Have you ever been labeled as intolerant for something you’ve said?

Now, I don’t mean to make excuses for people who truly are intolerant and mean-spir-ited about the way they han-dle differences of ideas.

I’m merely trying to say we need to stop and think about tolerance, so we can stop un-fairly branding people as big-oted for disagreeing with us.

Because as McCaskill proves, these people might be the only ones practicing real tolerance.

As to why people abuse the idea of tolerance? I think it’s because of fear.

We find it so much easier to dismiss someone as a bigot than to engage with them in dialogue. It’s a cop out.

We’re afraid of conversa-tions where disagreement might surface, because we’re afraid to be wrong.

We need to embrace healthy discord. That’s how we learn.

MusINgs | BEN hEsTER

Ben Hester is a junior majoring in communication. He can be contacted at [email protected].

BEN HESTER

Tolerance means disagreement

Nowadays, every guy seems to have a story about a “crazy,” con-

trolling ex-girlfriend. Get a group of men talking and you can bet the stories will go on for hours. That in itself is not surprising

and has probably been going on for decades. What is surpris-ing is the topic is often more enthusiastically spurred on by girls, who are just as ready to vilify other members of their sex for their relationships with men. Stories about the extreme

measures some girl went to in order to avoid being broken up with by some guy, or the way another made her boyfriend give up his friends, or the way yet another “lead on” Nice Guy #3 are traded as eagerly among both sexes today as Pokémon cards were among their elemen-tary school selves.

Now, while it’s bad for any

human being to play with an-other person’s feelings and ma-nipulating others is generally not a nice thing to do, I don’t think these girls deserve the backlash they get.

In fact, as someone who has been accused of both, I would like to present a sort of expla-nation on the behalf of them all.

Let’s talk about the life of the typical girl. She’s young and just as strong as boys her age, and she’s told she can be anything and that she should “follow her dreams.”

But in the movies she watch-es, the princess always ends up with a prince at the end.

She is told over and over the absolute happiest ending is to get a man to fall in love with her.

She has 30 Barbies but just two Kens, and those Kens get married repeatedly to different Barbies.

The Velcro on Barbie’s glit-tery white wedding dress is too worn to stick together.

Fast-forward to middle school. Suddenly, everything is important; how she looks, how she dresses, what she does. Boys are sud-denly growing stronger than her. She’s con-fused about just about every-thing.

All of her friends are getting boyfriends, and everything seems to revolve around boys, from the football team to the way she does her hair in the morning.

She now wants a boyfriend not just for romance, but be-cause having one is a status symbol.

Having a boyfriend would mean something about her was good enough for a real live boy to take notice.

Then, her very first “real” boyfriend asks her out and she’s delighted. She blasts Taylor Swift and dances on her bed until her mother comes in to tell her to turn it down.

The all-pow-erful male spe-cies has finally taken notice of her. After all of this waiting,

how could it possibly occur to her she might also have power over this guy?

To a girl who has constantly been told one special man has the power to change her life, the idea she could manipulate him in some way is foreign.

Just as boys of that age ob-jectify women, so do girls see boys as the answers to all life’s problems.

But then, she spends a lot of time with the guy she cele-brated so freely, and she realizes boys aren’t really all that differ-

ent from girls, and that if she plays her cards right, she can actually make him do things.

It becomes a power rush, a game to see what she can make him do. And then, as Britney so aptly pointed out, she does it again.

She experiments with her clothes, with the way she acts, seeing if she can use her new-found knowledge to manipu-late other men.

In a life which men rule in so many aspects, she can’t help but want to take back whatever power she can.

So really, can we blame her for cutting her boyfriend off from his friends or for flirting with the guy she has no inten-tion of dating?

In a world where a 16-year-old girl can be publicly sexually assaulted in Steubenville, Ohio, by football players at a party, and nothing can be done about it, can we blame any woman

for trying to take back what power she can?

When being called a feminist is more of an insult than the names often attributed to the women who like to manipulate the male species, these “crimes” might just be the best way she has to feel some small owner-ship of her life.

So let’s cut these “crazy” girls some slack and find a new topic of conversation. I hear newspa-pers are good for that.

ONE LITTLE spaRk | WhITNEy kNIghT

Whitney Knight is a junior majoring in English education. She can be contacted at [email protected].

WHITNEY KNIGHTI don’t think these girls deserve the backlash they get.”“

Cut the crazy, controlling ex-girlfriends some slack

With Christmas and the New Year festivities finally being over, it’s

time to settle back into the old familiar routine: school. How-ever, being back on the grind doesn’t mean it’s impossible to enjoy those Christmas pres-ents received over the holidays. What about that Kindle Fire or that Nook e - r e a d -er Santa tucked in the pile, next to the fruit cake and stack of gift cards? Yes, that’s right; it’s time to read some books!

E-readers are technological wonders. Whether it’s a Nook or a Kindle, they offer numer-ous advantages: the ability to carry an entire library with ease, discounted prices and Internet access. That and isn’t it nice to read books like “Fifty Shades of Grey” without being shunned by friends and family? Yes, yes it is.

And yet, an e-book never quite matches up to a real book. Anyone can go and list off all the ways an e-book is technically superior to traditionally printed books, but there is something about the tactile experience of bound paper and ink that res-onates with people ‘round the world.

A recent article printed in the Wall Street Journal by Nicholas Carr uses studies to prove this point, with key statistics from a Pew Research Study, such as “…fully 89 percent of regular book readers have said that they had

read at least one printed book during the preceding 12 months. Only 30 percent reported read-ing even a single e-book in the past year.” Basically, e-books are being treated like audiobooks: they’re just accessories.

Today, for the most part, mu-sic and movies have been almost entirely taken over by the digital

age. Net-flix streams e p i s o d e s of “Break-ing Bad” straight to TV and

laptops screens while Spotify and iTunes offer millions of songs, either through streaming or pur-chasing, through the Internet. When e-readers first came out, people assumed a similar trans-formation would happen. How-ever, it seems e-readers — while certainly a revolutionary device — are not the usurper of the printing press.

What traditionally print-ed books offer that e-readers can’t replicate (at least, not with technology now) is tradition. E-readers, no matter how fancy or high-tech, can never be placed on a shelf in a home. A kindle fire can never achieve that old book smell, the aroma that every true book lover knows: a mixture of age, mustiness and a dash of vanilla. There is something spe-cial in the imperfections, in the tactile sensation of fingertips tracing and dog-earing pages. No matter how advanced an e-book gets, there is yet to exist one that can duplicate that.

Books are a commitment.

Reading “War and Peace” is not the same as watching a two-hour movie or a 30-min-ute episode of “Girls.” With an e-reader, staring at the same screen — no matter how friend-ly on the eyes — is not the same as gazing at the printed pages of Harry Potter, feeling the weight and texture of the pages, turning them one-by-one as you slowly realize that oh-no-oh-no-HAR-RY WATCH OUT FOR VOL-DE—.

Anyway, e-readers are awe-some devices, and are tai-lor-made for impulse purchases and books that are worth a single read and then can be relegated to the trash bin. How many times does anyone actually need to re-read the latest Nicholas Sparks or E.L. James novel?

These are not the books that will be hailed as classics, that ev-ery American should have a copy to peruse in his or her library. No one, at least, no one sane, is going to grab their kids and start reading them passages out of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” And God help those poor children whose parents do.

REd hERRINgs | CLaIRE MOsLEy

Books are a commitment. Reading “War and peace” is not the same as watching a two hour movie.”

“Claire Mosley is a sophomore majoring in accounting. She can be contacted at [email protected].

CLAIRE MOSLEY

Tangible books outlast technology

Last semester I introduced the present danger of orbiting the Sun. There are many as-

teroids and comets out there, and every so often one of them smacks into our planet. Just on Earth it-self, several hundred million years ago, the Chicxulub impact crater around the Yucatan Peninsula was formed by a collision that is thought to be responsible for the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and paved the way for mammalian supremacy.

We do not want to be the next victims of periodic spontaneous cosmic destruction, so we should probably look for some ways of protecting ourselves. I would like to summarize some of the better options for protecting the human race from extinction by asteroid impact or any other cataclysmic event, man-made or natural.

Let’s say there is an all-out nu-clear war or we notice too late that there is a huge asteroid hurtling directly at us. We would naturally want to go underground and try to outlast either the radioactive fall-out or wait until the environment balanced back out to a habitable level. There already exist several government bunkers that were built in the 50s and are able to ac-cept a large influx of government personnel.

One underground apocalyp-tic-shelter is the Mount Chey-

enne Nuclear Bunker that is the backup headquarters for much of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the USA-Ca-nadian collaboration responsible for all nuclear war defenses accord-ing to a 2010 Washington Post article. There is another, more important shelter in Pennsylvania where, according to a New York Times article from 2000, “inside Raven Rock, as the otherwise unremarkable little mountain is called, lies a vast underground complex that was meant to replace the Pentagon.” Ever since the end of the Cold War, the site has been downscaling and it has been compromised as the power of nu-clear weapons has continued to in-crease, but in a pinch this bunker will serve as a mostly safe under-ground seat of government for the United States.

Barring nuclear war and if as-tronomers give us enough heads up about any oncoming asteroids or comets, we have several options at our disposal for dodging any bulls-eyes that might be aimed at us. Obviously we could just nuke the thing into little bits, but con-sider whether you want a bunch of tiny radioactive rocks landing all over the Earth. In the end, Bill Nye (Science Guy and Planetary Society Director) says nuking the thing could make an even worse mess, “Momentum is conserved,

if you blow it up, then the whole giant spray of rocks is coming at the Earth instead of one.”

Surprisingly, you do not have to destroy an asteroid to protect from an impact, you can also just deflect its orbit a little to assure that you will indeed miss being smashed. So far, the best of many possible techniques would be to get a very powerful laser pointed at the aster-oid so that a portion of it is melted and flies off the side of the rock at high speeds, effectively acting like a volcanic rocket engine. We have lasers that were developed for nuclear fusion research and space-ships that have been used to ren-dezvous with asteroids and comets already, all we need now is a target and we could easily get a chance to use laser-powered asteroid deflec-tion.

An even less intuitive solution is just sending spaceships out to tag along with the asteroid for a while. According to a Space.com article, “the spacecraft’s modest gravity would exert a tug on the asteroid as the two cruise through space together. Over months or years, this ‘gravity tractor’ method would pull the asteroid into a different, more benign orbit.” There are many methods of deflection and the scientific literature on the sub-ject is surprisingly rich, but even so, funding could dry up at any time. This issue is one of the most

important problems that astrono-mers and engineers face currently, but it does not seem to be taken seriously enough.

I assure you, it will become in-finitely important when the next killer asteroid comes into our path. We have astronomers constant-ly on the lookout for Near Earth Objects and we have physicists and engineers on the problem of deflecting asteroids, but even with all this effort it could simply not be enough and we might be caught off guard. Since we do not have any back up space colonies on Mars or the Moon, we could be wiped out the same way the dinosaurs were 65 million years ago. Do not take our peaceful ex-istence on this lonesome planet for granted, we are just a speck float-ing through the shooting gallery of space and we have the scars to show for it.

WhO spEaks FOR EaRTh? | CaMERON CLaRkE

Cameron Clarke is a sophomore majoring in physics. He can be contacted at [email protected].

CAMERON CLARKE

Asteroids could destroy Earth faster than we think

practicing true tolerance requires disagreement; it requires dissension ... our society has discarded real tolerance and has replaced it with a kind that says, ‘you disagree with me? Then you’re intolerant.’”

“

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Contact [email protected] or like us on Facebook, “MSU ASM,” for membership information.

YOGA MOVES CLUB

School or work stressing you out? Get moving into Yoga Moves! Try our moves to get into shape and our relaxation techniques to handle the stress. Yoga Moves meets at the Sanderson Center in Studio C, Thursday evenings 5 to 6:30. Like Yoga Moves Club-MSU on Facebook.

SOCIOLOGICAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION

The Sociological Student Association is based in the Department of Sociology. Undergraduates of all ages are welcome. Meetings are held the last Thursday of every month in Bowen Hall room 250 at 5 p.m.

STUDENTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS

SSC meets every Thursday at 6 p.m. in McCool room 212. Come and meet really cool people who all share interests in saving the environment. Don’t forget to opt-in for the Green Fund.

MSU STUDENT DIETETIC ASSOCIATION

SDA meeting on Jan. 15 in Moore Hall 100. A light meal will be served at 5:45 p.m., business meeting at 6 and guest speaker at 6:30. Guest speaker is Beverly Lowry, director of child nutrition for Starkville School District.

11-11-13AN IN-CLASS DISTRACTION ...

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4 | FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013 THE REFLECTOR

“I’MBORED!”

"I want to win an Oscar. I want to be known for more than,like, going out.”

- Lindsay Lohan in“Liz and Dick”

Life & EntertainmentFRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013 | 5REFLECTOR-ONLINE.COM

LES MISÉRABLES

B E S T M o v i e

As one who deeply appreciates and loves musicals, I was ready to see “Les Miserables” the moment I heard Anne Hathaway’s voice faint-ly singing “I Dreamed a Dream” during the previews of some mov-ie I saw last year. “Les Mis” — as it is most often referred (perhaps because some of us are afraid we’ll say “Miser-ables” wrong) — was simply phenomenal. Tom Hooper, whose 2010 fi lm “The King Speech” won Best Pic-ture at the Oscars two years ago, chose a risky and impressive way to fi lm the beloved musi-cal: by having the actors sing live on set. I be-lieve his ambitions were successful.

Before I begin ex-plaining why “Les Miserables” is on my “Best” list, I want all readers who have not yet seen the movie but have seen the Broadway production to keep in mind the movie is dif-ferent from the musi-cal. Instead of seasoned Broadway singers (for

the most part), most of the fi lm consists of A-list actors who we didn’t know could sing. While the fi lm does convey the powerful tone of the musical, “Les Mis” on stage and “Les Mis” the movie are two very different ex-periences. Having the actors sing live as they acted created a kind of fragility — hearing the actor’s voices break be-cause they are actually crying gives a whole feeling to a movie-mu-sical. “Les Mis” tells a story drenched in hu-man suffering, and I think the fragility of the movie is what makes it so powerful.

Hathaway, to me, certainly earned her place among Best Sup-porting Actress con-tenders for her portray-al of Fantine and will give anyone else nom-inated in that category a run for their money. She’s painfully thin and cut off all of her hair — during the fi lming pro-cess nonetheless — and steals the screen every second she appears. All

the hype you’ve heard about her in this role is absolutely true.

Hugh Jackman will also make you cry un-controllably in his lead role as Jean Valjean. I was impressed with his vocal ability, too. Was he exactly like a stage version of Jean Val-jean? Of course not. But he did a fantastic job bringing the char-acter to life and mak-ing the audience weep and swoon. I could see he poured his heart and soul into this role, and deserves the Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Eddie Redmayne played the role of Mar-ius and stole the hearts of many viewers, in-cluding myself. His voice and portrayal of Marius was simply beautiful.

Samantha Barks played the role of Éponine, as she did in the London stage pro-duction for a year. I don’t think this is the last we will see of Barks on the big screen — she is extremely talented.

Sacha Baron Cohen (yes, Borat) and Hel-ena Bonham Carter play the Thénardiers. Helena Bonham Car-ter is in her element: she plays the cooky corrupt innkeeper’s wife perfectly. I think of all the cast of “Les Mis,” I was most sur-prised by Baron Co-hen. He was so nat-ural in that character, and his singing wasn’t bad either. He made you laugh and he also made you want to slap him in the face.

The only person I was not terribly impressed with was Russell Crowe as In-spector Javert. In my opinion, he wasn’t bad — he just wasn’t as impressive as his fellow leading roles.

“Les Miserables” is majestic. Getting used to the entire dia-logue of the film may take some getting used to from people who aren’t keen on musicals, but go see this movie regardless of your opinion on musicals.

MARY CHASE BREEDLOVE

LINDSAY LOHAN

W O R S T P E R S O N

From a bar brawl to one extremely me-diocre movie, actress Lindsay Lohan did not have an ideal year. After starting 2012 off relatively calm, things started to spi-ral downward for Lohan during the sum-mer. Lohan was in a car accident with an 18-wheeler in June. Witnesses say she lied about who was driving and removed a bag from the car after the accident. Hopes were high for a comeback when Lohan was cast in the Lifetime movie “Liz and Dick,” but the

m o v i e received scathing reviews after the November premiere. A few days later Lohan was charged with assault after an altercation in a Manhattan nightclub. Add all of this to being absent from communi-ty service requirements, getting rushed to the hospital after being found non-respon-sive and fl eeing the scene of a crime. Even Charlie Sheen had to help her out at one point. Hopefully, Lohan will get it together in 2013. Otherwise, you can’t sit with us.

CASEY SMITH

FILL OUT AN APPLICATION AT THE HENRY F. MEYER MEDIA CENTER, and check the life section box.

THE PUNCH BROTHERS

B E S T B A N D

The Punch Brothers claimed 2012 as its own in a few ways; it released its sopho-more album Who’s Feeling Young Now? on Feb. 14, an album made with blue-grass instruments that, at times, sound nothing like bluegrass. The album ranges from a cover of Radiohead’s “Kid A,” in which the strings of acoustic instruments transform into the bleeps of electronic music, to a Beyonce-worthy R&B number about the cold heart of a city girl. Founding member Chris Thile, both vocalist and one of the world’s best mando-linists, received one of 23 MacArthur Genius Grants in 2012, which bears $100,000 a year for fi ve years toward any project. The band toured con-stantly last year, including a dip into the South to play in Florence, Ala. Its prowess left the audience in a full few

seconds of silence after its unplugged en-core, the kind of hush that comes after hearing something entirely unlike every-thing else. The Punch Brothers stole that title in 2012.

DANIEL HART

COURTESY PHOTO | THE PUNCH BROTHERS

COURTESY PHOTO | UNIVERSAL PICTURES

6 | FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013 THE REFLECTOR

BROADCAST NEWS COVERAGE

W O R S T E T H I C S

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t completely hate broadcast news organizations. And maybe it’s because Twitter has taken off as a news delivery. Maybe it’s because society demands informa-tion so quickly that broadcast networks must feed the need for instant gratification. But as a journalist and a human being, I can’t condone the transformation of news into entertainment solely for ratings, attention and desire to pander to the viewers.

The 2012 election was poorly covered. For ex-ample, the third-party candidates were ignored because they didn’t fit the narrative of what the networks were trying to create. The point of journalism is that it gives voices to the voice-less, and journalists should not just reinforce stereotypes and preconceived notions. Shoot-

ings such as Aurora and Newtown, important events, became so misreported and skewed that those spreading misinformation should have re-signed. Furthermore, 24-hour coverage simply glorified the events and turned them into a dis-gusting display. And even smaller events made me question the integrity and competence of those producing the stories — for example, the misreporting of the Supreme Court healthcare decision by networks like CNN and FOX and then their lack of regret in their supposed apol-ogies.

We all make mistakes, but there’s a limit. It’s embarrassing, unprofessional and gives all me-dia organizations a poor reputation when major broadcast networks disregard journalism ethics and refuse to repent.

HANNAH ROGERS

LINCOLNB E S T M O V I E

Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” is a masterpiece. Although I admit, I enjoy history and that may have swayed my opinion that it is the best movie I have seen to date, I believe anyone who has seen it would agree with me. The movie’s focus is the passing of the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery and end the Civil War. Daniel Day Lewis is completely convincing and captivating as our nation’s 16th president. His lines are delivered in a wispy, yet powerful voice, and he portrays Lincoln’s passion for his country. “Lincoln” manages to spellbindingly recount one of the most important events in our nation’s history.

EMMA CRAWFORD

APPLE MAPSW O R S T A P P

Stories of this fl awed global positioning system fl ooded the Twitter and Instagram stage earlier in 2012. Paths to unmarked roads, over non-existent bridges and into the ocean were all suggested through this system. The Apple machine had to revamp this program before issuing a much-needed update. It all started with the company deciding to switch from Google Maps to an Apple-generated product for iOS 6. This move was detrimental to the company as the fail photos started pouring in from un-happy costumers. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook issued a statement of apology regarding the public’s unpleasant reviews of its product, which suggested the product would get better as more people used it and the company was building it from the ground up. No matter what was really done, smart phone users trust the Google Map app for di-rections. Something about all of those pixelated images and misconfi gured buildings makes some hesitant to trust Apple Maps ever again.

CHRISTINE BOWMAN

DARK KNIGHT RISES

B E S T M O V I E

For as long as I’ve loved Batman, I’ve loved Catwoman. (She’s a strong female anti-hero and a cat. That makes her cool.) But I’ve al-ways hated every characterization of Catwom-an on film. So when Anne Hathaway finally captured the essence of the morally ambig-uous heroine, it’s no surprise I automatical-ly loved the film and obstinately defended it against critics. Sure, no one really remembers Bane, but Catwoman makes up for that.

Christopher Nolan’s final chapter in The Dark Knight Trilogy creates a Dickensian Go-tham which provides a backdrop for Bruce

Wayne’s final undertaking as Batman. “The Dark Knight Rises” dares to explore issues such as social class, sacrifice and redemption. The most prominent feature of the film, how-ever, remains the ending. At the end of Bruce’s journey, Nolan allows for the possibility of Batman being a symbol that exists outside of a specific person. Bruce finds a happy ending that frees him from the perpetual life of the superhero. Despite being “dark” and “gritty,” at the end of the trilogy, Nolan provides hope, which may be the bravest moment of the fran-chise.

HANNAH ROGERS

LENA DUNHAMB E S T P E R S O N

Finally, someone who says what everyone was thinking. Lena Dunham, creator of the HBO dramedy “Girls,” has cracked me up and made me weep into a bowl of Fruit Loops. Dunham’s extremely dry, smart sense of humor has graced 2012 with a collection of complex personali-ties in a television show that deserves every sin-gle Emmy, in my opinion. Much like her fi rst fi lm she wrote and directed “Tiny Furniture,” “Girls” explores the trials of having absolute-ly no idea what to do with your life. We’ve all been there. Not only has Dunham created a highly successful show, she signed a $3.5 mil-lion deal for a book with less than 100 pages. Obviously, her words are a big deal, and I plan to read it religiously. I kind of want to be her.

ZACK ORSBORN

MAYAN APOCALYPSE

W O R S T A P O C A L Y P S E

This was supposed to be a big deal. December 21, 2012. Doomsday. Rain of fi re falling from the sky. Giant fi ssures opening up across the earth’s surface, enveloping entire cities. Homeless people pillaging streets as chunks of outer space hurtle to the ground. There were books and websites dedicated to offering survival tips to the pop-ulation during this crisis. Yet, other than an unusually obnoxious amount of Tweeters and Facebookians offering to take all money off your hands prior to the Armageddon, it was a day like any other. Worst. Apocalypse. Ever.

CANDACE BARNETTE

PARKS & REC

B E S T S H O W

“Parks and Recreation” may be the best comedy on television. Perhaps one of the best shows on television. And, sadly, “Parks and Rec” has some serious ratings prob-lems. (But seriously, it comes on NBC Thursday at 7:30 p.m. this spring.) No other show produces as much timeless humor, genuine moments and tears from its viewers. Come on Emmy voters, just recognize the greatness of Amy Poehler.

Although it may seem impossible, the creators of “Parks and Recreation” make poli-tics seem noble again and show humanity at its most generous, humble and charitable. The actors carry both comedic and serious moments without pause. Every episode builds better storylines — showing that even if a television series ages, it still can strive for greatness.

HANNAH ROGERS

DARK SHADOWS

W O R S T M O V I E

In this macabre comedy, Tim Burton attempted to hop on the vampire train into “so bad it’s good” territory, but he overshot his mark. Just like almost every Burton movie in the past 10 years, “Dark Shadows” features Johnny Depp playing a pale, eccentric lead. The shameless recycling of ideas even extends to the plot of the movie, which is based on a 1970s soap opera. “Dark Shadows” is a sloppily written movie with cheap laughs and predictable characters.

CALEB BATES

HONEY BOO BOO

W O R S T P E R S O N

After Alana Thompson made her debut on “Toddlers and Tiaras,” the audience was fl abber-gasted. “A dollar makes me holler,” she announced to the world. What? What does that even mean? As with almost everything this child says, America is left struggling to comprehend. So when TLC launched “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” America watched. With morbid curiosity, America watched the Honey Boo Boo Child’s entire family. A train wreck doesn’t quite suffi ce. More like an airplane of violent criminals plummeting into a train of dangerous zoo animals in the middle of New York City, wreaking havoc on a nearby mall. Also, the Internet shut down. But no matter how many IQ points are making a desperate fl ee from your brain, you can’t stop watching.

CANDACE BARNETTE

POP LYRICSW O R S T M U S I C

Pop music can be some of the best music in the world, and 2012 had shining examples of that. But lazy, unimaginative lyrics were an issue across the board. This doesn’t always have to be the case, but by the end of 2012 imaginative lyrics seemed to be nonexistent on the radio. Not that the songs were necessarily bad. Songs are an amalgamation of music and lyrics, but even if it sounds great, if the lyrics are clichés, they’re clichés. Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” for example. It’s a fun song, and you can sing along to it triumphantly, sure, but my 9-year-old sister could write those lyrics. There’s no imagination really; she even settles for 2012’s easiest cliché with the line about “some indie record that’s much cooler than mine.” Ke$ha’s “Die Young” is another offender. “Let’s dance until we die?” “I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums?” I’m happy musicians like Taylor Swift and Ke$ha can draw a nice paycheck for performing and creating art, but some accountability in the lyrics department couldn’t hurt. Here’s to lyrical growth in 2013!

DANIEL HART

AMC

B E S T N E T W O R K

AMC had an amazing year in 2012. With the fifth season of “Mad Men,” the sixth season of “Breaking Bad” and the third season of “The Walking Dead,” AMC man-aged to continue to raise the bar of what cable shows should be. If you are not watch-ing one of these shows, you are missing out on some of the best shows television has to offer. “Mad Men” continued to show Don Draper and his advertising firm hurdle through the late 1970s. “Breaking Bad” continued the evolution of family man and former high school chemistry teacher Walter White into an international drug king. “The Walking Dead” continued a year after the initial zombie apocalypse with Rick Grimes and his group dealing not only with living monsters, but also other humans who also survived. All three of these shows are radically different, yet each exemplifies what all television shows should strive for: fantastic story, relatable characters and fresh ideas.

ALEX MONIÉ

LIES.

Best & Worst of 2012 continued...



COURTESY PHOTO | WARNER BRO. PICTURES

COURTESY PHOTO | HBO

SPORTSREFLECTOR-ONLINE.COMFRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013 | 7

BY KRISTEN SPINK

Sports Editor

As expectations continue to rise for the Mississippi State Univeristy football team, eight-win seasons that were once celebrated are now disappointments.

After starting the season 7-0, the Bulldogs fi nished the year 8-5, beating only Arkansas in the fi nal six-game stretch.

The 23 consecutive sell-outs at Davis Wade Stadium testifi es to the success head coach Dan Mullen has had since his arrival, and for Mullen, who just fi nished his fourth season at the helm for the Dogs, the pro-gram is in a good position but must continue to move forward.

“It was great to win a lot early, but it sucks to lose late,” Mullen said after the Dogs lost to Northwestern in the Gator Bowl. “The great thing is eight-win seasons now are starting to become disappointing at Mississippi State. That’s the direction you want the pro-gram headed.”

With the loss of Johnthan Banks, Cameron Lawrence and Chad Bumphis among numerous other seniors as well as defensive coordi-nator Chris Wilson and cornerbacks coach Mel-vin Smith, next year’s team will have some new faces amidst the return-ing players.

The offense lost the ma-jority of its receiving core and will be looking to play-

ers such

a s Robert Johnson

and Joe Morrow to pick up the slack at

wide out. But for the most part, the rest of the offense

will remain intact for State next season led by Tyler Rus-sell and LaDarius Perkins.

Although Russell ended on a bad note, throwing four interceptions in the Ga-tor Bowl, the junior quarter-back threw just six during the regular season and now has a year as a starter under his belt.

Perkins will be return-ing alongside Russell in the backfi eld. After taking over for Vick Ballard, Perkins posted 1,061 yards rush-ing and added eight touch-downs this year. Ballard rushed for over 1,000 yards in 2011, and Perkins said back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons is something to build on for next year.

“I just tried to keep it go-ing this year and make sure I keep it going n e x t y e a r , too,” P e r -

kins

s a i d . “ G o -

ing into next year,

it’s a positive upside getting

1,000 yards.”Russell and Perkins

will retain the majori-ty of their offensive line next season, as well. Se-

nior captain Tobias Smith is the lone departing player from the O-Line.

Smith said both Russell and Perkins have developed into the leaders of the of-fense.

“Since he (Russell) has been here, he’s been getting groomed. He came into the zone at the right time in his junior year. He’s become a leader within the offense,” Smith said. “With him (Per-

kins), he’s been a play-er since he got here. He was well developed

in high school. He’s leading a young backfi eld and doing a good job with them, also.”

On the de-fensive side of the ball, former line-backers coach Geoff Col-lins took the job as State’s defensive co-ordinator. The departures of Smith to Auburn and Wilson to Georgia left State with multiple coaching po-

sitions to fi ll.MSU announced the

hire of David Turner as the D-Line coach Wednesday. Turner was State’s D-Line coach from 2007-09 be-fore he left for Kentucky.

When Mul-len arrived in

Starkville in 2008, Turner was one of the few coaches Mullen kept on staff. Turn-er takes over for his replace-

ment, as Wilson was hired when Turner left for Ken-tucky.

Only one coaching vacan-cy, the secondary, remains for State, one which after the Gator Bowl Mullen said could possibly be fi lled by current safeties coach Tony Hughes.

The Bulldog defense struggled with tempo issues throughout the season, an issue Collins said was better in the Gator Bowl.

“That’s the key to stop-ping tempo is you don’t let it get started,” Collins said. “Teams in this league, even Kentucky now, are going to this spread no-huddle. I think our guys after three weeks of solely focusing on it felt comfortable, and they didn’t look like a deer in the headlights like they might have at times this season.”

Benardrick McKinney, Denico Autry and Nickoe Whitley will lead the defense next season. McKinney fi n-ished second on the team with 102 tackles this season, and Whitley was close be-hind with 88. Autry found his way into the backfi eld numerous times, recording four sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss.

Autry said he and the rest of the team have a lot of work to do to prepare for next season.

“It’s going to be a new team, a new season, just get-ting ready to be better in the regular season,” Autry said.

Eight-win season now disappointing for Dogs

KAITLYN BYRNE | THE REFLECTOR

After posting 1,061 rushing yards and eight touchdowns this year, LaDarius Perkins will return for his final year next season alongside quarterback Tyler Russell to lead the Bulldog offense.

It’s going to be a new team, a new season, just getting ready to be better in the regular season.”Denico Autry,junior, defensive line

“

“It was great to win a lot early, but it sucks to lose late,” Mullen said after the Dogs lost to Northwestern in the Gator Bowl. “The great thing is eight-win seasons now are starting to become disappointing at Mississippi State. That’s the direction you want the pro-gram headed.”

With the loss of Johnthan Banks, Cameron Lawrence and Chad Bumphis among numerous other seniors as well as defensive coordi-nator Chris Wilson and cornerbacks coach Mel-vin Smith, next year’s team will have some new faces amidst the return-ing players.

The offense lost the ma-jority of its receiving core and will be looking to play-

ers such

a s Robert Johnson

and Joe Morrow to pick up the slack at

wide out. But for the most part, the rest of the offense

I keep it going n e x t y e a r , too,” P e r -

kins

s a i d . “ G o -

ing into next year,

it’s a positive upside getting

1,000 yards.”Russell and Perkins

will retain the majori-ty of their offensive line next season, as well. Se-

nior captain Tobias Smith is the lone departing player from the O-Line.

Smith said both Russell and Perkins have developed into the leaders of the of-fense.

“Since he (Russell) has been here, he’s been getting groomed. He came into the zone at the right time in his junior year. He’s become a leader within the offense,” Smith said. “With him (Per-

kins), he’s been a play-

After posting 1,061 rushing yards and eight touchdowns this year, LaDarius Perkins will return for his final year next season alongside quarterback Tyler Russell to lead the Bulldog

8 | friday, january 11, 2013 THE REFLECTOR

SPORTSSaturday HoopS:MSu at GeorGia

12:30 p.M. SeC network

Ray, Dogs open SEC play with home win over South Carolina

zaCk orSborn | tHe refleCtor

Total number of Cyberstalking cases in 2011: 305 cases. 35% of those cases involved victims between the age of 18-30. 74% of those cases involved female victims. 82% of those cases involved Caucasian victims, 6.75% involved Hispanic victims, and 5.5% involved African American victims. 53% of those cases involved single victims. 40% of those cases involved a male harasser. 59% of those Cases had no prior relationship with their harasser.

Brought to you by: The Department of Health Education and Wellness

662-325-2090 Located next to the Reflector and Subway

Stalking Awareness Month

Colvard Student Union

January 16, 2013 11:00 am– 1:00 pm

Colvard Student Union

January 30, 2013 11:00 am– 1:00 pm

By Brittany young

Contributing Writer

After posting top finishes at the Panther Indoor Icebreaker in early December, the Mississippi State indoor track and field team looks to pick up where it left off in the first meet of the new year, the UAB Blazer Indoor Invitational.

At the conclusion of the 2012 NCAA Championships, a host of Bulldogs earned All-American honors. Jody-Ann Muir (400-me-ter dash), Marcus Jackson (high jump) and the 4x400m squad of Emanuel Meyers, Tavaris Tate, Daundre Barnaby and James Har-ris concluded the season with first-team All-American honors.

Nathan Arnett (400m hurdles), Barnaby (400m dash), Favian Cowards (hammer throw) and the 4x100m team of D’Angelo Cherry, Jarrett Samuels, Justin Christian and Tate all claimed sec-ond-team All-American accolades.

The men’s team is ranked No. 20 for preseason indoor track and field after the 2012 season proved to be the highest SEC finish for MSU since 1989. After recruiting some outstanding athletes and a strong and demanding offseason, the Bulldogs went out to prove the 2013 season would be even better as 10 Bulldogs posted top finishes at the Panther Indoor Icebreaker.

In her first collegiate compe-tition, freshman Megan Walker posted a top pole-vault height (12-01.50) and finished second over-all. Also, freshman Brandon Mc-

Bride finished first in the 400m dash with a time of 48.13.

The Canadian said he did not expect a first place finish because it was his first time competing in the States and the 400m dash is not his natural position.

“It’s all new to me, so I didn’t know what to expect,” McBride said. “The 800m dash is my nat-ural position, so to come first in the 400m dash is truly a blessing.”

Although McBride posted a top performance in his first collegiate event, he said he has been working on improving his speed and en-durance in order to be a successful dual runner.

“The 800 is my natural posi-tion, so I have to continue to in-crease my speed to be successful at the 400,” McBride said. “I also have to increase my endurance in order to be a dual runner and compete for both the 400 and 800.”

Barnaby, the senior All-Amer-ican and Olympian, did not compete in the Icebreaker but said he expected his teammates to perform the way they did because they worked hard and put in the work during the offseason.

After competing in the 2012 Summer Olympics and missing qualifying for the second round of the 400m dash, Barnaby said his mindset coming into this season was to improve and get better.

“I worked on getting stronger in the weight room and building my lower-body strength to im-

prove my time and speed,” Barnaby said. “My mental strength was also a key fo-cus.”

M c B r i d e said he looks up to Barnaby and is learning as much as he can from him before Barnaby graduates.

“I’m always watching and ask-ing him for tips about becoming a better 400m runner,” McBride said. “He’s a cool guy; he has Ca-nadian citizenship, and I’m Ca-nadian. He’s an Olympian, and I plan on being an Olympian but in the 800 instead of the 400.”

Sophomore Erica Bougard, who will see her first action this weekend competing in five events as a pentathlete, is also coming off an outstanding sea-son, earning SEC All-Freshman honors in the long jump and heptathlon. Bougard did not travel to Birmingham in early December but said she spent a lot of time building her physical strength during the offseason.

“I focused on strength and conditioning and high-jump-ing,” Bougard said. “I’m jumping twice as high as last season.”

Bougard, Barnaby and Mc-Bride will all be in action this weekend at the UAB Invitation-al and Saturday at the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener. Both events will take place at the Birming-ham Crossplex.

Indoor track and field heads to Birmingham

Bougard

By Forrest Buck

Staff Writer

The Mississippi State men’s basketball team began con-ference play with a close 56-54 win over South Carolina Wednesday night. The Bull-dogs entered the contest with a 5-7 record, while the Game-cocks came in 10-3.

With the win, the Dogs snapped a two-game losing streak in SEC openers. Also, for the first time in the history of MSU men’s basketball, the Dogs won without making a three-point field goal (the team went 0-10 from beyond the arc.)

Freshman Craig Sword led the Dogs with 18 points and came up huge down the stretch, scoring nine points in the final 10 minutes. Head coach Rick Ray praised the performance of Sword after the game.

“He’s the one guy we know can get by if we draw some-thing up for him,” Ray said. “Down the stretch, he was huge for us because he continually got the ball into the paint, and we needed that.”

State’s overall team de-fense hurried the Gamecocks throughout the game. MSU was down 44-50 with just over five minutes left in the game but held South Carolina score-less for four minutes, during which the Dogs took the lead and never trailed again.

Sword credited Ray for the team’s solid defensive perfor-mance.

“Coach just told us to play every defensive possession like it’s your last,” Sword said. “Me and Fred (Thomas) just made a decision to go out and put pres-sure on the ball.”

Thomas and Tyson Cun-ningham continually put pres-sure on the ball and clogged up the passing lanes. The Bulldogs effectively switched between m a n - t o - m a n defense and a 1-3-1 zone to really bother the Gamecocks, forcing 24 turnovers.

Thomas was active all game forcing turn-overs, and Cun-ningham was excellent off the bench as he provided the perfect spark de-fensively for this team.

Ray said Thomas’s high ac-tivity on defense and Cun-ningham’s energy off the bench greatly helped the team.

“Fred Thomas is really active in the 1-3-1 defense. Because of his length, he’s able to get out in the passing lanes and force turnovers,” Ray said. “Tyson

Cunningham is a company guy. Whatever the company needs, he’s gonna do it.”

The Dogs have dealt with adversity throughout the sea-son, and they were faced with more in the final minutes of the game Wednesday. Ray was put in a tough position as he had to find a way to properly manage his lineups with fatigue, foul trouble and cramps bothering multiple players.

Ray said he was proud of the way his team handled and overcame the hardship.

“I think our guys did a really good job of per-severing,” Ray said. “There were a lot of times I was looking for guys to sub, and Jalen (Steele) had

a cramp, Chicken (Sword) had a cramp and Trivante (Blood-man) had four fouls. Guys were coming to me saying, ‘I need a sub,’ and I was like, ‘There are no subs.’”

The players on the court ultimately decide games, but the MSU players and coaches were adamant about the role the Bulldog fans had on the

game, as the Hump was rocking throughout the game.

Roquez Johnson said the fans had a lot to do with his perfor-mance in the game.

“I gotta credit the crowd,” Johnson said. “It really boosts your energy up when they’re loud like that.”

Ray agreed and said his team fed off the crowd energy late in the game to make the come back.

“I can’t tell you how much it means to the players to have support like that because they’re kids, and they grew up watching college basketball and seeing the crazy atmospheres on TV, and they want that,” Ray said. “I thought the students got into it, and the fans got into it, and our guys really fed off that.”

barton dinkinS | tHe refleCtor

Along with his eight points, Fred Thomas’s high-pressure defense and five steals helped the Dogs overcome the Gamecocks by two.

Coach just told us to play every defensive possession like it’s your last...Me and Fred (Thomas) just made a decision to go out and put pressure on the ball.”Craig Sword,freshman guard

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Stat of the day: the miSSiSSippi State men’S baSketball team won itS firSt game ever without making a three-point field goal wedneSday againSt South carolina.

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