Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Taking school on the road for the Final Four
By Rustin Dodd
University Daily Kansan (U. Kansas)
04/03/2008

(U-WIRE) LAWRENCE, Kan. — When the Kansas basketball team goes on the road, Scott Ward's hotel room becomes an unofficial team library - a quiet place to study, finish a paper or make-up an exam.

Ward might be a forgotten man in March, but as a senior associate director for academic and career counseling, Ward's role within the Athletics Department is to see that the basketball team doesn't lose sight of school during all the distractions of March.

"I think it's a challenge for any student to stay focused on their studies," Ward said. "Obviously, there's some pretty big things going on with these guys."

Kansas fans might have Final Four fever, and the basketball team may have spent the last three weekends playing basketball on national television, but there's still an overriding reality: Kansas' players are student athletes. So while a chunk of the student body might have skipped class on Monday to recover from the Final Four celebration, Kansas' players had to be in class.

"Just because we're playing the tournament, you can't forget about school," senior guard Roderick Stewart said. "Because if you do, you're going to be in a hole so deep."

Ward said that besides the obvious mental distraction of preparing for Saturday night's National Semi-Final game against North Carolina, the players have another huge obstacle: travel.

While Kansas doesn't play until Saturday night, the team will leave on Wednesday for San Antonio, Texas. The extra time gives the players an opportunity to practice at the venue where they will play, handle media responsibilities on the day before the game and let their bodies recover fully from the traveling.

With the way the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments are set-up, Kansas will have been on the road four straight weeks when the NCAA tournament is done. The team did get a reprieve from school during spring break, but that schedule still adds up to approximately 8-12 days of missed class time.

"There is an awful lot of missed class from the Big 12 tournament on through March," Ward said. "KU professors are great, and they understand that the players need to do everything, and get the work in on time, but they are understanding with the travel and that sort of thing."

This is where Ward comes in. He oversees the team's academic progress during the entire year.

But in March its his job to make sure Kansas' players stay focused on school during the rigors of March.

"There's still papers due," Ward said. "We'll try to get them into a quiet room to work on a paper."

Sometimes exams may fall while Kansas is on the road.

Ward said he'll proctor the exam, following the guidelines of the KU instructor who wrote the test.

According to Ward, Kansas has four seniors - Jeremy Case graduated last year - who are on track to graduate in May, this March is crucial for maintaining that.

Stewart, along with Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun and Russell Robinson, is one of those seniors.

Stewart said he does as many assignments online as he can while Kansas is on the road.

"We're here, but there's definitely time for homework too," Steward said.

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