Michigan Final Four
The Final Four is set with a collection of schools that almost nobody — literally, almost nobody — projected to spend a weekend in Atlanta together. So this is basically like every other year, you know? (Except for 2008, of course.) And the storylines are obvious: Rick Pitino trying to become the first man to win titles at two different schools. Jim Boeheim trying to get his second at Syracuse. John Beilein trying to get his first after three decades as a head coach. Wichita State trying to … Hold up! What the hell is Wichita State doing here? “We want to one-up everybody,” Shockers coach Gregg Marshall told me late Saturday, and now he’s just two wins from doing it. Wichita State could become the first school from a non-power league to win a title since UNLV in 1990, and the lowest-seeded team to ever do it. So, yeah, the Shockers are in a position to one-up everybody. Can they do it? Will they do it? I’ll address that and more in this Final Four Look Ahead. —– SATURDAY’S SEMIFINALS —– Wichita State (30-8) vs. Louisville (33-5)Tip: 6:09 p.m. ETTV: CBSLine: Louisville -10 Louisville is favored because … the Cardinals are operating at an extremely high level right now — just destroying everybody placed in front of them. Rick Pitino’s team has won 14 consecutive games by an average of 17.3 points, and the past 10 victories have all come at the expense of teams that also played in this NCAA tournament. Only two opponents — Syracuse on March 2 at the Carrier Dome, Oregon on Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium — have avoided a double-digit loss to the Cards. So Louisville is favored big because Louisville should be favored big. The Cardinals are talented, deep, experienced and coached by a man who should be a Hall of Famer next week. So can Wichita State upset Louisville? Yeah, I guess. But it would be a massive upset and huge surprise. Syracuse (30-9) vs. Michigan (30-7)Tip: Approximately 8:49 p.m. ETTV: CBSLine: Michigan -2 Michigan is favored because … the Wolverines are terrific offensively and led by a consensus First Team All-American named Trey Burke. Michigan just eliminated the Big 12 champs (Kansas) and SEC champs (Florida) in a three-day span and looked wonderful while doing it thanks, in part, to the emergence of Mitch McGary, who is averaging 17.5 points and 11.5 rebounds in this NCAA tournament. John Beilein’s team has college basketball’s top-rated offense, according to KenPom.com. So the Wolverines will present a unique (and presumably difficult) challenge for Syracuse’s 2-3 zone. —– FOUR OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THIS FINAL FOUR —– 1. Playing well in February wasn’t a prerequisite: College basketball provides a four-month season filled with ups and downs for most teams, even the great ones. And that’s something we should probably remember before burying schools on Valentine’s Day next year. Louisville was obviously great in February, going 6-1 with the lone loss coming in five overtimes at Notre Dame. But Wichita State was only 5-3, Michigan was only 3-4 and Syracuse was only 4-4 in the lone 28-day month. The lesson? As long as the talented pieces are in place, you don’t really have to be great in January, February or even early March to make a run in the Field of 68. 2. It’s wise to include the Big East tournament champion in your Final Four: Folks get their brackets every Selection Sunday and fill them out millions of different ways because, honestly, there’s no perfect way to do it. But you should always have the...
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Shelly Kovacs, director of the Office of Student Services in the School of Kinesiology, University of Michigan When Shelly Kovacs went to a homecoming event on Oct. 15 at the University of Michigan’s Michigan League, she had no idea that her friends, family and co-workers had been keeping a secret for weeks and even months. On that night, officials from the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology announced that an endowed scholarship had been named after Kovacs, who is director of the Office of Student Services in the School of Kinesiology. (See a short video of the presentation on YouTube.) “The most amazing thing about the scholarship is that most people don’t have the opportunity for recognition and appreciation in their lifetime,” Kovacs said. “Most people have to retire or die to receive such a special honor.” To the co-workers and formers students who nominated her for the honor, though, it seemed natural. University officials estimate that Kovacs has touched the life of at least 80 percent of students in the kinesiology programs and in the School of Education, where she worked before coming to the School of Kinesiology. Kovacs said she attended the University of Michigan and worked an internship there before she started as an advisor in the School of Education. From that early role, she worked her way up to senior advisor, then assistant director. She also took on a part-time role in development and fundraising for the university, eventually becoming director of the School of Kinesiology when it was restructured to be separate from the School of Education. “I never intended to stay, but I never left. Clearly I love what I do so much,” she said. “Every summer, the students graduate, and I’m sad to see them go. Then the new students come, and I’m excited and invigorated for the opportunity to impact the lives of all the newbies.” She said she was initially “resistant” to being named a director, because she felt she would miss working directly with students. She said the dean convinced her that her impact as director could be terrific, because she’d be mentoring the staff that worked directly with students. To keep current with student affairs and concerns, Kovacs still keeps small advising load. She said the biggest challenge right now in student services is “providing career services in a tight economy.” “Students are very concerned about getting into graduate school and finding jobs after graduate school,” she said. “Part of our mission is to help them develop skills and make them as competitive as possible.” She named electronic communication as both a boon and a challenge, saying she and the staff talk about whether new technologies, such as texting, are appropriate for use in advising students. “For example, there’s a sort of diminishing return benefit to email, because now students are inundated with it,” she said. “My rule of thumb with students has been that they can email me three times, but the fourth time, I need to see them face to face.” Kovacs said that important interactions tend to happen in person, not on email. She added that “the most important advising discussions are often not planned, but evolve out discussions about other things.” Kovacs said she felt honored to not only have the scholarship for undergraduates named after her, but also to find that the scholarship fund already had nearly $150,000 in it less than two months after the announcement of its establishment. “I love what I do and I feel very lucky to have had the opportunities I’ve had in my professional life,” Kovacs said....
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