How Fever's Kelsey Mitchell juggles pursuit of WNBA title, Ph.D. - ESPN

INDIANA — Kelsey Mitchell's eyes darted back and forth as she figured out how to tackle the task. She needed to write only 150 words and scrolled through the online portal for her doctorate program. Her eyes finally landed on a prompt that sparked her fingers to fly furiously across the keyboard.

Similar to many assignments, she combined her two worlds.

«I actually use the Indiana Fever in my classes a lot,» Mitchell told ESPN, still typing away. «That's the cheat code to being an athlete currently and being able to be in school. A lot of real-life situations that I utilize while playing with the Fever, I take them and apply them to discussion posts and papers.»

Mitchell is 18 months into her pursuit of a Ph.D. in educational leadership at Liberty University. She is also enjoying the best season of her nine-year WNBA career, ranking second in the league in scoring behind MVP front-runner A'ja Wilson and trying to lead the Fever to the franchise's second championship. On Tuesday, with Indiana on the brink of elimination in the WNBA playoffs, that means finding a way to beat Wilson's Aces in Game 2 of the first round.

For most, it might seem to be a lot to juggle as Mitchell toggles between team and term papers and professors and professional basketball. She plans to use her doctorate to be an athletic director one day; she wants to ensure that more women and people of color are in decision-making roles.

But the role she plays for the Fever and what she hopes to do in the next stage of life go hand in hand, both rooted in Mitchell's endless pursuit to help those around her. One goal is to help lead the next generation of student-athletes, and the other is bringing a title back to Indiana for the first time since 2012. She