Presidents are just as corrupt

U.Va. coach, midfielder are linked
Families bonded by disabilities
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 23, 2003
LACROSSE
NCAA TOURNEY
WHERE: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore
TOMORROW: Semifinals - Johns Hopkins vs. Syracuse, 11:30 a.m.; Virginia vs. Maryland, approximately 2:15 p.m. TV - ESPN2.
MONDAY: Final - semifinal winners, 11 a.m.. TV - ESPN.

CHARLOTTESVILLE Pete Rotelli played freshman lacrosse with Dom Starsia at Brown University. Rotelli's son Chris, an All-America midfielder, plays for Starsia at the University of Virginia.

That alone makes the relationship between Chris Rotelli and Starsia unusual. But more than lacrosse links them and their families.

Rotelli grew up in Rumford, R.I., not far from Providence, where Starsia took over as Brown's lacrosse coach in 1983.

"I always knew who Dom was," Rotelli recalled this week, "but more through the relationship between his daughters and my brother."

Rotelli, an All-America midfielder, has 17-year-old twin brothers. One of them, Richard, is mentally challenged, as are Starsias' twin daughters, 17-year-olds Maggie and Emma. When Starsia was coaching at Brown, Richard, Maggie and Emma were classmates at Meeting Street, a school in Providence for children with disabilities and developmental delays.

Having a special-needs family member "teaches you a lot," Rotelli said. "You can't really sum it up in words. I think it's made everybody in our family, all my brothers and sisters, so much better people."

Starsia said he and Pete Rotelli were friendly as undergraduates but not particularly close. Their relationship changed - as did that of their wives, Krissy Starsia and Rosemary Rotelli - when Meeting Street became a focal point of their lives.

"Our families became reacquainted," Starsia said. "We sort of caught up again."

After compiling a 101-46 record at his alma mater, Starsia left for Virginia in 1992.

"At that point, Chris Rotelli doesn't really mean anything to me" as a lacrosse player, Starsia said. "But when he got to high school age, he was starting to develop a little reputation."

The Cavaliers took note, and in 1998 they offered Rotelli a scholarship - despite his inauspicious showing at Starsia's camp that summer.

"I might have been a little nervous," Rotelli said with a smile. "I just couldn't score any goals that week. I think I was probably trying too hard."

Scoring hasn't been a problem for Rotelli at U.Va., from which he graduated last weekend with a history degree. A study in perpetual motion on the field, Rotelli has tallied 84 goals and 37 assists and is a three-time all-ACC selection. He's expected to repeat as a first-team All-American, too.

"I never really thought it was going to work out quite like it did," Rotelli said. "I guess I didn't think I was good enough coming out of Rhode Island."

That clearly wasn't the case, yet Rotelli entered his senior year believing his career was incomplete. In each of his first three seasons, the Cavaliers had advanced to the NCAA tournament. But they lost in the semifinals in 2000 and'02 and in the first round in'01.

His individual success aside, Rotelli said, "I think at the end of the day it wasn't enough, or it just didn't matter that much to me any more at that point. I was more really just focused on getting the ultimate team achievement, which is the national championship.

Always a tireless worker, Rotelli intensified his offseason regimen. Always a proficient goal-scorer, he focused on becoming a more well-rounded player.

His efforts paid off. After totaling 18 assists in his first three seasons, Rotelli has 19 this year, along with 25 goals. With 44 points, he's tied for second in scoring on a U.Va. team that meets Maryland in the NCAA semifinals Saturday in Baltimore. He's provided improved defense and inspired leadership.

"For a talented boy late in his career, he's made as big an adjustment in his game as anybody has," Starsia said. "Chris has transformed himself from always being an excellent offensive lacrosse player to a very good complete lacrosse player."

Starsia said he didn't have any qualms about coaching the son of his friend and former teammate. He realized, though, that this was different than offering a scholarship to a stranger.

"You have a personal stake," Starsia said.

"The Rotellis and the Starsias have a relationship that goes beyond lacrosse. We have common family issues that the nature of Chris' career wasn't going to affect. But having it go well is just icing on the cake. It's just made for a really, really nice four years."
 

Syracuse AD: We are with Miami

5-23-03

By ROB DANIELS, Staff Writer
News & Record

Speaking to reporters across the country via Webcast on Thursday, Syracuse athletics director Jake Crouthamel essentially said that if Miami elects to join the ACC, his school will follow.

Crouthamel's statements were not surprising, but they effectively ruled out the possibility -- albeit slight -- that Syracuse and by extension Boston College could hold firm in the Big East and try to make a go of it without the Hurricanes.

The ACC announced last week that it will soon initiate formal talks with Miami, BC and Syracuse with the intent of taking its membership to 12 schools -- the magic number needed for a revenue-producing conference championship football game. Neither the schools nor the league has said when those talks will start or end.

At issue is the future of college football in a new Bowl Championship Series. The BCS, which produces the unofficial national champion, runs in its current form through the 2005-06 bowl season. A new deal -- in which automatic participants may theoretically change -- will start in the fall of 2006.

"Without Miami, can the Big East prosper as a BCS conference? We believe the answer to that is yes," said Crouthamel, one of the four men who founded the league May 31, 1979. "Without Miami, will the Big East be a viable BCS conference? That's problematic to the point where it is questionable. And so, on the basis of our future as an institution and as an athletics program and in looking forward to stability, Miami's decision will strongly influence our decision."

Crouthamel said Miami could not be replaced easily if at all.

"Where is the other school equal to Miami's football program that is an independent? Notre Dame. Notre Dame isn't going anywhere," he said. "OK, so now we have to go to other conferences. We've got to raid other conferences for that Miami equal.

"Penn State would be logical. I cannot believe for a heartbeat that Penn State would leave the Big Ten. So where do we go? Whom do we get? Tennessee? Alabama? Florida? Michigan? Texas? I don't know where that other school is or why they would want to leave what they have."

Crouthamel reiterated a point he made during the weekend at the Big East's annual spring meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., by saying he thinks the future of college football rests with 12-team "superconferences." The Big East has eight Division I-A football members. The ACC wants to go to a dozen to join the SEC, which generated $1 million per school with its 2002 title game, and the Big 12, which netted about $583,000 for each of its members with an '02 title game. The Pac-10 has said it has no interest in expansion, and the Big Ten discussed the concept at its meetings last weekend.

Television industry analysts said two weeks ago that the annual value of the ACC's football television contract could nearly double from its current $24 million figure if Miami joins the fold. Another source outside of TV but in college athletics said the ACC's estimate is reasonable, but Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese has publicly dismissed it.

Such an increase in football TV rights fees could be crucial if a 12-team ACC is to distribute as much revenue to its members as the league does with nine schools. Unlike the Big East, which bases its postseason football money on teams' achievement, the ACC has always practiced equal revenue sharing.

Crouthamel said he and his fellow athletics directors at the Big East's Division I-A football schools are studying the possibility of breaking away from those institutions that don't play big-time football. Such a league would only have eight members, thereby flying in the face of the superconference theory, but would preserve the association with Miami. It would be an all-sports league, he said.

Adding Syracuse would be boon to ACC lacrosse
Mike Preston

THE BIG, BAD bullies of men's college lacrosse are knocking at the door, and the two Atlantic Coast Conference teams in the NCAA Division I final four are ready to throw out the welcome mat.

It's called growing pains.

With the number of Division I schools being dormant for the past couple of years, coaches Dave Cottle of Maryland and Dom Starsia of Virginia say adding the sport's heavyweight, Syracuse, can only help the league and increase the exposure of the sport.

So with the University of Miami expected to announce its decision about leaving the Big East Conference at the end of next month and possibly bring Syracuse and Boston College with it as part of the package deal, Cottle and Starsia seem just as excited as the ACC's football coaches about adding a neighbor from the north.

No, we're not talking about Boston College. It would be a bonus if the Eagles chose to play lacrosse again. We're talking about the Orangemen, participants in 21 straight final fours and winners of seven national championships. Syracuse, home of the Gait and Powell brothers. The same school that produced two of the sport's best college coaches in Roy Simmons Sr. and his son, Roy Jr.

That's a pretty good pedigree.

"On basic principle, this is exciting. It would create a conference and tournament which would be unbelievable," Starsia said. "Hopkins still has its niche, and there is the Ivy League, but this would be the place for every young man who thinks he is a top-notch player to come."

The addition of Syracuse could open other doors. Only four teams in the nine-member ACC play lacrosse. That makes the title of tournament champion somewhat bogus, even though the level of play is outstanding. But if Syracuse joins, Boston College might be persuaded to restart the program it abandoned nearly a year ago. That would give the ACC six teams and an automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament.

The addition of Syracuse might have a domino effect.

"Two or three teams from the ACC make the tournament every year," Starsia said, "but the automatic qualifier gives us some legitimacy. Then you might be able to add a Georgia Tech, which doesn't have the Title IX mandate, or a Wake Forest, which has the facilities. Adding Syracuse makes the package attractive, and maybe other schools would want to be a part of it."

Cottle said: "We're on TV an awful lot, and the sport is growing in places like Colorado, Texas and Florida. So, if you get a Georgia Tech playing the sport, get it going in Georgia high schools, it may take off there. Maybe if Miami picks it up, it takes off in Florida high schools."

Syracuse's presence in the ACC certainly would increase the talent pool. Everybody wants a shot at the big dog. Plus, young kids like the Orangemen's run-and-gun style. Syracuse would be on display more in the southern region.

Most regional recruits consider Syracuse a northern school, but with the Orangemen playing within the region at least twice, maybe three times a year, that would give local families a chance to watch their sons play more often than if the Orangemen weren't in the ACC.

"It would increase Syracuse's talent pool and make my job a lot harder, but we would work through it. It would be a challenge," Cottle said.

There would be some drawbacks. What if only Syracuse joined the ACC in lacrosse? That would leave the ACC with five teams.

"I can't imagine how they can do that," Starsia said of having a five-team tournament. "Maybe Syracuse can play the play-in game for the next four or five years."

And, of course, there are the expenses of other sports teams traveling to Syracuse and possibly Boston College.

"If you add a Miami or a Boston College or a Syracuse, you create a situation where the track team and baseball team have to travel there, and there are no cheap hotels in Boston," Starsia said. "We play Syracuse every other year up there, and that's a big nut for us to fly up there and play. All those things have to be considered."

But those things can be worked out. When a track team went north, it would make a stop at Boston College and Syracuse. Ditto for any other team with a low budget. For years under Simmons Jr., the Orangemen annually did a southern tour. The rewards are much greater than any problems. Imagine the money Syracuse might make at the Carrier Dome playing Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina instead of Army or Rutgers.

Syracuse coach John Desko did not return phones calls, maybe because his athletic director, Jake Crouthamel, a firm Big East supporter, wants to stay in the conference.

But Desko doesn't have to say much. The addition of Syracuse lacrosse to the ACC would have a significant impact, one that could have a ripple effect.

Enough said.



 

Cavaliers Are Getting a Big Assist From Rotelli
Midfielder Driven By a Passion for The Game, Family
By Christian Swezey
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, May 23, 2003; Page D03

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Winters in Rumford, R.I., are the perfect time for lacrosse only if you're Chris Rotelli. Rotelli's mother recalled watching her son, then in seventh grade, shovel two feet of snow in the backyard so he could practice his shooting.

"That's when I knew it was more than his liking the sport," Rosemary Rotelli said. "That's when I knew he had a passion for it. Though I also thought it was a little bizarre."

Rotelli is a senior starting midfielder for Virginia (13-2), and he still works hard at lacrosse -- and not just on his shooting. He enters an NCAA tournament semifinal against Maryland (12-3) on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore with 25 goals and 19 assists; he is one assist from becoming the first midfielder in school history to get 20 in a season.

Rotelli entered this season with 18 career assists.

"We needed him to take more responsibility with the offense and the defense," Virginia Coach Dom Starsia said. "We needed him to get assists, to move without the ball. We told him scoring was not the only thing."

Said Rotelli: "Coach [Starsia] told me in the preseason that he wanted me to become more of a student of the game. He wanted me to study what all six people do, and things like moving without the ball."

Rotelli said his willingness to become a more complete player is because he wants to finish his career with a national championship.

But his mother believes there is something else. Rotelli's younger brother, Richard, is physically handicapped because of an extremely rare degenerative disease; he had a bone marrow transplant at age 2 to try to stem the disease. He lives at home and receives constant care.

"It is a genetic disease," Rosemary Rotelli said. "Our [five] kids know it could have been any of them. I think that's why they give 100 percent in everything they do. For our kids, this has been an incredibly positive experience. They want to achieve things, to do the best they can do with the gifts they have been given.

"I think that's why Chris was shoveling snow so he could play lacrosse in the seventh grade. When we took Richard to the ACC tournament [last April], in all the rain and everything, the first thing Chris did when he walked off the field was give Richard a big hug. It was very special."

Said Chris Rotelli: "I was so glad when Richard came down for the ACCs. When he saw me and recognized me, he had this big smile on his face. It was great to see him."

So maybe that's why Chris Rotelli was in such good shape that when the team held its annual two-mile run in February he finished first, in approximately 10 minutes 30 seconds. His preseason workouts were so impressive that Starsia asked younger players to attend.

Starsia and Rotelli have a bond as well; Starsia's twin daughters are about to turn 18 -- Richard Rotelli's age -- and, as infants, all of them were enrolled in the Meeting Street School in Providence, R.I., a school that specializes in working with children and adults with disabilities and developmental delays.

"I had played freshman lacrosse [at Brown] with Chris's dad, and when my twins were born, we met up with the Rotellis again at the Meeting Street School," Starsia said. "Chris was about five years old. I kept hearing about him while he was in Rhode Island, and I was interested in him.

"I was hoping he would be interested in Virginia one day; I was hoping he would come here and do well. And he has flourished."

 

Adding SU lacrosse would solidify ACC
But, for the Orange, it would mean a tougher schedule and an inflated travel budget.
By Dave Rahme
Staff writer

"In a league filled with hammers, what's one more hammer?" Maryland coach Dave Cottle said. "It would be a tremendous honor to have Syracuse in our league."

"If you added Syracuse, you certainly would have an attractive package as a league in terms of recruiting," Virginia coach Dom Starsia added. "The prospects are really, really exciting."

The Cavaliers (13-2) and Terrapins (12-3) will join the Orangemen (10-5) in this weekend's Division I final four in Baltimore. All four current ACC lacrosse-playing members - Virginia (No. 2), Maryland (No. 3), North Carolina (No. 13) and Duke (No. 14) - finished in the top 15 in the final regular-season coaches poll. Syracuse finished No. 6.

Adding the Orangemen, who have won eight national titles over the last two decades and are in their 21st consecutive final four, as a fifth team would make a great league even better. Getting a sixth member of the ACC to start playing Division I lacrosse would be ideal, giving the league the six teams required for an automatic bid to the 16-team NCAA Tournament. Currently, the ACC teams are treated as independents when the selection committee meets.

Boston College, another school targeted by the ACC for membership, dropped its D-I %%bodyend%%

lacrosse program two years ago and is now participating at the club level. ACC member North Carolina State also used to play D-I lacrosse.

"You'd almost wish the athletic directors would say to Boston College, OK, you're in. Get that lacrosse program going,'" Starsia said. "Hopefully, a five-team league with Syracuse would revive a program at one of the other schools."

The potential benefits for the ACC are clear. What SU would get out of the deal is not. The Orangemen and Johns Hopkins - their opponent Saturday - are the lacrosse counterparts of Notre Dame's football team. The two independents are good enough and their fan bases are large enough that they can pick the teams they want to play each season.

"We already have the No. 1 strength of schedule in the nation," SU coach John Desko said. "Adding the ACC schools couldn't add to what is already No. 1. We already play Virginia every year."

What it will do is add substantially to Syracuse's travel budget.

"When we fly to Virginia every other year, that trip costs as much as seven normal road trips we make by bus," Desko said. "You throw North Carolina and Duke onto the schedule every year, and you're talking at least one flight every year instead of every other year, and two flights every other year. That's a big difference."

Syracuse's relatively short bus trips have allowed it to schedule midweek games with Central New York neighbors Cornell and Hobart. Desko said the ACC Tournament could force SU to change those to weekend games.

Conference tournament games are excluded in the NCAA limit of 17 games (including fall lacrosse) allowed per team a year, but SU still would have to set aside a weekend for the tournament. SU scheduled 13 regular-season games this season; ACC teams scheduled 11. In addition to ACC teams replacing three teams on SU's schedule, the Orangemen will likely have to drop one or two opponents.

This season, the Orangemen played Army, Virginia, Fairfield, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, Hobart, Brown, Loyola, Cornell, Rutgers, Hofstra, Massachusetts and Georgetown. They will continue to schedule Virginia, Hopkins and Princeton whether they remain an independent or move to the ACC and would likely retain Hobart and Cornell, as well.

A Syracuse move to the ACC would then leave Army, Fairfield, Brown, Loyola, Rutgers, Hofstra, UMass and Georgetown susceptible to replacement by Maryland, Duke and North Carolina or being dropped altogether.

"You have to do what's best for your team, too," he said. "I mean, you need a little breathing room here. We already play the toughest schedule in the country. You start replacing a Fairfield with a Maryland, and it can get ridiculous."

A league that features five top-15 teams would be ridiculously good.

 

BETWEEN THE LINES
Can LeBron live up to LeHype?

I'm watching SportsCenter and the lead story is about a kid's shoe deal. I'm reading about the $90-plus million Nike gave an 18-year-old to outbid Reebok, adidas and PF Flyers (a darkhorse candidate). I'm thumbing through the full-color, 96-page Beckett Basketball Card Collector's Edition Tribute To LeBron James, thinking, I don't know what they paid to produce this, but my guess is they didn't expect him to sign with Topps.

LeShoes. LeCards. LeBron. I'm sorry. I think I'm LeSick.

I'm sorry. I know, that's twice I've said that. But I'm already LeBurned out and the kid hasn't stretched yet. What happens if he misses his first shot?

Three of the NBA's top players stepped in straight from preps. Kobe Bryant. Kevin Garnett. Tracy McGrady. I suppose that should be a good omen. But the hype and dollars surrounding this kid dwarf anything we experienced with those three. They dwarf any player, any era, any sport, save, perhaps Wayne Gretzky (but those were Canadian dollars).

There have been shoe bidding wars for LeBron since Gloria James was in her third trimester. (James said in a statement, "Nike is the right fit." Yeah, whatever. How come nobody just says, "I'd like to thank the company that offered me the most money"?)

James will go first in the draft come June 26 for two reasons: 1) He has the most upside of any player; 2) He will sell tickets. Whether he turns out to be the best player is debatable. Talk about talent all you want, but there's no way to predict what happens the first time he drives the lane against someone whose greatest concern isn't finishing their biology homework.

LeBron James is not a first-year med student stepping into brain surgery, but the expectations lead you to believe he is whatever is the next closest thing for sports. Magic's gone. Bird's gone. Jordan's gone, again. Now John Lucas says James is the only player in the draft who can do what they did.

"He can carry a league," Lucas said.

Carry a league?

Nobody is in James' corner more than Dru Joyce, his high school coach in Akron. And even he wonders.

"The thing that brings down LeBron, if anything, won't be between the lines," said Joyce (unknowingly violating my copyright). "It'll be the lifestyle.

"He doesn't truly understand what will be thrown at him."

Gentlemen, start your turnstiles.

I'm sorry. No money-back guarantees.

Short-attention span theater . . .

A classic from a classic, John Wooden: "I was walking through the hotel lobby at the Final Four in Atlanta when LeBron approached me and introduced himself. We talked for a minute and I said I hoped he would finish school. LeBron assured me that he would. Later, I thought about the exchange, and I smiled. I was thinking college, and he was thinking high school."

 

Miami president is key
Shalala ultimately will decide whether Hurricanes should leave Big East Conference and join ACC
By CHIP ALEXANDER, Staff Writer

The fate of two major conferences -- affecting future bowl games, NCAA Tournament appearances, millions of dollars in revenue -- now appears to rest in the hands of a short, energetic, 62-year-old woman in Miami.
Donna Shalala, the president of the University of Miami, must decide whether her school should stay in the Big East or join the Atlantic Coast Conference. If Miami elects to switch, Syracuse and Boston College almost surely will follow, making the ACC a 12-member conference.

It's a decision that could dramatically affect college athletics, further consolidating conference power and perhaps putting the Big East out of business.

It's a decision, say those who know Shalala, that she won't linger in making.

"She's very decisive and very confident about her decisions without being arrogant about it," Aaron Podhurst, a member of the Miami board of trustees, said Wednesday. "When she has the information she needs, she'll act quickly and decisively."

"Her leadership style can be summed up in one word: action," added Pat Whitely, Miami's vice president for student affairs. "She moves very, very quickly, and she won't take no for an answer."

The ACC announced Friday that it would begin formal discussions with Miami, BC and Syracuse about expansion. Plans are under way for three groups of ACC athletics directors, faculty representatives, conference officials and presidents to visit the three schools next week.

On Wednesday, Miami athletics director Paul Dee returned from the Big East meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and reported to Shalala.

A move by Miami to the ACC must be approved by the school's trustees. Podhurst said the trustees had not scheduled a meeting or conference call yet but indicated the wait would not be long.

"She will not be impulsive about this," he said. "She will give everyone the opportunity to present their case and will have felt the pulse. She will decide if it's a good fit, make a decision, say it, then move on. And she will have support."

Shalala has declined interview requests.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has all but begged Shalala and Miami to stay, saying the three defections would cause "irreparable harm" to the league. Some of the Big East presidents have asked for a face-to-face meeting with Shalala, hoping to persuade her to spurn the ACC's offer.

"Miami," Tranghese said, "is driving this wagon."

But at a news conference Monday, an emotional Tranghese also seemed to question Shalala's integrity. He noted that during a meeting of Big East presidents in November 2001, Shalala had said Miami was committed to staying in the league.

"Intercollegiate athletics are supposed to be controlled by the presidents," he said. "That's what I've been told by the presidents. Welcome to the world of presidential control. When presidents act this way with other presidents, I think it's wrong."

Shalala, named Miami's president in June 2001, hasn't been hesitant to flex her administrative muscle when it comes to sports. As the chancellor at Wisconsin from 1987 to 1993, she forced out the athletics director, then fired the football coach.

"She doesn't make knee-jerk decisions; they're always reasoned decisions," said James Hoyt, a former Wisconsin professor who served on the school's athletics board. "Once she makes it, it's done. Her favorite line is, 'That train has left the station.'

"She's a problem-solver. She recognizes a problem, deals with it and never looks back. That's what she did with our athletics situation."

Shalala persuaded Pat Richter, a former Badgers football star, to quit a high-paying job and become AD, then hired a Notre Dame assistant named Barry Alvarez as football coach. A few years later, Wisconsin played in the Rose Bowl as the Big Ten champion.

"She felt the football program was going in the wrong direction and urged the athletic director to make a change," Richter said. "When he didn't want to do it, she changed both positions."

Richter, who is retiring this year, has kept up with all the talk about ACC expansion and understands Shalala's role in it. Like Podhurst, he expects a rapid resolution by Shalala.

"She won't shy away from the situation," Richter said. "I'm sure she has taken a good look at the athletic landscape, of what will best protect her university. She will quickly judge the long-term viability of what's to be done, then go do it."

Miami won the national championship in football in 2001, yet the athletics department lost almost $1.5 million that fiscal year. Shalala has long been a proponent of Title IX and women's sports, and a further upgrade to the Hurricanes' women's programs figures to be costly.

Making the ACC attractive is the $9.7 million it distributed to each member last year, more than Miami typically gets from the Big East. ACC officials also have made the case that a new conference championship game and TV contract in football would add to the pot.

Shalala also has personal ties to some of the ACC's leaders, including UNC system president Molly Broad, N.C. State chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Duke president Nan Keohane.

"She's very energetic, highly intelligent and a driven person," Fox said Wednesday.

Fox and Shalala are serving on a presidential commission that will oversee changes in the Bowl Championship Series, which determines the national football champion. A new BCS agreement will be in place in 2006 and could include a playoff.

By expanding, the ACC wants to position itself with the strongest conferences at the top of the BCS heap.

When Fox fired former Wolfpack football coach Mike O'Cain after the 1999 season, she received support from Shalala, who had offered words of advice.

"Donna said athletics are a glass ceiling for women in higher education administration," Fox said. "She said you have to learn to deal with athletics, and you have to be tough."

Shalala, Keohane said, is "a real straight shooter. When she gets a goal, she's real aggressive about seeing it through."

Many who know Shalala talk of her political savvy. The Cleveland native served in the Peace Corps. She was assistant secretary for policy development and research in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the late 1970s. She served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration.

Shalala's also an athlete, an avid tennis player. Wisconsin chancellor John Wiley noted she's a mountain climber who has traveled to the Himalayas.

"She's high-energy, and she's competitive," UNC's Broad said Wednesday. "She would be a force to be reckoned with around the ACC table, believe me."