Theresa Pusateri can juggle - not bowling pins or flaming batons, but sports - and quite a few of them at that.

The communication junior began her freshman year at MSU as a midfielder on the field hockey team. When the squad finished its season in November, Pusateri began working out with the softball team.

Which left little time for anything else.

"It was hard because my field hockey friends would call and want to hang out or whatever, and I had practice or conditioning or a game for softball," Pusateri said.

Though she said it was a difficult decision, Pusateri decided to focus on just one sport for her sophomore campaign - field hockey.

"I felt that way at least I get a little free time to have a social life - but now I'm doing it all over again," she said, laughing.

And sitting at Breslin Center with an orange ball cradled in her lap, it is easy to understand what the Homewood, Ill., native is talking about.

After a conversation with basketball head coach Joanne P. McCallie and a quick call to her parents to say she wouldn't be making it home for Thanksgiving after all, Pusateri hopped a plane to Tennessee as the newest member of the women's basketball team.

"When Coach P. called, I thought I was just going to be there to practice and then she said she wanted me to go to Tennessee," Pusateri said. "Then it hit me that this was for real. I'm so busy now, but this is the experience of a lifetime, there was no way I was going to pass up this opportunity."

Steve and Maureen Pusateri, Theresa's parents, said they were in shock when they got the call.

"She called me at the office to ask some last minute driving directions on how to get home, and then 20 minutes later she calls back to tell me she's going to play basketball," Steve Pusateri said. "I was just blown away, in shock. That was always her dream, I couldn't believe it.

"I can't wait to see her play."

Maureen Pusateri, although excited for Theresa, was a little bit disappointed her only daughter wouldn't be home for the holidays.

"I had all the videos she likes, all her favorite foods ready - everything she likes - all ready for her," Maureen said. "She hasn't been home since she left for school in August and I was really looking forward to it.

"But I'm so happy for her, and basketball was definitely my favorite to watch her play."

Standing 5-foot-4 - a full foot shorter than sophomore center Kelli Roehrig - Pusateri may be the shortest on the squad, but her presence is felt.

"She's been such a positive addition to our team already," junior forward Julie Pagel said. "We love her, she fits in great. She's so into the game, yelling encouragement from the bench and supporting us."

Though Pusateri played prep field hockey, softball and basketball, it was the last team she joined in college that was her first love at Homewood-Flossmoor High School.

Kenneth Shultz, director of athletics at H-F High, called Pusateri "one of the finest student athletes we've had here hands down - boy or girl."

Serving as team captain on all three sports teams, Pusateri was one of what Shultz said was just a handful among the more than 2,800 students at the school to play more than one sport.

"Theresa's work ethic was unparalleled. She was the most hard-working, dedicated athlete we've had here," he added.

Pagel agreed with Shultz, adding that Pusateri's leadership skills, coupled with her recent trip to the Final Four makes her invaluable to the basketball team.

"It's a great fit for us," Pagel said. "She's been where we want to go."