Certain names are synonymous with their sports.

Think Mario Lemieux, think hockey. Same with Larry Bird and basketball. Think of Mike Shanahan, think football ... and basketball.

No, this is not the famed Super Bowl-winning coach of the Denver Broncos. It's the aspiring WPIAL champion point guard with the Norwin Knights' basketball team who doubles as a standout with the football team.

"I get that a lot," Shanahan said of references to the Denver coach. "Doesn't bother me."

Instead, Shanahan serves to bother opponents. A 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior, he plays wide receiver and cornerback for the football team and will play mostly at point guard on the basketball floor, where he enters this season as a three-year starter.

His versatility and athletic ability already are drawing the attention of NCAA scouts. In football, he has heard at least a little interest from the likes of West Virginia, Pitt, Notre Dame, Connecticut, Purdue, Indiana, Northwestern and Michigan.

The basketball suitors are almost as many and include, at least early on, expressions of interest from Penn State, Vermont, Akron, West Virginia, Wright State and Lafayette.

Shanahan says he has not yet decided which sport he will play in college, let alone where he will go. Right now, he is intent on helping Norwin win an outright section title in basketball. He averaged about 16 points per game last season as Norwin went 18-6 and tied Connellsville for the Section 1-AAAA title, its first section title in 16 years.

"Some people say I have more potential in football because of my body type," Shanahan said. "I don't know. I really like both sports. I haven't decided anything on that yet. I just want to keep playing both right now."

Norwin basketball coach Lynn Washowich sees Shanahan as one of the keys to a potentially outstanding season for the Knights. Norwin played well most of last season but faded down the stretch, losing its last three games. That streak included a loss to Shaler in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.

"He's a tremendous athlete," Washowich said. "He's a once-in-20-years kind of athlete. He works hard, he's well-disciplined ... he's got all the pieces of the puzzle."

Stopping Shanahan is a difficult matchup for most Knights' opponents. He will often be used to bring the ball up the floor because of his ballhandling and passing skills and his abilities to get his team into the proper offensive sets.

He has a good shooting touch from behind the 3-point line, but his size allows Washowich to post him up inside against smaller defenders, giving Norwin an advantage on the blocks.

"The biggest thing about him is that he can play all five positions," Washowich said. "He can hit the 3-pointer, but we can post him up, too. He has a good knowledge of the game and I like how he sees the floor, too. He can be a real matchup problem and we have to try to take advantage of that when we can."

Shanahan is by no means alone this season. The Knights have a strong returning group that includes senior guard Jason Jasko, a two-year starter who tied with Shanahan for the team scoring lead last season. Those two form an outstanding backcourt on a team that will go nine players deep.

Washowich also is looking for major contributions from the likes of 6-4 junior forwards Tyler Urban and Chris Matheny, 6-2 senior swing man Steve Grubbs, 5-10 senior guards Alex Federinko and Justin Seliga, 6-3 junior wing Adam Dominick and 6-0 junior guard Nick D'Orazio.

"I think we have a pretty good team, but we can't let ourselves get complacent with what we did last year," Shanahan said. "I think we learned a lot from what we went through last year.

"We have to play as hard as we can every night. We can't turn the ball over. We have to share the ball and play together."

As the point guard and a three-year starter, Shanahan said it's his responsibility to ensure the team carries out those assignments.

"I definitely feel like I have a leadership role," he said. "It's not like the guys look up to me or anything like that -- I don't mean it that way. It's just that I have been playing varsity since the ninth grade and because of that, I think the team looks for me to bring leadership and the right attitude here every day."

Washowich said the Knights' attitude is a good one. He thinks the team needs to make an adjustment in its approach to move beyond where it went last season.

"We've got some experienced players so we have a chance to be a pretty good team," he said. "You can always defend better. We did not do a bad job defending last year, but you can always do better.

"The other thing we need to do it focus more on what is happening day-to-day.

"Last year, I think we spent too much time looking at the big picture and thinking about what was going to happen down the road. We can't let ourselves fall into that this year.

"We have to talk about what we are going to get done today and how we are going to get better tomorrow. We can't catch ourselves looking beyond that."