in the summer of 2000, stevens was offered the opportunity to volunteer in the butler basketball office. he ran the idea of quitting his job at eli lilly by then-longtime girlfriend tracy wilhelmy. she thought about it for two hours before telling him to go for it. "now, it looks like a great idea," stevens later remarked. "at the time, i thought it was something i really wanted to try." tracy began law school to get a j.d. degree that could support the couple if things did not work out for stevens. "we were 23 and realized this was our chance," tracy later said. "five years down the road, we were probably not going to be in a position to do that. the more success you had at lilly, the harder it would be to leave."