North Carolina State University Athletics
Yow On Brink of Another Elite List
11/30/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
When you look at it, Kay Yow's next win isn't really that big of a deal. It's less than two-tenths of one percent of her total during her three decades as the Wolfpack women's basketball coach.
So, Yow wonders, why should the next victory - which could come Thursday against Seton Hall, in a game that tips off at Reynolds Coliseum at 7 p.m. - stand out any more than any of the others?
Here's the answer: Only three other coaches in the history of women's basketball have won 600 games at the same school. The other three are all pioneers of the sport: Texas' Jody Conradt, Tennessee's Pat Summitt and retired St. Peter's coach Peter Granelli. It won't be long, in fact, until Yow, who has a career mark of 599-282 at N.C. State, passes Granelli's total of 607 wins at the same school.
Yow's achievement list is piling up in unprecedented fashion. She has won more games than any coach in any sport in N.C. State history. In 1999, she became the second coach in ACC history to win her 200th conference game. In 2001, she became the fifth women's coach to reach 600 career victories. In 2002, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
So reaching 600 wins at N.C. State isn't exactly catching her by surprise.
"When you get old enough..." Yow said with a laugh.
But winning 600 games at the same school is more than passing another mile-marker on the highway to retirement. It's a remarkable achievement for the first female coach ever hired at N.C. State. It shows that Willis Casey had a little foresight when he hired Yow away from Elon College in 1974 to be the school's first administrator of women's sports. Four ACC titles, 17 NCAA appearances, one Final Four appearance and two Olympic gold medals later, Yow is more decorated than Times Square at Christmas.
She still doesn't understand, though, why anyone would give her the credit for winning all these games. After all, she has never played a minute of college basketball in her life. It wasn't an option for her when she was a student at East Carolina in the 1960s.
"I don't say this to be trite, [because] I mean this from the bottom of my heart, but when a milestone comes, when the games are won, for the life of me I can't understand why it would be attributed to me," Yow said. "I am just one person on all the teams. I realize I might be the one person who is the same on every team, but of course we couldn't do it, I wouldn't even be a part of it, if it weren't for everybody else.
"So I am pretty grateful that I am a part of it. But I am definitely not the part. I would say it is real exciting to be a part of so many great wins with all the people I have been associated with. I attribute it so much more to my staff and my players than to me. All of these milestones and accomplishments go to all of them."
It's self-perpetuating, of course. Players keep coming to N.C. State to learn from the coach who was an assistant to Summitt in 1984 when the United States won the first ever Olympic gold medal for women's basketball and who was the head coach when the U.S. won its second gold medal in Seoul in 1988.
They aren't at all surprised to hear that Yow is being low-key about the upcoming milestone.
"I can just hear her saying that," said sophomore forward Marquetta Dickens. ""She is such an unselfish person. But for me, this is just a wonderful experience, to be a part of the team [that gets her 600th win at N.C. State]. It's an honor."
Yow is mostly just concerned with continuing her team's fast start. The Wolfpack is 3-1 so far this year, after winning the Paradise Jam Championship in the Virgin Islands over the weekend with victories over Nebraska and Louisville.
She'll try not to give a second's thought to reaching the 600 mark, whenever that might come.
"There is always that thing, whether it is good or bad, that this too shall pass," Yow said.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
NOTES
Nov. 30, 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. - NC State women's basketball coach Kay Yow needs one win to become just the fourth coach, and the first Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball coach, in NCAA Division I women's basketball history to win 600 games at the same institution. Yow's next two games are set for Thursday, Dec. 2, against Seton Hall at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 4, versus UAB at 2 p.m., both will be played in Reynolds Coliseum.
Yow is currently 599-282 (.680) in her 30 years as the head coach at NC State and owns a 656-301 (.685) career record in 34 years. She will join the University of Tennessee's Pat Summitt, University of Texas' Jody Conradt and Peter Granelli of St. Peter's as the only coaches to win 600 games at the same school. Granelli retired after 32 years of coaching last year with a final record of 607-249. Both Summitt and Conradt reached the milestone after 23 years of coaching. The Lady Vols coach won her 600th game in the 1996-97 season, while Conradt did so in 1998-99.
The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach won her 500th game at NC State on Jan. 15, 1996 after a 68-63 victory over Georgia Tech in Reynolds Coliseum.
Yow has guided the Wolfpack to 17 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a trip to the Final Four in 1998, while winning five regular season and four postseason titles in 27 years of ACC women's basketball. Last year, Yow became the first ACC women's coach to win 650 games.
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