North Carolina State University Athletics
A show of support
1/15/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- For 30 years, only one voice has drawled on the sidelines of Reynolds Coliseum for the N.C. State women's basketball team, a uninterrupted streak of 892 games.
That Hall of Fame voice was absent Friday night for the game between the Wolfpack and No. 4 North Carolina. But it wasn't silent.
It echoed off the four ACC championship banners. It bounced around the crowd of 6,715 spectators who were there to see the ACC's most contested rivalry - and to let the absent coach know they were there for her, even if she wasn't in the building.
It even shined in the active eyes of her daddy, Hilton Yow, who took his normal place right behind the Wolfpack bench, eager to do his part.
A few fans brought some homemade signs to trumpet their support. Many of them wore the pink rubber bands that were provided by RBC Centura to the first 4,000 fans to enter the building. The players, who battered each other viciously in the 77th meeting between the Wolfpack and Tar Heels in women's basketball, did what they could to show their support by wearing pink, the color of breast cancer awareness. The Wolfpack wore pink shoelaces in their shoes; the Tar Heels wore pink ribbons on their uniforms.
Kay Yow will be gone a few more days. She's out of the area going through a dietary modification program that will help her fight her recently diagnosed second bout with breast cancer. She'll miss Sunday's game at Virginia Tech, then return in time to coach next Thursday's home game against Miami.
Never since Willis Casey made Yow the first full-time women's coach for any sport in the state of North Carolina back in 1974 has Yow missed a game, even when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987. That was an Olympic gold medal, three ACC championships, a Final Four appearance and a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction ago.
When Friday's game was over, on Friday, the Tar Heels eked out a 77-75 victory, a heart-wrenching loss for a team that so wanted to win for its ailing coach. There were tears on the sidelines as North Carolina celebrated their fourth straight win over the Pack at Reynolds.
Wolfpack associate coach Stephanie Glance had a long talk with Yow's team just after the buzzer went off. It's been a tough week for the Wolfpack players. They took it hard when Yow told them following Sunday's loss at Clemson that she would have to go away for treatment. And they took Friday's loss hard.
"They were worried that they had let Coach Yow down," said Glance, who became only the third person to coach the Wolfpack in a women's game. (Former baseball coach Peanut Doak is the other; he coached the school's inaugural season in 1973-74.) "I wanted to make sure they knew that in no way did they let Coach Yow down. Her expectations were that we go out and do our best, and we did that."
The Wolfpack still had a chance to win the game with only 1.1 seconds remaining, after freshman Khadijah Whittington rebounded an intentionally missed free throw by junior Rachel Stockdale. Glance called a quick timeout to set up a game-tying attempt, but sophomore Ashley Key's contested shot left her hands after the buzzer sounded.
It was a difficult loss in a difficult week. But that doesn't mean Friday night was tinged with sadness. It was actually an uplifting evening of support for one of the pioneers in women's college basketball.
"It's such a tribute to Coach Yow and the person she is," Glance said of the game's atmosphere. "You can look around the arena and see all the banners that are hanging up in there and you know she is a great coach. But she is an even greater person, and I think people recognize that."
And next week, against Miami, fans will have the chance to show their appreciation in person.
Contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
