North Carolina State University Athletics
Yow Coached Kim Mulkey at 1984 Olympic Games
3/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Kim Mulkey was the fiery point guard on the U.S. Olympic team in 1984 when she grew close to Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow, then an assistant beloved for dishing out praise with her distinctive North Carolina drawl.
Dawn Staley played for and coached with Gail Goestenkors on the U.S. team from 2002-06. Now, for the first time, Staley matches wits with the Duke coach.
There's a noticeable red, white and blue feel to the second round of the Raleigh sub-regional because the four remaining coaches have significant ties to the U.S. national team.
``It just helps you to become a better coach, when you have the opportunity to coach the best in the world against the best in the world,'' Goestenkors said Monday. ``I think we've all taken advantage of and really enjoyed those experiences.''
Top-seeded Duke (31-1) faces Staley's eighth-seeded Temple Owls (25-7) in the second round of the Greensboro Regional on Tuesday, followed by a Fresno Regional matchup between Mulkey's fifth-seeded Baylor Lady Bears (26-7) and Yow and fourth-seeded North Carolina State (24-9).
One of Mulkey's fondest memories of the '84 gold-medal team was Yow shouting encouragement.
``She would always clap and say 'You know what I mean?' That's what I think of when I think of her encouraging her team,'' Mulkey said Monday. ``She's as good as gold. It's a special moment for me as a young coach to have the opportunity to coach against her.''
Yow, who later was the head coach of another gold-medal winner at the '88 Olympics in Seoul, said the success of the '84 team helped women's basketball grow.
``For the first time, a lot of people got to see women's basketball at a high level,'' Yow said. ``A lot of people saw in '84, because it was in the United States (Los Angeles) ... hey, they're pretty good.''
Staley was a star guard while Goestenkors was an assistant for the U.S. teams that won gold medals at the 2002 world championships and the 2004 Athens Olympics. Last summer, both assisted Anne Donovan on the U.S. team that trained in Durham before finishing third in the world championships.
Now, Staley hopes coaching with Goestenkors makes it easier to coach against her.
``In scouting them, we ran some of the same sets that they're running with our USA basketball team - of course, there's different personnel, but at the same time, what you're trying to accomplish is the same thing,'' Staley said. ``With Gail, you never know. ... I'm quite sure she's going to be prepared for pretty much anything we throw at her.''
Duke appears to have regained its swagger after being upset by N.C. State in the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. The Blue Devils opened tournament play by routing 16th-seeded Holy Cross 81-44 in a game Goestenkors said was a chance to knock off two weeks' worth of rust.
``We waited so long to play a game - in practice, we were beating each other up,'' Duke's Wanisha Smith said. ``I think we got the kinks out ... and we'll be good for the next game.''
Temple has already played - and lost to - a top-ranked team this season. The Owls rallied from a deep hole and led then-No. 1 Maryland late before fading in a 77-66 loss, a performance that encourages them as they prepare for their second-round matchup against the team that finished the regular season No. 1 in the AP Top 25.
The Owls didn't have center Lady Comfort, the Atlantic 10's most improved player was suspended.
``We're just a more mature team now,'' guard Fatima Maddox said.
Baylor's young team finds itself in a difficult position. Only two current Lady Bears took part in the run to the national title in 2005, and their relatively inexperienced team is facing N.C. State in its hometown, with the Wolfpack winning 11 of 13 since Yow's return from a two-month leave to fight breast cancer.
N.C. State's five seniors have a ``sense of urgency, not just for themselves, but for coach Yow. There are a lot of things you can prepare for as a coach ... and then there are the intangibles, and North Carolina State has a lot of intangibles,'' Mulkey said.
N.C. State had lost in the first round in each of the past three seasons after missing the field in 2002 and '03. The Wolfpack dismantled 13th-seeded Robert Morris 84-52 to advance.
``Emotionally, it will be a huge environment for us to be playing in - a lot of emotion,'' senior Marquetta Dickens said. ``We'll just try and be able to hone in on those emotions and put them on the court in the way we play.''
