SECWB.com - The Blog

by Marilyn McManus, SECWB.com

Sandra Kay Yow passed away today, at the age of 66.

She was better known as Coach Kay Yow, the head coach of the North Carolina State University women’s basketball team, for 33+ years of the 35 years that the program has been in existence. She had also been a cancer survivor for nearly 22 of those years. That battle, which ended today, has been much publicized over the past 4+ years, since her latest recurrence of the disease.

Kay Yow arrived at NCSU in 1975, with 5 years of high school coaching experience and 4 years of college coaching experience, all at Elon College. Title IX had just passed, but it would be another couple of years before the Atlantic Coast Conference decided to adopt women’s basketball as a league sport. Yow was there for the start of it all. In her first year at NCSU, she was not only the head coach for women’s basketball, but also the head coach for women’s softball and volleyball teams–and the coordinator of women’s sports.

She was the first women’s basketball coach in the ACC and the fifth in NCAA history to coach 900 games at the same school. She was also the fourth Division I women’s head coach to surpass 1000 career games on the sideline. Yow was one of only six Division I women’s head coaches to achieve 700 career victories. Her teams participated in 20 of the 27 NCAA Tournaments, made 11 trips to the Sweet Sixteen and went to the Elite Eight and Final Four in the 1998 season. Her NCSU teams collected 5 ACC regular season championships and four ACC tournament championships. She had 29 winning seasons and 21 20-win seasons.

In addition to her college coaching duties, Yow had international experience. She was the head coach of the gold-medal-winning team in Seoul, Korea in 1988. She also coached gold-medal teams at the 1981 World University Games, 1986 Goodwill Games and 1986 World Championship Games. She also served as an assistant coach in numerous other international competitions, from 1976-1986.

Yow is a member of at least 10 Halls of Fame, including the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. She was named National Coach of the Year eight times by various organizations, including the John and Nellie Wooden Foundation, USA Today, Sports Illustrated and the WBCA.

Despite her obvious achievements in basketball, she is now more widely known for her battles against the cancer that took her life, and the grace and determination that she showed in the fight, remaining at work as much as possible during those years. She herself said that the things that she was most proud of in her life were: helping/caring for others; being a mentor to players and staff; and winning an Olympic gold medal and going to the Final Four.

Kay Yow was widely respected by her peers and rivals, an undisputed success at the career she chose, in short: a winner.

May she rest in peace.

P.S. I don’t know if any plans have been made to acknowledge Yow’s passing at tomorrow’s South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt game, but I hope that at the very least, we will have a moment of silence in her memory, prior to the start of the game. I plan to wear pink, in her honor, and I encourage other Gamecocks fans to do the same.

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The Davidson Wildcats will be coming to the Colonial Life Arena on Monday, November 24th. Long-time Gamecocks fans will be interested to know that Kelly Morrone, USC basketball Class of 2004 ( she actually graduated earlier) is now an assistant coach with the Davidson team. She is the recruiting coordinator and also works with the guards.

The Wildcats are led by head coach Annette Watts, with whom I share an Alma Mater: East Tennessee State University. Watts has enjoyed a good bit of success at Davidson, with a 118-88 record over 7 years, her first head coaching job at the collegiate level. Between her head coaching jobs at the high school level and her hiring at Davidson, she spent two years on Kay Yow’s staff at North Carolina State, during which the Wolfpack reached the NCAA Final Four for the first time. Her Wildcat teams have enjoyed a slow and steady climb in the won-loss columns; the numbers are not spectacular, because tougher teams have been added to the schedule during that time. Watts is already the all-time winningest coach at the school and under her leadership, the Wildcats received their first ever invitation to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament in ‘06-07. That same season, they beat two NCAA tournament participants (Gonzaga and UNC-Asheville) for the first time. Despite fewer wins last season, Davidson did record its fifth straight winning season and finished tied for third in the Southern Conference. Under Watts, this is a program still on the rise.

The Wildcats return 6 players this season, 3 of them starters from last year. Most notable is senior forward Mercedes Robinson, who averaged 12.7 points and 8.4 rebounds per game and had 14 double-doubles, last season. Forward Julia Paquette, the tallest player at 6-2, averaged 8.6 points and 4.7 rebounds last year and shot 46% from the field. Returning point guard Alex Thompson averaged 8.8 points per game and had 119 assists, while shooting 87% from the free-throw line.

What is missing from this year’s team is the top two 3-point shooters from last season. Between them they took 243 long range shots and hit 69 of them. If the Wildcats can replace that production, it will go a long way towards keeping them in the game with some teams that boast superior height and experience. Watts likes a high-energy playing style, featuring aggressive defense. Only 2 opponents scored 80 or more points against them, last season: Virginia and Western Carolina. No.15 Auburn beat them by only 7 points on a neutral court. Though a very small school, with an enrollment of only 1700, Davidson is no pushover.

This is a fairly crucial game for South Carolina. Nobody wants a two-game losing streak–on their home court–to start the season. Davidson is a team that the Gamecocks certainly should beat, but the Wildcats are a team looking for a big signature win and are not coming into the Colonial Life Arena expecting to lose. The Gamecocks have a ton of talent, but haven’t learned how to play effectively as a unit, yet. Nor have they figured out how to make sure that senior forward Demetress Adams gets the number of touches that she needs to be effective in leading the team. All of that will come with more time and experience, but there are a lot of games to be played while they are gaining that experience and most of them are better than the teams that they have already played, so the challenge is clear. The Gamecocks are going to have to learn and improve while on the run. The freshmen are getting a lot of minutes and responding well; they were responsible for more than 50% of the points scored against Clemson. The seniors seem to be trying a little too hard (a combined 4 for 20 from the field, 0 for 5 from the 3-pt. line, 1 assist vs. 12 turnovers against Clemson.) They need to relax and not worry about taking all of the shots and making all of the passes, by themselves. Leadership, which they do need to provide, is not about doing it all by yourself. It’s about showing the way and trusting the young players to follow. Adjustments are to be expected from any team with a new head coach, but there is no doubt that this team has bought into Staley’s system and are ready to go. Despite two consecutive losses, there are already signs of progress. Lauren Falohun, whose chief responsibility last year was to keep the bench warm, had a ragged game against Penn State–and was the leading scorer against Clemson. Samone Kennedy showed more willingness to take the open shot, when it is given to her. All of the freshmen are looking for playing time and none is shy about putting up a shot. Demetress Adams is playing all out, whenever she is on the floor–but she just can’t do it all by herself. It’s a talented and motivated group. They all need to play better defense and take better care of the ball and the games will take care of themselves.

Hopefully, that trend starts early next week.

The game against the Davidson Wildcats is Monday, November 24th at 7 pm.

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