WINSTON-SALEM - Debbie Antonelli believes in women's basketball and in the power of hope.

Basketball has been her life; hope has helped her create a niche for herself.

Using the lessons learned as a camper and later a player for N.C. State University's Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow, Antonelli has become one of the leading voices in women's basketball and put herself in a position to help the woman who helped her.

Antonelli is in her 20th year of broadcasting basketball and she's one of the few in women's college basketball who works full time on the sport.

With that comes influence.

That includes "Hoops for Hope." N.C. State began its "Hoops" event in 2006 as a way to raise awareness of breast cancer and money for research. Yow has publicly fought the disease since 1987 and is receiving chemotherapy.

After the first "Hoops," Antonelli called Beth Bass, the president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, and told her something needed to be done nationally.

"She got this whole ball started," Bass says. "Obviously she played for Coach Yow, but she's the one who picked up the phone -- she's relentless, but relentless in a good way."

The week of the third "Hoops," which is Feb. 10 at Reynolds Coliseum, more than 600 schools across the nation will participate in "Think Pink," intended to raise awareness and money. Some money will go to local charities, some to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.

"It's about hope, and that's what Kay is all about," Antonelli says. "When you played for her, you knew that she believed in you and that you could win. It didn't matter who you were playing -- Tennessee or the top programs in the country. Even when we were overmatched on paper, she made you believe that you could succeed."

Antonelli has applied that lesson in creating a full and busy life.

Sunday, she was in Austin, Texas, broadcasting the Kansas State-Texas game. Monday, she was in Winston-Salem for Clemson-Wake Forest. It's nothing for Antonelli to have four games in four cities on four different nights.

Still, she finds time to keep up with the Wolfpack and Yow.

"She calls, always checking on me," Yow says. "She called [Monday] morning, just to see how I'm doing. She always stays in touch, and if there's any way she can help, she always offers her help."

Watching the Pack

On Monday, Antonelli, who has broadcast games on ESPN, Fox Sports and CBS, told her viewers how she had grown up watching Cristy McKinney -- now the Clemson women's head coach -- play at N.C. State. Antonelli went to Cary High School and spent many nights at Reynolds watching the Wolfpack.

Antonelli hadn't broadcast McKinney's Tigers and Wake before, so she had to put in six to eight hours to get ready. Antonelli watches game film, goes to shoot-arounds, pores over notes, talks to coaches and players. It takes half the time to prepare for a team she's already seen.

The work pays off.

Antonelli keeps her observations conversational, but she speaks with authority on why Wake Forest can't let Clemson score too many points -- it doesn't have the offense to keep up.

As the first half ends, Antonelli jumps up to chase down Wake coach Mike Petersen, who doesn't see her and goes back to his team's locker room. Instead, Antonelli snags McKinney and has a quick interview.

Halftime gives Antonelli and Mike Hogewood, her play-by-play partner for the game, a break. She checks other basketball scores and watches the halftime Special Olympics game with a smile.

Antonelli has three sons -- Joey, 12; Frankie, 10, and Patrick, 6 -- and they all play basketball. Frankie, who has Down syndrome, is a Special Olympics athlete.

A nomad's life

Antonelli stays at home in the off-season and gets home when she can during the basketball season. She worked men's games as the lead analyst for the University of Dayton for a couple of years, but her love is women's basketball.

Her husband, Frank, has a golf-event business, so winter is a busy time in their Mt. Pleasant, S.C., home. They have full-time help, which allows Antonelli to be on the road.

As a player, Antonelli thought she'd become a coach or administrator. After graduating from N.C. State in 1986, she went to Ohio University and got her master's in sports administration.

Her first job was in marketing at the University of Kentucky. Her boss, Gene DiFilippo -- now the athletics director at Boston College -- asked her if she wanted to broadcast a game.

"I loved it," she says. "It filled my void of being a coach, because I prepared for the games, I watched tape, I went to practice, I studied. Very similar to what a coach would do in prepping for a game."

Antonelli knows much about the nation's teams. She and Beth Mowins, her frequent TV partner, do a weekly podcast for the WBCA in which they might discuss Duke and Wyoming back to back. It's that knowledge that causes her to dismiss the coaches' poll and wish more people were dedicated to women's basketball so the national polls would be stronger.

To get things going

After four years at Kentucky, she went to Ohio State University as its director of marketing. The Buckeyes didn't have a women's basketball TV package. So Antonelli went to a local company, asked how much it would cost and sold the advertising herself. Then, she broadcast the games.

After Joey was born, she decided she couldn't continue doing her marketing job and broadcasting. She chose television.

It's been a rewarding career. She's on national player of the year committees, votes players into halls of fame and does radio broadcasts at the national championship game. In 2007, the WBCA gave her the Mel Greenberg Media Award, which honors a media member who advances the game.

If it means making 6 a.m. flights and missing a swim meet here and there, she's going to continue.

"It just keeps going," Antonelli said. "We just keep going."