Rivals unite in tribute

CHAPEL HILL -- At noon, an hour before they would resume their women's basketball rivalry, the players and coaches for N.C. State and North Carolina stood together at center court, arms interlocked in an unbroken circle of love.

Throughout the ACC and across the country, wherever Kay Yow's name is spoken with admiration, others were doing the same -- a midday prayer for the health of the Wolfpack women's basketball coach, who was absent Sunday but who cast, as always, a tall shadow.

Yow's seat at the end of the N.C. State bench sat unoccupied throughout the 75-66 overtime loss to Carolina on Sunday. There's nothing new about that, as Yow has missed dozens of games during her two-decade battle with breast cancer, but no one ever gets used to her absence -- not on the Wolfpack bench, not in the Triangle, not around the ACC and not across the world of women's basketball.

"The emotion is always there," State guard Shayla Fields said. "We know Coach Yow, she's battled for so long and she's hurt sometimes and can't do everything she wants, so I think the emotion is always there for us to go out and do what we have to do and show her that we care."

Yow had missed the previous four games because of a lack of energy but with the hope that she would soon return to the bench. Instead, this week's announcement that she would step aside for the rest of the season to concentrate on her health meant that this rivalry would go on without her, for now.

The concern over Yow was so omnipresent that North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell's entrance to an elite club -- with the win, she became the fourth women's coach to win 800 games -- was almost overshadowed.

Hatchell even expressed surprise at her news conference Friday when the first question was about win No. 799, not about Yow. That only underlined the depth of concern over Yow's condition throughout the world of women's basketball.

"Absolutely," Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said in a telephone interview this week. "You don't think about N.C. State without thinking first and foremost about Kay Yow.

"First of all, she's such an incredible person. Her faith and the fight that she's had to battle time and time again against the cancer, she always sees the good and stays so positive."

State picked up on the positive vibes Sunday, with a heavy mix of red (and pink) in the crowd, including a three-panel sign from Yow's hometown of Gibsonville. Suitably inspired, the Wolfpack kept pace with the second-ranked Heels and took the lead for most of the second half, playing with hustle and resilience.

Like their coach, State's players had no shortage of fight and even took the final shot of regulation with a chance to win the game. But Carolina scored the first nine points of overtime to remain undefeated and win for the 16th time in the past 18 meetings with State.

"It was sort of a test today, to see what we're made of and what we're going to look like through a lot of adversity," State interim coach Stephanie Glance said. "We just told the team they passed the test with flying colors today, because the picture for us is much bigger than just a game, or a game against our archrivals."

In that bigger picture, State's effort was an appropriate close to a day of tribute that began long before the first shot was taken. As the scoreboard ticked down the time left in warmups, basketballs sat idle on the court and the gym was silent but for a murmured group prayer.

"That was very special, for Carolina to want to join in and pray with us," Fields said. "It was a very emotional experience. I think it's going to carry over into the rest of the season, how much everybody cares about Coach Yow. They put the game aside to come together for one person."

They would spend the next three hours in a fevered battle, but at that moment the two teams joined arms, State red and Carolina blue alike, in a grand gesture of respect for a woman whose presence was felt as much as her absence.