NC State coach Yow misses second straight game due to health issues

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- North Carolina State women's basketball coach Kay Yow missed her second straight game Monday due to health issues.

Yow, 66, is battling a recurrence of the breast cancer she was diagnosed with in 1987. The Hall of Famer sat out last week's game against Columbia during a five-game road trip in New York because of cold temperatures that makes normally tolerable symptoms worse.

She said she felt better after returning to North Carolina and that she hoped to coach against Jacksonville State, but issued a statement about three hours before tipoff Monday saying she would not be on the sideline. Yow said she made the decision after speaking with her oncologist, Dr. Mark Graham, and N.C. State athletic director Lee Fowler.

"My energy level is still not where it needs to be to complete all of what is expected as the head coach of this program," she said.

Associate head coach Stephanie Glance, who has led the Wolfpack in times when Yow has stepped away from the team for health reasons, coached the team Monday afternoon.

Nora Lynn Finch, a friend of Yow's who spent three decades working as a women's administrator at N.C. State, said she spoke with Yow on Friday and that the coach had been battling chest congestion through the holiday season.

"When she was in New York, she got a lot of congestion and just doesn't seem to be able to shake it," said Finch, who now works for the Atlantic Coast Conference. "She has very little immune system, so things hit her harder than they do us."

Yow's health is a lingering issue that has hovered over the program since the disease first recurred during the 2004-05 season. In November 2006, doctors said her cancer was progressing, a diagnosis that forced her to miss 16 games to focus on treatment. She returned to lead her team to an emotional late-season run -- which included an upset of top-ranked Duke and an appearance in the NCAA tournament's round of 16 -- despite undergoing heavy rounds of chemotherapy.

In October, she spent five days in the hospital after her body struggled to adjust to a change in her treatment, but said then that she feels her best during basketball season because "I have tunnel vision and I forget everything else about my body."

The Wolfpack handled her absence Monday with a businesslike approach, the type of attitude that has become necessary with the constant uncertainty of Yow's health. There was no mention of her during pregame introductions except for the players running out onto "Kay Yow Court," which was dedicated in Reynolds Coliseum in 2007.

Yow ranks as one of the game's winningest coaches with 735 career victories in 38 years. She has also coached the U.S. Olympic team to the gold medal in 1988, and earned four ACC tournament championships, 20 NCAA tournament bids and an appearance in the 1998 Final Four during her 34 years at N.C. State.

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