Terrapin Athletics Director Debbie Yow remembered back to Jan. 11 when she was watching N.C. State, tonight’s opponent for the Terp women’s basketball team, lose in overtime to then-No. 2 North Carolina.

After the game, Debbie told her sister Kay Yow, the longtime Wolfpack coach and breast cancer victim fighting for her life in the hospital, not to worry. Come Jan. 25, the Terps would take care of those Tar Heels, she said, eliciting a smile from Kay.

The Terps did beat North Carolina that day, a day after Kay succumbed to her cancer at the age of 66.

Terp coach Brenda Frese, who said she’d do her best when Debbie relayed the promise she made to her ailing older sister, text-messaged Debbie after the game. “This one is for the Yows,” Debbie recalled in her office yesterday.

When the Wolfpack visit Comcast Center tonight, Kay won’t be coaching the team she led for 34 years. But her memory will be alive for both Debbie and Frese.

“It’s going to be very strange not seeing her on the sidelines,” Frese said. “I just always remember how, being new and young to the league, how she always welcomed you. Her legacy will live on.”

Debbie, who said she’ll be in attendance, remembered Kay for her sense of humor and love of basketball, the sport the three Yow sisters helped cultivate in the late 1970s as the women’s college game was starting to take shape.

When Debbie took over as the coach at Kentucky in 1976, she and Kay were two of just a few full-time women’s coaches, a group that included legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, then known by her maiden name, Pat Head.

“We were kind of this new breed of female that wanted to do nothing but coach and weren’t interested particularly in teaching in the classroom,” Debbie said. “We considered the gym as our classroom.”

Debbie eventually moved into athletics administration before landing this university’s top job in that department in 1994. In the meantime, Kay won 737 career games, led the Wolfpack to 20 NCAA tournament bids and four ACC tournament titles and coached the 1988 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team to the gold medal.

Naturally, the competitive Yow sisters would clash when Kay brought her N.C. State teams north to play the Terps. So Debbie said the two agreed to meet for coffee or lunch the day of the game and talk only about non-basketball related topics.

“It used to be very traumatic for us when she used to come up,” Debbie said. “Obviously, she wants to win, but I want to win as much as she does. We finally decided we shouldn’t try to say hello to each other after the game because one of us was unhappy. … It worked much better.”

N.C. State will continue to honor Kay by placing a jersey with the No. 14, the number all three Yow sisters wore in their playing days, on an empty chair on their bench tonight.

Frese didn’t know Kay long, but the unique connection they shared through Debbie made Frese more appreciative of the ACC’s longest-tenured coach. Frese shared a chartered plane last Friday with Virginia coach Debbie Ryan to attend Kay’s viewing before the Terps and Cavaliers played that night.

“She was a very caring, loving person,” Frese said. “She was always about each and every person out there. It wasn’t just about N.C. State. It was about making the ACC, making women’s basketball better.”

Debbie said she was surprised and happy to see Frese at the viewing on Friday, the day of an away game in Charlottesville, Va.

Debbie also said there are characteristics in Frese that remind her of her late sister – an appetite for hard-nosed recruiting, an excitable sideline demeanor and a tremendous passion for the game.

So while Kay won’t be there tonight, the Terps and Frese share a special connection with the Hall of Fame coach. And Debbie will always remember the text she received from Frese after her win against North Carolina on that Sunday night.

“It was a neat moment,” Debbie Yow recalled, “between three women who love the game.”

TERP NOTE: The Terps will honor former forward Laura Harper with a jersey ceremony after tonight’s game. Harper, who graduated last year and now plays professionally, was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2006 Final Four and became the Terps’ all-time leader in blocked shots. Harper will join former teammates Crystal Langhorne and Shay Doron, whose jerseys were honored last year.

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