Kay Yow is one of the greats of the game, and she deserves all the praise she's lately received. But she didn't sign up for sympathy narratives when she began coaching at NC State 32 years ago: she signed up to coach basketball.

Last night her Wolfpack made a game of it against a UConn team with superior speed and, most of the time, superior execution. Yow got a standing O at the end of the game, and a running tribute from ESPN's announcers.

UConn got the win. The Huskies erased an early deficit by collapsing on State's posts; Hunter played, Charles avoided foul trouble, Houston scored, and Connecticut fans can cheer on Monday without quite so many mixed feelings.

Not all last night's storylines favored the Wolfpack: Houston's dad finally saw her play a college game. "I know he has tried really hard to come out to Connecticut to see me play. But every single time he makes plans, he even has a flight ready, something will happen," she said. "Just having him at every single high school game when he would bring me juice, any juice that I wanted, I miss that stuff."

State's Marquetta Dickens sank two treys in the final minute, which was one more than she made in the rest of the season. She led NCSU's scoring; Houston, Charles and the versatile, underrated Greene scored 18, 17 and 17.

Will Yow try to coach next year? That's a question for later. Of this year's squad, she says, "I couldn't be prouder."