Jan. 24, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -Kay Yow is trying to avoid being overwhelmed by her return to the North Carolina State sidelines after a two-month leave to fight cancer.

"The excitement might exhaust me," said Yow, who plans to coach the Wolfpack on Thursday when they host Virginia.

Yow says she has been pondering this comeback almost from the day she left the team in November, after doctors found the cancer that first recurred during the 2004-05 season had progressed.

Now she's trying to be patient with herself.

"I don't want to push it," Yow said. "This is my first week. I'm getting back into it. I don't want to go overboard."

In her absence, longtime assistant Stephanie Glance was the team's interim coach for 16 games. Yow, in her 32nd season as N.C. State's coach, has an overall record of 696-321 in 36 seasons.

"She is high energy and she'll just go, go, go," Glance said. "She has a lot of wisdom and great advice. I think we all feel like we will be grateful for whatever time she can be with us, and her presence is just so inspirational to everybody. So if there are days she just has to sit on the sideline, then that's the way it is, but we'll all be grateful that she's there and she's with us."

Yow was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and coached the U.S. women's team to a gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. She has led the Wolfpack to four ACC tournament titles, 19 NCAA tournaments and the 1998 Final Four.

During the Wolfpack's game last week against No. 1 Duke, players on both teams wore pink laces on their shoes in honor of Yow.

"Just knowing that she's back, it's a great feeling," forward Khadijah Whittington said.

The game against Virginia also marks the start of a big weekend for the Wolfpack, who on Sunday face Boston College in the team's annual Hoops for Hope game to benefit a breast cancer foundation.

Yow previously said she hoped to be well enough to attend that game. Now, she plans to coach in it.