CSUN women’s basketball head coach Jason Flowers is taking his talents to Dallas and the NCAA Women’s Basketball Division I Final Four to compete in a free-throw shooting contest at halftime of the second national semifinal game (Mississippi State vs. Connecticut) on Friday, March 31. A former letterwinner at UC Irvine and UCLA, Flowers will have 30 seconds to make as many free throws as possible with the NCAA donating $100 for each make to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
Yow was a historical figure in the history of NCAA women’s basketball. A head coach for 38 years, 32 of which were at NC State, she won over 700 games and guided her teams to 20 NCAA Tournaments. Her teams made 11 Sweet 16s and a trip to the Elite Eight and Final Four in 1998. She was also a part of the coaching staff on the 1988 US women’s basketball team that won Gold in Seoul, South Korea at the Summer Olympics.
Initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and after the cancer returned in 2004, Yow helped institute the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund for the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and the V Foundation for cancer research. Yow was the inaugural winner of the Jimmy V ESPY Award for Perseverance, an award named after her friend and fellow Wolfpack head coach Jim Valvano.
“I’m humbled to be associated with Kay Yow, what she stood for and the example she left as her legacy,” Flowers said. “I’m excited to help raise money, in her name, for a cause that has touched so many people.”
Flowers was the winner of the coaches’ competition, sinking 30-straight free throws. He will be competing with the winner of the fan contest and that winner’s free throw makes will also result in charitable donations to the Kay Yow Fund.
A two-time Big West Conference Coach of the Year, Flowers will enter his eighth season in charge of the Matadors in the 2017-18 season. CSUN finished 18-14 overall and 10-6 in Big West play in 2016-17, posting 11 more wins and 10 fewer losses than the previous season.
Courtesy of CSUN Athletics.
