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RALEIGH — N.C. State hired a women's basketball coach Thursday. Not just any basketball coach, either. The Pack got the best young coach in America, the one at the top of everybody's list, the biggest star in the network.

It was a great hire.

And it stunk.

N.C. State hired Kellie Harper, a protégé of Pat Summitt of Tennessee. The 31-year-old coach left Western Carolina after three straight 20-win seasons, two Southern Conference tournament titles and two trips to the NCAA tournament.

N.C. State didn't hire Stephanie Glance, the loyal assistant and best friend of Kay Yow, who died Jan. 24 after a long fight with cancer. Yow wanted Glance to be her successor, and made it clear she expected it to happen after her death.

The hardest personnel decision athletics director Lee Fowler will ever have to make has sent a shockwave through the women's program and throughout the sport. And he knew it would.

Fowler told Glance last week she would not be getting the job, and she wasn't happy about it.

The new coach met with the Wolfpack players for about 30 minutes Thursday before walking into Reynolds Coliseum and onto Kay Yow Court for a news conference. She said the players wanted to see Harper's rings.

"I showed them the three rings," she said. "That was the ice-breaker."

Harper was a point guard for Tennessee's three consecutive NCAA championship teams from 1996-98. Yow took N.C. State to the Final Four in 1998.

Glance wasn't just the interim coach during Yow's absence from the team. She wasn't just Yow's top assistant. She was Yow's caregiver in her final days, often going straight from practice to Yow's home or hospital room, where she would stay all night.

Glance held the team together during the excruciating periods when Yow didn't have the energy to face the team. And it was Glance who walked onto Kay Yow Court three days after the funeral and coached the team until the end of the season.

She released a statement Thursday expressing her support for the school.

"I would like to thank N.C. State University for affording me the chance to be a part of such a fine institution for the last 15 years," Glance said. "I am saddened today that I will not have the opportunity to be the next head coach for the women's basketball program. I would like to especially thank the fans, former players, and coaches from around the country who have sent letters, e-mails and made phone calls on my behalf. Thank you sincerely for your support! "I am MOST grateful for the lessons learned from the legendary Coach Kay Yow! These will stay with me for a lifetime! I wish her successor the best."

Harper knew there would be a lot of emotions in play when she arrived. She called Summitt, her college coach, for reassurance. Summitt told her she was ready for the job and the challenge. Harper said she then knew she would take the job.

"I can't control people's opinions," Harper said of those who wanted Glance to get the job. "Obviously, the decision was not mine to make. I'm aware of the situation, and we just have to do the best we can do to be kind to people, let them see our true colors, and hopefully people will back N.C. State women's basketball because of Kay Yow's legacy. I have to feel that she would want people to continue to love this program."

The program was built by Yow, and Glance was her hand-picked successor. The thought really didn't enter anyone's mind in January that Glance would not get the job. It seemed ominous when Fowler announced the formation of a national search committee a month after Yow's death, and he said Glance knew her biggest drawback was her lack of experience as a head coach.

"She knew that and understood that and said she felt like that was what I was going to tell her," Fowler said.

Glance heard rumors about it at the women's Final Four in St. Louis, came home the next day and went to see the athletics director in his office. He told her the decision had been made, though contract details couldn't be worked out for almost a week.

Glance didn't deserve having to twist in the wind until the news was made public. She didn't deserve having to endure the search process or having to interview for a job she already held.

The person who bore the brunt of Yow's ordeal and remained so strong through the years should've been rewarded. It's as simple as that.

Instead, the school decided to hire outside the program Yow built. And to its credit, State found a good one, a coach who could one day stand on the sideline of the top program in America. Summitt told Fowler she believed Harper could one day stand on Pat Summitt Court as the coach of Tennessee.

But first, she'll stand on Kay Yow's court and take over Stephanie Glance's team.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com