Kelly Graves hopes his players take the time to think about one more thing this week — The Kay Yow Cancer Fund and the Play 4Kay movement.

Sure, they’ll be focused on defensive sets and boxing out against Arizona, but the first-year Oregon coach wants his players to remember why the game is played. 

“I think that sometimes it’s lost,” Graves said. “It never becomes routine or anything like that, but I think sometimes we forget what we’re doing it for.”

Named after Kay Yow, a member of the Naismith Hall of Fame and former women’s basketball coach at North Carolina State. Yow coached for 34 years, but passed away from breast cancer in 2009. The annual event raises money and awareness for disease nationally. 

For years at Gonzaga, Graves enlisted the help of Carol Dellinger to impart the significance of the game and Yow’s legacy. 

Dellinger has run over 250 marathons as a five-year breast cancer survivor. She is a motivational speaker in the Spokane, Washington area.

“It makes me proud because Kay was a very respected coach,” Dellinger said in an email. “Teams are honoring her legacy as well as all other women who have gone through breast cancer.”

The Play 4Kay game is special because nearly everyone has a personal connection to breast cancer in their own lives.

Oregon center Megan Carpenter’s mother, Kris, battled breast cancer twice while Megan was in elementary school and her aunt also fought the disease. 

Carpenter said the team understands the meaning of the game and its connection all across the nation.

“It means a lot, just the awareness,” Carpenter said. “Since high school, we’ve always had the pink games. I love how big of a deal they make it here. And just how aware people are of it. I always get more pumped for these games.”

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The Play 4Kay movement took root in 2006, when Yow started an event at North Carolina State called “Hoops for Hope.”

The event was initially a celebration, but Yow wanted coaches in all sports to come together to support a larger cause, said the executive director of the Kay Yow Foundation, Sue Donohue.

Graves’ relationship with Donohue is special. They have worked together in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and have crossed paths countless times.

“There’s just this very strong connection of purpose and he’s just remarkable in it,” Donohue said. “We’re so appreciative of him and (what) Oregon has done to support us.”

Graves said Donohue’s involvement in the foundation is crucial for its growth and continuation of awareness.

“Just the fact that Sue is a part of it legitimizes the foundation because there is not a better person in this world than Sue,” Graves said. “Glad she’s so involved and I’ve gotten to know her well over the years.”

Donohue has worked with the foundation since its creation in 2007. 

She said Play 4Kay inspires student-athletes around the country to consider why the cause receives national attention, and Graves exemplifies the coach’s role in the game: discovering that it extends beyond the hardwood and statistics.

“We hear student athletes tell us all the time, on this particular night, I played differently than I do any other night because I am playing for something bigger,” Donohue said. “(Graves) instills that in his kids.”

Among the many things that Yow valued were relationships. She maintained relationships with many in the women’s basketball community throughout the years because she valued the connections. 

Oregon’s special relationship with the Kay Yow Foundation is built on the relationships that Yow valued, Donohue said.

To recognize the relationship, the Kay Yow Foundation donated a $100,000 research grant to the Oregon Health & Science University in October 2014, to support a women’s breast cancer project. 

Donohue said the grant was something the foundation felt strongly about because of the support it received from Nike and Oregon.

“Women’s basketball is a pretty popular initiative for the Kay Yow Foundation and makes a lot of sense given Kay Yow’s background,” Craig Pintens, Oregon’s senior association athletic director for marketing and public relations, said. “We are just happy to be a part of that, not only in women’s basketball, but more so on the football side.”

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Yow was a special part of Graves’ first Final Four experience—she coached in it.

“So much appreciation to Kelly for putting his arms around this,” Donohue said. “More importantly, putting his heart into it and sharing with his young women what this is all about.”

A couple of years ago when the Oregon football team debuted the all-pink helmets against Washington State, Graves took notice. The 25-helmet auction eventually raised more than $220,000 for the foundation, Pintens said.

Graves, who has had people in his own family fight breast cancer, said that he doesn’t want fans or players to take the moment for granted. 

“We’re blessed to have what we have,” Graves said. “The fact that we can go out, perform and play. Hopefully our players are playing with that in the back of their minds as something that is really special to everybody.”

Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne