Aziaha James carries her late brother's dreams with her to Final Four
Aziaha James carries her late brother's dreams with her to Final Four
PLUS: Some Kay Yow memories #FromTheArchives.
Hi, friends! Coming to you from Cleveland, again. In today’s newsletter I wanted to focus on a team that is getting the least amount of attention here in Cleveland, the NC State Wolfpack.
In this newsletter, you’ll get to know a bit more about star guard Aziaha James and what drives her greatness, and you’ll learn about how the legendary Kay Yow built this program into one of the best in the nation so quickly in the 1970s.
Remember to check out the new Power Plays merch shop, and to take advantage of our Final Four discount!
‘I’m representing the underdogs for us’
On Friday night, junior Aziaha James will walk onto the court at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, and try to lead No. 3 NC State to a massive upset over the top-seeded and undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks.
The Most outstanding player of the Portland 4 regional will be playing for her teammates, who have become a second family; she’ll be playing for head coach Wes Moore, who waited 40 years to make it to his first Final Four; she’ll be playing for Wolfpack nation, diehard fans who have never had a women’s team in the national championship game.
But mostly, she’ll be playing for her late brother, Ashley “AJ” James.
AJ died from an accidental shooting in early March of 2020. The Virginia Beach natives were extremely close, and shared a passion for basketball and big dreams for the future. In 2018, the Virginian-Pilot wrote a feature on them, “James brother-sister basketball duo turning heads in the Beach District.”
“He was an awesome person,” James told Power Plays on Thursday. “People looked up to him, little kids looked up to him. Once you walk in a room, he just made you smile. He was a hometown hero.
“As his sister, just to do this for him, it feels good.”
Four years ago, hours before the tragedy, AJ was in the stands watching his sister lead Princess Anne High School to its 12th region championship in 14 years. Four days after his shocking death, she played in the Class 5 state quarterfinals and scored a career-high 41 points in a victory.
Experiencing tragedy at such a young age could have broken James, or caused her to retreat. Instead, it strengthened her resolve to be great, on and off the court. Yes, she still grieves for her brother. Yes, she still has hard days. But she grew up quickly in the aftermath, and cherishes being able to be a rock for her family.
“I see how it's broken my mother. So just being her backbone and just being strong for her and being strong for my brother and also my dad, you know, it feels good,” she said.
This has been a breakout season for James, who just became a full-time starter this season and has played the best basketball of her career over the past month. In the NCAA tournament, she’s averaging 24.3 points and 3.5 assists per game, shooting 51.3% from the field and 53.2% from three. But those numbers don’t even tell the whole story, because she’s gotten better as the tournament has progressed. In the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 upsets over No. 2 Stanford and No. 1 Texas, James averaged 28 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists while shooting an efficient 55% from the field and a staggering 68.9% (9-for-14) from three.
If the Wolfpack have any chance of upsetting South Carolina, James is going to need to play the game game of her life. But she’s ready to do just that.
“Me and my brothers, we always talked about us going to college and us doing this. We were always underdogs, like I am now,” she said with a smile. “I’m representing the underdogs for us.”
On Friday night, her oldest brother, Isaiah, will be in the stands at Rocket Mortgage cheering her on. And while she’ll be locked in on the task at hand, she’ll definitely take a beat to savor the moment, in honor of her brother who isn’t her to witness it in person.
“The three of us, we're all tight,” she said. “So it's good to have everything just come into place. We always talked about these types of moments.”
#FromtheArchives: How Kay Yow and NC State helped fuel a women’s basketball revolution
Now, look, I am hearing A LOT of Kay Yow stories this weekend, and I think there will have to be another #FromtheArchives piece dedicated just to her legacy sometime in the near future. But to help us all Learn Women’s Sports History and understand how NC State fits into the foundation of the game, I wanted to share two articles I found from early in Yow’s career at NC State.
(For those who don’t know, a far-too-brief primer on Yow: She was the head women’s basketball — among other women’s sports — coach at Elon College in North Carolina from 1971-1975. She became the head coach at NC State in 1975, and was at the helm of the Wolfpack squad until she passed away from cancer in 2009. She never won a national championship as a head coach, but had NC State in the mix for decades, and made it to her lone Final Four in 1998 by beating UConn. She was open about her cancer battle and courageously fought the disease publicly, ultimately establishing the Kay Yow Cancer Fun, which is a leader in cancer fundraising and research and has been the most impactful part of her legacy.)
Here’s a piece from the Johnson City Press in Johnson City, Tennessee on August 9, 1981.
Things I loved about this article:
The context it gives to how NC State intentionally built up the women’s basketball program, helping us understand how women’s basketball shaped the sport today.
Insight into the NCAA vs. AIAW transition at the time.
High school Cheryl Miller sighting!!
And here’s another from The Charlotte Observer on November 22, 1977.
Things I love about this one:
The title, of course.
Information on that key game against the Mighty Macs, and how it catapulted NC State into the women’s basketball spotlight
The story about how she got the job, by sending an unsolicited letter to the AD.
A Trudi Lacey sighting!
Enjoy the games tonight, friends! Thanks, as always, for the support. Remember to take advantage of our 24% off sale!