Jimmy Walker, former Providence College basketball star and first pick in the 1967 NBA draft, died Monday of lung cancer. He was 63.

Walker played three seasons at Providence and held a school record with a total of 2,045 scored points. His record stood for 38 years. Ryan Gomes surpassed his total in 2005.

"He was an amazing phenomenon," says Jim Cox, who played with Walker in 1964. "That he ended up at Providence College was a remarkable development. He was so good, so blessed. He was ahead of his time."

Walker, father of NBA player Jalen Rose -- part of Michigan's Fab Five of the 1990s -- was drafted by the Detroit Pistons and averaged 16.7 points a game in nine NBA seasons. At one time, Walker and Rose held the NCAA Division I record for most career points by a father-son duo.

Ever since Kay Yow returned from a 16-game leave of absence for cancer treatment, her North Carolina State women's basketball team has won 12 of their last 14 games. And now the Wolfpack is headed for the Sweet 16 -- after beating Baylor in overtime -- where the fourth-seeded team will play Connecticut on March 24 in Fresno.

This will be the first trip to the NCAA tournament in 16 years for Hall of Fame coach Yow who is battling breast cancer for the third time. First diagnosed with the disease in 1987, Yow had a recurrence during the 2004-05 season. And now this season too.

Yow, still enduring treatment and still working hard on the court, credits her team for their sweet victory.

"I know they want to win for me in that sense," she says. "I really am grateful and appreciate the fact that they do, but I think they're a real team. I think they can play with that kind of spirit every time they go out."

To read previous posts about coach Kay Yow, click here.

I often note the passage of time according to events. My husband does it with songs -- if he hears Cheap Trick's I Want You to Want Me, for example, his mind takes him back to a buddy's basement in Jersey where he played pool with a bunch of other 10-year-old boys.

Music just doesn't do it for me. It has to be some sort of happening for my mind to travel back in time -- something like the Florida Gators SEC victory over Arkansas on Sunday.

Last year, the Gators were also SEC champs. And the year before that too. And I think I'll know the status of this team at this same time every year for as many years as I survive cancer -- because two years ago, I sat cooped up in a University of Florida hospital room trying to recover from the effects of chemotherapy and the only real excitement piped into my cubicle of a room was the thrill of a big Gator win.

It was the same kind of win the team repeated the following year -- the win that marked my first year of survival. And now, the Gators win again. And so do I.

While the defending National Champions celebrate their accomplishments and head into the first round of NCAA tournament play in New Orleans, I celebrate my accomplishment -- surviving cancer for two years. And when the Gators play in whatever game comes their way next March, I will be reminded of that same hospital room, that same dark and dreary time in my life. And then I will marvel at the power of time and the unlikely collision of cancer and college basketball.

And then I will pause, reflect, and head straight into my third year of survival.

Go Gators!

Ohio State quarterbacks coach Joe Daniels is part of a coaching staff preparing to take on the University of Florida in the NCAA Football National Championship in Glendale, Arizona next week. It's a big game, with big stakes -- but it's just one match-up Daniels plans to tackle this year. He's also in the midst of a game with cancer -- a game he plans to win.

Daniels, a 64-year-old assistant to head coach Jim Tressel and contender for the Broyles Award, given January 16 to the nation's top assistant coach, was diagnosed with kidney cancer this past year shortly after suffering a heart attack and while mourning the death of his mother. Although it was a tough year, he still managed to make it through his 37th season as an assistant coach. He and his wife, Kathy, say it's been a hard road but a blessed one too.

"Cancer is a terrible disease," says Kathy. "But in a lot of ways, it's enriched our lives. It's not the burden a lot of people expect it to be. Maybe it's because we've been so fortunate to have football as a distraction."

The Buckeyes' 12-0 season -- complete with a Heisman Trophy victory for quarterback Troy Smith -- was quite a distraction for Daniels who was able to avoid chemotherapy and radiation and is faithfully taking a drug called Sutent to treat his malignant tumor. He takes a pill for 28 days, then takes 14 days off, and then begins again.

Medically, everything seems to be working out just fine for Daniels. His monthly check-ups continue to deliver good news, and he reports he has felt good, with just a bit of fatigue, for the entire season.

Now about that other game. Tune into the FOX network on Monday, January 8 at 8:15 PM -- and watch it all unfold.