COLUMBIA -- The architect wasn't watching the game, but had been notified of the result. She made it to her beach home for the selection show to see the official bid and the celebration.
There it was -- College of Charleston, champion of the CAA, heading to Duke for a first-round game. In the NCAA Tournament.
At last.
"I was thrilled for that. In fact, I had lunch today with Joan Cronan, who was women's athletic director when we first got to Charleston, we had both gone back for a reunion," she said. "We were both really excited for (coach Robin Harmony) and her team. We had seen what a good team she had and how hard it is to win the (league) tournament, when there is no forgiveness."
Nancy Wilson built the Cougars' women's basketball program after Cronan led it in its first two years, Cronan handing off the team to the 24-year-old assistant while she continued to oversee the Cougars' other women's teams. Wilson posted a 193-61 record from 1976-84, with three consecutive national runner-up finishes in the precursor-to-NCAA AIAW.
Then Wilson departed for South Carolina, picking up a program that had fallen on hard times, and led it to a 231-149 record through 1997.
Of course, later on in the same program, Wilson watched the Gamecocks she sustained score another No. 1 seed in a regional and be considered the program with the second-best odds to win the national championship, which would join the three others they have under coach Dawn Staley.
Wilson had so many memorable moments during a Hall-of-Fame career (she's enshrined at CofC, USC, alma mater Coker and the state's athletic HOF) that it's hard to pick one. But seeing two programs she coached in this year's NCAA Tournament?
"I'm real proud, so thankful I got to coach both those teams, and I never had to change my license tag," the Lake City native laughed. "Full credit goes to Dawn and what she's done with the program. Really, it's just astronomical."
Wilson reflected on the journey of not just coaching winning teams, but seeing the sport grow. When she broke in as a head coach, women's basketball was still a hodgepodge of teams in AIAW, but as the 1972 Title IX legislation progressed, the NCAA finally adopted the game as one of its sports.
Charleston, a power in AIAW that had played in three straight national championship games (the last came in 1982 to Francis Marion in Charleston. The Patriots were coached by Sylvia Hatchell, who would go on to a HOF career at North Carolina, along with being considered for the USC job that Staley eventually took), settled into NAIA and continued to win, before the winning got noticed.
South Carolina needed a coach to restore the program's luster. Wilson knew the state, knew how to recruit within the state and was feeling that itch when you're young -- go and prove it while you still can.
She took the gig. And won five Metro Conference regular seasons and three Metro tournaments from 1986-91.
"When I first started, nobody was much looking. You could mess up a thousand times and learn without anybody getting on you too bad," Wilson said. "I was in a rich state talent-wise and city-wise. It was a wonderful time to be a good coach."
At one time, 10 of Wilson’s 12 players at USC were from the state. The Gamecocks owned the Metro in the late 1980s, reaching five NCAA Tournaments and one Sweet 16.
USC joined the SEC for the 1991-92 season. Stakes were raised. Now Wilson was competing for recruits against Hatchell, Kay Yow, Pat Summitt.
"Once we went into the SEC, I had a much harder time. The state dried up on the superior talent for a spell," Wilson said. "It always came back around, but I had to spread out and recruit."
After six seasons, burned out from the rigors of the SEC and 20 years in the business, Wilson resigned.
But CofC called again.
By 2003, Wilson was back in the Cougars’ head chair, again building for the future. In 2008, she had a 23-win team but fell in triple overtime in the Southern Conference Tournament championship game, another agonizing loss she still carries. Her next season was a berth in the Women’s Basketball Invitational.
Wilson departed for good in 2012, holding a 542-365 career record. She’s since spent the time still helping the game whenever she can.
This year she’ll get to watch two of her former programs play in the NCAA Tournament, and hopefully each can stick around for a while.
"The whole world of women's basketball was so different then. We were the first four-year school in the state to give any kind of athletic scholarship, I think. It was great timing," Wilson said. "I'm grateful for exactly the time in history I got to do that."