CHARLOTTESVILLE -- It seems wrong to say that something fundamental changed in Virginia coach Debbie Ryan when she faced down pancreatic cancer in 2000.
Because she really didn't become a different person. She's still an intense competitor. An old-school stickler for beliefs such as, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." A self-deprecating, introspective mentor who doesn't abide euphemisms. A sharp wit who can be very soft-hearted.
The Debbie Ryan of 2009 is not miles and miles removed from, for instance, the Debbie Ryan of 1989. Yet perhaps the best way to explain how she isn't the same is to imagine the Ryan of today talking to the Ryan of two decades ago, when the Cavaliers were on the cusp of the most successful and yet, at times, most emotionally painful period of her career.
She might tell her younger self to slow down and stress out a little less. She might say to laugh more and not be so self-critical. She might warn herself that the road ahead was more treacherous than it looked.
Of course, most people might say the same things about themselves at a younger age. But most people don't stare death in the face and still be around nearly a decade later to talk about it.
When Ryan got her 700th career victory -- on Nov. 13 -- she didn't think much about what it meant from the standpoint of professional accomplishment.
"Really, the only thing I reflected on was being able to live this long," Ryan said after a recent game at UVa's John Paul Jones Arena. "The reflections I have are more about the gift I have every day to wake up and be able to do this. It may sound trite, but honestly, if you look me in the eye, you'll see that's real for me.
"Of course, I also thought about the players and got a lot of mail, e-mail and text messages. That part of it is great because you hear from them. And from coaches who'll call and share in it."
Led by senior Monica Wright, Ryan's Cavaliers are 9-3 and ranked No. 21. On Saturday, UVa will play at Colorado, coached by Ryan's former player Kathy McConnell-Miller. On the sidelines with Ryan will be another former Cavalier, Wendy Palmer, in her first year as a UVa assistant.
"I never thought that I would be back at Virginia," Palmer said. "I thought that this was my home for college and would always be a big part of me. But I had no idea I would return.
"When I got the call to come, I was excited. I was nervous, but it was a good nervousness. I'm very much invested in the program. My goal is for Virginia to not just return to where it was, but be better. I want so badly for Debbie to get a championship. And for that also to be for everyone who's come through this program and been coached by her."
Ryan came to UVa in 1975 as an assistant coach for basketball and field hockey. She was elevated to hoops head coach in 1977, and in February 1978, Charlottesville was the site of the first ACC tournament for women's basketball.
So Ryan was right there for the true birth of the college game as we know it today. She was part of the transition from the AIAW to the NCAA, from a 32-team NCAA tournament to one twice that size.
It wasn't that long ago that "pioneers" Ryan's age or older were still active in coaching. But that number has dwindled considerably in recent years. Ryan has fewer old friends still in the business, but she has made new ones. And, as would anyone who has lasted in the same job for 32 years, she has changed with the times.
What about those who play the game?
"The players and their issues have changed dramatically," she said. "Especially over the past 10-12 years. We're seeing far more issues that we didn't see much before.
"Some kids aren't ready for college and the independence that it gives them. Some don't express themselves well because they've never had to -- Mom and Dad always talked when they were supposed to be talking. So there are just things that are different about this generation."
There's no doubt that with each generation come traits or habits that bother older people. But the technology changes of the last decade make today's college kids more different from those of 10 years ago than that group was from its predecessors.
Cell phone communication has taken the place of face-to-face discourse so much that they sometimes lack the basic ability to look other people in the eye.
"That's the first thing we start with when they get here," Ryan said. "Look at someone when you're talking to them. It's a sign of respect. Teaching them things that are going to help them beyond here are critical. And there's more need for that now."
As for how girls are developing as basketball players, Ryan is equally straightforward.
"They don't spend enough time on fundamentals," she said. "They play too much and train too little. So when they get to the college level, they tend to go through overuse injuries right away because they aren't used to training. They're usually not at all prepared to play defense at this level, nor offense if it's complicated. They find that they're lost for the first semester, probably."
Yet none of that dampens Ryan's zest for doing this job. At the heart of it is still all the same stuff: aiding development of young people. She has seen a lot of them grow up in her days at UVa.
At this time 20 years ago, Ryan was three months from what you could call the biggest victory of her career: a 79-75 overtime win against Tennessee at the East Regional final in Norfolk, Va. That gave UVa its first of three consecutive Final Four appearances.
It also was the first time Ryan had defeated fellow coach Pat Summitt; it would remain the only time until last season, when Virginia got just its second victory in the series.
In the 1989 NCAA tournament, the Cavs lost in the Sweet 16 by 33 points to a Tennessee team that went on to win its second NCAA title. So that March 1990 night in Norfolk, because of the previous history of the programs, the Cavs had more of an underdog feel than just being a No. 2 seed against a No. 1.
Tennessee didn't need any extra motivation beyond defending its title, but still had some: The Final Four was in Knoxville, and few people outside of the Cavaliers and their fans could imagine that "party" taking place without the host playing.
But that's what happened. Summitt says to this day it was her most devastating loss.
"It seems like you go through a career and have different rivals over the years," Summitt said. "But at that time, that was one of our best rivalries."
However, fate never seemed to reward Virginia fully for overcoming the Tennessee hurdle. The Cavaliers lost to Jennifer Azzi's Stanford team in the national semifinals in 1990. The next year, the Cavs went back to the Final Four and in the semis defeated Connecticut, coached by onetime Ryan assistant Geno Auriemma. But in the championship game, Tennessee won 70-67 in overtime.
That's the game Ryan can't completely shake. Yes, a subsequent 66-65 semifinal loss to Stanford in the 1992 Final Four -- the last game of Dawn Staley's college career -- remains a brutal memory as well. But the '91 title game in New Orleans the stinger might never quite come out on that one.
However, Ryan said it's not because it cost her a trophy. It's because all these years later, she knows the ache that her former players carry about that game. She still wonders if she somehow let them down.
"The sadness I feel over that is not for me. It's for them," she said. "They worked so hard. They deserved that."
Palmer, though, says players should never dwell more on any loss than on what they gained while at Virginia.
"This is a critical time in your life, your four years in college," said Palmer, who was part of three Elite Eight teams from 1993 to '96. "You go from being a girl to a young woman. My experience at Virginia -- a tough academic school with the demands of being at the top level of women's basketball -- told me there was nothing in life I couldn't accomplish.
"I was able to pull that balancing act and graduate in four years. When you were struggling, the upperclassmen would say, 'Get it together; you're going to graduate.' And it came from the top down, from Debbie, that academics were so important."
Palmer played professionally, both in the WNBA and overseas, until 2007. Now she's in Ryan's coaching tree along with former Cavs such as McConnell-Miller, Staley (South Carolina), Tonya Cardoza (Temple), Audra Smith (Alabama-Birmingham) and Trina Thomas Patterson (Albany). Jenny Boucek was formerly head coach of the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs. Palmer says she also would like to be a head coach in the college game someday.
"I'm very, very proud of each of them," Ryan said. "I think what it means is that when they were here, they must have had at least a good experience to want to continue on and be a coach.
"Because it's a hard profession. I think they knew that, and that they would have to give up some things to do that job. But each of them has their own unique way of coaching, and they are all exceptional role models. That's what I'm most proud of."
Ryan is also proud of what is expected of student-athletes at Virginia, since it's based on what is expected of the rest of the student body.
"The students have a lot of responsibility for the way this school runs," Ryan said. "And most women's basketball players actually want autonomy and that feeling of independence. To know that whatever they want to reach for, they can. They're not going to hit a ceiling.
"I think Virginia is one of those places that pushes and motivates you to be more than you thought you could be, off the basketball court. Which I think makes players better on the court."
Ryan continues to get charged up about practice, about lessons to be imparted even in games when the Cavaliers have a victory well in hand.
"She's still got it," Summitt said. "She's passionate about teaching, and you can tell she's enjoying her team and still having fun."
Admittedly, Ryan has had to get through all the changes in the women's hoops landscape, including the rise of Duke in the ACC.
In the 13 years since Palmer and Boucek finished their careers with an Elite Eight loss to Tennessee in 1996, the Cavs' best NCAA performances have been reaching the Sweet 16, which UVa did in 1997 and 2000. They haven't been to the ACC tournament final since 1994.
Ryan knows it would take another big surge by Virginia to get back to the level where the program once resided. Whether it happens might even come down to a little good luck or avoidance of bad luck, usually in regard to recruiting and injuries. If you coach long enough, you accept that some things really are out of your control.
But she doesn't let any of that discourage what she tries to do every day in molding and teaching players.
"She puts the game of basketball in perspective," Wright said. "What coach Ryan has done for women, not just women's basketball, has mattered so much. This program is a reflection of her career and everything she's done. She won't just let you carry yourself any kind of way.
"She lets us know she doesn't just care about what we do for this school, basketball-wise. She cares about where we're going after this, how we're going to be representing ourselves and how we're going to impact others."
Mechelle Voepel, a regular contributor to ESPN.com, can be reached at mvoepel123@yahoo.com. Read her blog at http://voepel.wordpress.com.