Women’s basketball coach Kay Yow announced her return as head coach on Monday in a press conference at the Murphy Center.

Yow, who has missed her team’s last 16 games while undergoing chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer, said the prospect of returning has been on her mind ever since she learned of the progression of the disease in November.

“I started thinking about it the day they said [the cancer] had progressed,” Yow said Monday. “I started thinking about, ‘When can I get back?'”

Now she has an answer.

Yow said she plans for Thursday night’s game in Reynolds Coliseum against Virginia to be her first back on the bench, but she said she’s not quite sure what to expect.

“I’ll be excited,” Yow said. “The excitement might exhaust me — I don’t know.”

Yow was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, and she had a recurrence during the 2004-2005 season. But, she said her most recent struggles with the disease have been the hardest because it had metastasized — spread.

“Once mine moved to other stages, then I understood that it’s quite a different battle,” Yow said.

But she said her dehydration after a Nov. 17 game against UNC-Wilmington was pivotal in helping her realize the cancer had progressed.

“When that game was over, I had to leave the arena,” Yow said. “And that’s when I had to call Dr. Graham.”

While Yow said she had wanted to get back with her team, she said she wanted to make sure she could make a useful contribution when she returned. Because of the difference from her previous cancer treatments, that process was a learning experience for her.

“I had no idea what it would all entail because I had never had heavy chemo like this and everything that I was going to be going through. I didn’t know how my body was going to respond or anything,” Yow said. “So I’m always anxious to be a part of the team, but like I said, I just want to be a good team member.”

Yow, in her 32nd season as the team’s coach, cautioned she might have to take things slow as she comes back. But, she said her high-energy approach to the game should help make up for some of the strength she has lost.

“I’m not returning full-speed. As a matter of fact, I just said to coach [Lee] Fowler when we came in here, it’s great that I was such a high-energy-level person before all this happened,” Yow said. “I’m glad that that’s the way I was because I certainly don’t think I’ll ever, perhaps, be able to return to that particular state, that high level of energy that I once had.”

She also said she was pleased with how her coaches and team have responded to her absence. Yow added she’s not expecting to make a major difference, but just to provide some kind of input to help the team.

“I’m grateful to [the assistant coaches] for allowing me to come back now in the mix of things, in the middle, and help me to make the adjustments that I need to make to get back in step with them and the team once again,” Yow said. “And I can’t do it without their help, and I realize that.”

And while she said her condition has improved, Yow said her cancer is not “curable,” but something she and those treating her have tried to get “under control” and make “manageable.”

“The truth is that I could be taking some level of chemo and drugs forever unless the Lord is a miracle and I’m just healed and get down to zero counts on everything — which, by the way, I don’t count out.

This happens. It’s only 1 percent. I could be the 1 percent, so I don’t count that out,” Yow said. “But it will take a miracle like that.”