The Women's Basketball Coaches Association has received a commitment from more than 800 institutions to participate in the organization's "Think Pink" initiative, which will take place February 8-17.

The goal of the project is to raise money and awareness to the fight against breast cancer, the second-leading cause of death for all women and the leading overall cause of cancer death in women between the ages of 20 and 59.

Many of the teams will be donning pink uniforms during their games next week, and fans will be asked to wear pink and donate to research initiatives.

The NCAA has joined the initiative by implementing the "Calling for a Cure" campaign in which NCAA women's basketball officials will blow a pink whistle for games played February 8-17. Officials also will be encouraged to donate to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.

Yow, the head women's basketball coach at North Carolina State, is a driving force behind the "Think Pink" campaign. Her spirit in fighting the disease has served as an inspiration. Yow was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and is in the process of fighting the disease for a third time.

"Coach Yow said her wish was that she wanted her colleagues to help find an answer to beating cancer," said WBCA Chief Executive Officer Beth Bass. "We thought this was a way to really connect our membership."

Yow even pulled rival coaches Pat Summitt of Tennessee and Geno Auriemma of Connecticut together for a public service announcement. 

"Only Coach Yow could figure that out," Bass said. "It shows that this is bigger than all of us. It's bigger than our sport and a wonderful opportunity for our membership to pull together in the right direction."

The PSA will run February 10 during ESPN2's "February Frenzy" telecast, dring which the network will show eight regionalized games over two broadcast windows (2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Eastern time), similar to how the cable network handles the NCAA tournament.

"Six of eight games will be WBCA 'Think Pink' games," Bass said. "It will be a sea of pink. ESPN will do whiparounds and peak-ins at all the different games."

The National Association of Basketball Coaches held its annual cancer-awareness campaign February 1-3 as head coaches and their coaching staffs wore sneakers with their game attire to show their support in the fight against cancer.