It’s been over 20 years, but Tammi Reiss will never forget the first time a player made her cry. Early March, right before she loaded a bus with her Syracuse team for a trip to the ACC Tournament, she sat in the Carmelo K. Anthony center and chuckled.
In 1995, in her first stop as an assistant coach, Reiss had recruited high schooler Hillary Howard for three years. Then-Virginia head coach Debbie Ryan heeded warnings — Howard’s parents went to Duke, and she had a sibling there at the time. Reiss saw it too, but she thought she could change Howard’s mind.