While his Northwestern teammates tipped off their basketball season, sophomore Kevin Coble was playing hoops in a Scottsdale gym. He left the team to be with his mother, Carlys, as she battles Stage 2 breast cancer.

“After I thought it through, what was happening, things sort of fell into place,” Coble said. “Well, it messes up the schedule a little bit, but once I thought about that, this is what I have to do. I have to be back for her. There is no way I'll be up in Chicago while she is going through this.”

"As soon as he heard the diagnosis and we found out that the treatment was going to be more severe than just radiation and I would have to have chemotherapy, he told me point blank, ‘Mom, I'm not going back,’” Carlys Coble said

Coble has been by her son’s side throughout his entire basketball career. She was there last season when the former Scottsdale Christian Academy athlete became the first freshman ever to lead Northwestern in scoring.

"From my first real tournament when I was 10, she was there,” Coble said. “From watching all of my junior high games, high school and travel club teams. It goes back a long time and there is a lot of history. Being able to look up in the stands and see her there is something special."

Coble’s mom will once again be by his side in Chicago when he returns to the Wildcats in January. And with only a couple more treatments left to go, she can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. A journey she believes would have been more difficult without her son’s support.

"It made all the difference in the world,” she said. “Once again, we're so very close and our life is so intertwined on an emotional level, Kevin’s support is something that I couldn't imagine doing without him.”

"Twenty, 30, 40 years from now, down the road, when I look back, you know, I missed 11 non-conference basketball games at school,” Coble said. “I will remember and people will always remember, but looking back, I know that it was the right decision."