'Tiffany would be so proud': With LSU title, Decatur's Gary Redus II follows in cousin's footsteps

Apr. 4—She waited an hour, until after the LSU assistant women's basketball coach she most remembers as a half-sized pre-teen, the one who is now 6-foot-6, married and with two children, celebrated the Tigers' national championship.

A day earlier, Kim Young Wilks spoke with her cousin, LSU's Gary "G" Redus II, and stopped herself from mentioning a dream that included him and her late sister and seemed to foretell a Tigers victory.

But on Sunday afternoon, once Redus brought up Tiffany Young, the memories of her made emotions flow both ways.

"I didn't mention it when I congratulated him, but he brought it up," Wilks said Monday. "I told him 'I had a dream, but I didn't want you to be too emotional going into the game.'"

Tiffany Young, both are sure, would have been giddy about "little" G's success.

LSU's win over Iowa on Sunday marked Redus' first national championship, complete with all the tears and hugs and happiness to cover the entire Bayou — and beyond.

But it wasn't the first for the family.

Tiffany Young was a backup guard on the 1999 Purdue women's national championship team, an event that set off similar happiness all the way to the Redus home in Decatur and the Young family in Hillsboro.

Four months later, it was replaced by mourning.

Tiffany Young died on July 31, 1999, in a car accident in Gary, Indiana. A drunk driver T-boned the car that Tiffany's fiancée was driving, killing Tiffany instantly.

G Redus, 10 years old at the time, who would sit on the bench for both Kim and Tiffany's games at East Lawrence as a pseudo-assistant coach, carefully tracking the game like he does now at LSU, was inconsolable.

Then and now overly friendly, one of the human race's bright lights, Redus moped, pouted and even cried.

"I remember wearing her jersey for I don't know how long," Redus said. "I wouldn't take it off.

"That is still, to this day, the most traumatic thing to happen to me. I still remember it like it was yesterday."

Redus and his sisters, and Kim and hers describe themselves as "second-and-a-half" cousins.

Redus and Kim remain close enough that they communicate regularly, though Kim now lives in Oklahoma City where her husband, Mike Wilks, is an assistant coach for the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder.

Sometimes, it's by phone. Sometimes, social media. Sometimes, like Saturday and Sunday, it's via text.

On Saturday, that made it easier for Kim to hide news of the dream she had.

It included G and Tiffany and LSU winning a national championship. Kim wasn't in Dallas, where LSU and Iowa played, despite dearly wishing she was, because her 15-year-old son Isaiah was in Kansas City for a Nike EYBL tournament.

"I hadn't had a dream about Tiffany in a while, but she was there, and so was G," Kim said.

On Sunday, Kim and her children were driving home from Kansas City during LSU's game. Kim called her husband to get the streaming password so they could track the game.

Her kids watched while she drove and listened.

On Sunday evening, after LSU's victory, she couldn't hide the dream anymore.

"She texted me 'congratulations' and how she was so proud and everything," Redus said. "I texted her back — Tiffany would be so proud."

Kim spilled all the details.

In a flash, they relived so many memories of Tiffany, ones that still sprout up at seemingly a moment's notice. But Sunday's championship was an obvious link to Tiffany and 1999.

Those memories had followed Redus from when he last played at South Alabama in 2010 and professionally overseas for four years. The former Decatur High player previously coached at West Georgia, Delta State, Vanderbilt and SMU.

In one of life's fitting coincidences, Redus' wife is named Tiffany. They have two children, Gio and Ella. Redus is the son of former major league baseball player Gary Redus and Minnie Redus. His sister Manisha is the head coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida, and another sister, Kesha Bowens, is an assistant principal at Brooks Elementary in Killen.

This was G Redus' first year at LSU.

All along the way, up to and including cutting the nets Sunday, he has always remembered Tiffany Young.

"And I always will," Redus said. "Anytime I do something big, I always think about what she would think and what she would do.

"But I can't talk to Tiffany. I can only assume what she'd feel."

A. Stacy Long, the sports editor of the TimesDaily, covered Tiffany Young's funeral in 1999 for the Decatur Daily.