South Carolina Basketball: Former Gamecock coach passes away

Former South Carolina basketball assistant coach Nikki McCray-Penson has passed away. She was 51 years old.

McCray-Penson was one of the best SEC basketball players of all-time as she was a dominant force and a two-time SEC Player of the Year for the Tennessee Volunteers under Hall of Fame UT head coach Pat Summitt.

McCray-Penson also won two Olympic gold medals (1996 and 2000) and a world championship in international competition and was the MVP of the ABL in 1997 with the Columbus Quest. After transitioning to the WNBA, she became an All-Star for the Washington Mystics. In 2012, she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

After her playing career was over, McCray-Penson began her coaching journey as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky University. When Dawn Staley became the new head coach of South Carolina basketball, McCray-Penson (who Staley played against in the WNBA and alongside with USA basketball) was on her first Gamecock staff.

During her time in Columbia, McCray-Penson was diagnosed with breast cancer but was believed to be in full remission after about a year of battling the awful disease.

After a successful stint as an assistant to Staley at USC, McCray-Penson was hired as the head women’s basketball coach at Old Dominion. She led the Lady Monarchs for three seasons (including two seasons winning 21 and 24 games) before returning to the SEC as the new leader of the Mississippi State Bulldogs basketball program, replacing the Bulldogs’ legendary head coach Vic Schaefer.

Unfortunately, after just one season in Starkville, Mississippi, McCray-Penson resigned in 2021 to tend to an immediate set of health concerns that she had “hoped were behind [her].”

She returned to coaching last season as an assistant coach with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights but was sometimes unavailable due to her health.

Nikki McCray-Penson has passed away at age 51, leaving behind a husband and son, both named Thomas Penson.