Lady Vol For Life Nikki McCray-Penson has passed away. She was 51. The 5-foot-11-inch guard played at Tennessee from 1991-95 under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt. She was a two-time Kodak All-America standout during her junior and senior seasons for the Lady Vols, and was twice named SEC Player of the Year. McCray-Penson was also a two-time gold medalist with the U.S. women’s basketball team at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. She played in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) for eight seasons before retiring in 2006. McCray-Penson was an assistant coach for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks from 2008 to 2017 and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. She served as head coach at Old Dominion for three seasons before becoming head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs from 2020 to 2021. She stepped down due to health reasons and was serving as an assistant coach for Rutgers when she died on Friday, July 07, 2023. Her cause of death was not immediately announced. McCray-Penson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013.
