Breaking News: Vols coach wife has confirms death at…..

Nikki McCray-Penson, a former Lady Vols basketball player and Mississippi State coach, died Thursday after fighting

cancer and pneumonia. She was 51.

Dawn Staley, South Carolina’s women’s basketball coach, expressed her heartbreak at McCray-Penson’s death on

Friday, saying “cancer has taken that light from us.” Multiple sources told the USA TODAY Sports Network that the

former Rutgers and South Carolina assistant was battling pneumonia.

“It’s hard to think about Nikki’s passing because all I can see is how fully she lived,” Staley said in a statement. “From

her days as a brash rookie in USA Basketball to becoming a friend and coworker, to the way she coached future

athletes, Nikki gave her all. Every teammate, coach, and player who spent time with her understood that she cared

about them as individuals before anything else. Her presence was palpable even before you saw her because she

exuded such light and positive energy no matter what was going on.

McCray-Penson fought breast cancer in 2013. When she resigned at Mississippi State in 2021, just than a month

before the start of her second season, she cited “health concerns I had hoped were behind me.” McCray-Penson told

Knox News in 2022 that her prior cancer fight had nothing to do with her resignation, and that it was due to mental

and personal health problems, as well as the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic, which was “mentally draining” for

herself, her staff, and her players.

“It is with a heavy heart that we mourn the passing of Nikki McCray-Penson,” Mississippi State coach Sam Purcell

wrote on Twitter Friday. “She was an incredible basketball coach and a true female leader, but most importantly, she

was a devoted mother and wife.” Nikki and her family will continue to be in our hearts and prayers.”