Women's Basketball Hall of Famer Nikki McCray-Penson, 51, dies - ESPN

Nikki McCray-Penson, who helped lead the famed 1996 Olympic team that started the United States' current run of seven consecutive gold medals, has died at the age of 51, it was announced Friday.

McCray-Penson starred for the Lady Vols in the 1990s in her native state of Tennessee before playing in the ABL and WNBA and later becoming a college basketball head coach.

She served as an assistant women's basketball coach last season for Rutgers, which confirmed her death. The cause of death has not been announced. McCray-Penson and her husband, Thomas Penson, have a son, Thomas Jr., who turned 10 in February.

McCray-Penson was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2013, during her tenure with South Carolina, where she was an assistant to her close friend and Olympic teammate Dawn Staley. She was part of Staley's staff as the Gamecocks won the 2017 NCAA championship. Soon after, she took her first head-coaching job, with Old Dominion.

In all, including last season at Rutgers, McCray-Penson had 16 years of college coaching experience, serving as head coach at Mississippi State and ODU. After consecutive 20-win seasons, she left the Monarchs to take over the Bulldogs, who went 10-9 during the COVID-19-impacted 2020-2021 season. In October 2021, before the start of what would have been her second season at MSU, she stepped down to focus on her health.

She returned to coaching this past season, becoming an assistant to Coquese Washington at Rutgers.

«Heart hurts like crazy over this one,» two-time WNBA MVP and Las Vegas Aces standout A'ja Wilson, star of South Carolina's 2017 title team, wrote on Twitter. «Such a fighter and a warrior with the sweetest gentle soul! Coach McCray you've helped me in many, many ways and you were a