Remembering Nikki McCray Penson

Today we have sad news for Gamecock fans. Nikki McRae Pinson, former assistant basketball coach for the women's basketball team, has died. She was 51 years old. Yes, she before she became an assistant coach. McRae had a great career of her own. She was an Olympic gold medalist. she was a professional Hall of Famer, but then in 2013 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, everyone was hopeful. Darcy, you did a report on her and she went on her mission, unfortunately, her battle with cancer ended today. Reggie, I know you had the opportunity to talk to her and her life and her legacy will live on through so many players and people she impacted.

Yes, she was a star in Tennessee. She had become head coach at Old Dominion, where one day she sang the national anthem for one by one. Senior night a few years ago, she was the head coach at Mississippi State, she had to step away and then obviously it's a situation where she was at Rutgers and she was in her first season as an assistant, but you know , she fought as hard as she could, but you know, I was thinking about this today. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it's really a 12 month a year situation and obviously that month will have a different gathering even more than it already is, um, Nikki.

McRae Henson's battle with cancer, he fought it as hard as he could, let's talk a little bit about his impact when he was here at USC and what he meant to the recruiting class and how he remained one of the key players and I mean players on Staley's coaching staff, well, you know, Dawn brought star power to the Gamecock program, as did Nikki, obviously, with her career at Tennessee, where she was a multiple-time SEC Player of the Year and Olympic gold medalist, like you mentioned, three-time WNBA All-Star. So she played at a high level, she trained at a high level and obviously she lived at a high level as well.

One of the things I love about her was her passion for players and I followed her on social media for years. She stayed close to a lot of the players, including Asia Wilson, she was always sharing pictures of Asia on her Instagram and Asia was doing the same thing, so she held on to that funny relationship story with Asia and Nikki, uh, when Nikki actually did. would do. you could hear some of the highlights when she was shouting instructions her voice went up a few octaves I mean it was really hot it was really high pitched and one day Asia on Twitter just took note of the fact that you know she referred to. even his ears bleeding during one of the games and all that, it was just one of the funny things that you hear and hear on the court, you hear it too and then you see the tweet and he says, yeah, you know, yeah, we know it's Ella she had a very distinctive voice and you know, every time I talked to her, her love for basketball was contagious, she was someone who really helped her develop players at all ages, she participated, while that's a wild video because they are the sessions of Khadijah who was just named assistant coach of the Gamecocks and Nikki was also one of her coaches, so it really is a big family that they build, but anyway their love and passion was contagious for all ages, she helping with Don's camps and helping develop young players and just really sharing that passion for basketball, the situation that you know her in, her legacy is going to live on, obviously you must have her family in a difficult situation and again you mentioned initially that she had won her battle, but it's just a horrible, horrible disease that you know, you never know, let's take a second and remember our story.

I had the opportunity to interview McRae in 2014 and this is how she described her battle with breast cancer. USC women's basketball assistant coach Nikki McRae knows how. winning hard as a gold medal Olympian, she is a competitor to the core, losing is never an option for her, not on the court or in life, well I was diagnosed with breast cancer in November, now I struck, you know, cancer as a game you know I'm prepared I'm proactive and you know I'm not going down without a fight I discovered my lump when I was in the shower I wasn't thinking it was going to be cancer I was breastfeeding you know my I had a nine month old son in at that time, so I thought it was something like that and then two days later it was confirmed that it was breast cancer, diagnosed with the most common form of the disease.

His doctors wasted no time in preparing a report. game plan to survive I did chemo I had surgery and I actually finished about a month ago with my radiations I feel great I can't even complain everyday I wake up with joy in my heart just because I'm so Blessed, this is not the first time that McCray has had to recover from this illness. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, so in the back of your mind you're always thinking, "It's okay, it's close to home, there's a chance you'll get it." illness completely and what I need to do to stay proactive.

I have been a survivor since day one. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to go through this and be able to share how sad it is to hear his words from 2014, but we know this has impacted everyone at USC, especially the basketball team, and today they issued a statement regarding his passing saying in part our program, our sport, most importantly, her family lost an incredible woman, mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, coach and mentor today, Nikki McRae Pinson was part of our foundation and made us the program that we are one personal relationship at a time and Gamecock women's basketball head coach Don Staley commented on Pinson's passing in McCray's past today, says in part a quote from her days as a rookie Brash at USA Basketball to become my friend. and colleague to the way she guided the young players, Nikki did everything with all her heart, every teammate, every coach, every player who spent time with her, first she cared about them as a person and Asia Wilson, as I mentioned earlier, the two have been friends for years and McRae was one of Asia's role models and coaches and she said my heart hurts so much today because of this, a fighter and a warrior with the sweetest and gentlest soul.

Coach McRae, you have helped me in so many ways and you are a true gift from God, truly, you will be missed, no more suffering, no more pain. God has a good and difficult way of spending the weekend, but his legacy will live on.