Reports: Former Dawn Staley assistant takes over Gamecocks’ SEC rival Mississippi State
Nikki McCray-Penson was a key piece in South Carolina women’s basketball’s run to a Final Four in 2015 and a national title in 2017 as an assistant coach and ace recruiter.
Now, according to multiple reports, she’ll be leading the Gamecocks’ biggest SEC rival of the past few years — Mississippi State.
McCray-Penson is set to be hired as head coach of the Bulldogs to replace the departed Vic Schaefer, who took the head coaching job at Texas on Sunday, according to The Dispatch (Columbus and Starkville) and WBCI.
McCray-Penson is set to return to the SEC after three seasons as the head coach at Old Dominion, a job she took after USC claimed the national championship in 2017. In those three years, she turned around one of the sport’s early powers from an 8-23 mark in her first year to 24-6 this past season. The Monarchs finished second in Conference USA and were projected to make their first NCAA tournament in more than a decade, and McCray-Penson was named conference Coach of the Year.
Before that, McCray-Penson spent nearly a decade at South Carolina as an assistant under Staley, starting with Staley’s very first season in 2008. The former SEC Player of the Year and Olympic gold medalist helped lead the Gamecocks’ recruiting efforts in that time, including the No. 2 ranked class in the country in 2014.
She’ll take over an MSU program that has become South Carolina’s perennial rival for SEC dominance as of late — the two teams have combined to win every conference regular season and tournament championship from 2015 on. Schaefer guided the Bulldogs to back-to-back Final Fours and national runner-up finishes, but he was 3-12 all-time against South Carolina.
Both teams ended 2019-20 in the top 10 of the AP and coaches polls, with South Carolina at No. 1 in both sets of rankings. The Gamecocks also topped ESPN’s “way-too-early” rankings for 2020-21, while Mississippi State was No. 3, albeit before Schaefer’s departure..
McCray-Penson will be losing a couple key pieces from last year’s roster — third-leading scorer and starting guard Jordan Danberry is graduating, and guards Chloe Bibby and Jayla Hemingway have entered the transfer portal this offseason. Bibby was fourth on the team in scoring this past year, while Hemingway played sparingly as a freshman but was a top-100 recruit.
But she’ll still inherit a roster stocked with talent, highlighted by SEC All-Freshman selection Rickea Jackson, who led the Bulldogs in scoring this past year. Incoming freshman Madison Hayes is also ranked in the top 30 of her class nationally, assuming McCray-Penson gets her to reaffirm her commitment.
USC and MSU faced off twice this past season, with Carolina winning the regular season matchup at home and the SEC tournament championship game. In 2020-21, they’ll be scheduled to meet in Starkville.
McCray-Penson has a reputation as a talented recruiter, which means the two programs’ rivalry will likely extend off the court too.
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 9:53 PM.
