Catching up with Nikki McCray: Learning to work the bench

Nikki McCray’s success as a basketball player for almost two decades was based on many things, but a great deal of it was her anticipation.

Whether it was as an All-SEC guard for Tennessee, or as a defensive stopper as a two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time WNBA all-star, the former Collierville High star had a knack of knowing what was about to happen.

And so it was near the end of her 11-year professional career spent with six different teams in two leagues that McCray began making her next move.

She found great satisfaction in teaching her younger teammates everything from game strategy to how they should formulate their off-season workouts.

“I had the chance to work with some great young talent like Diana Taurasi and Candice Dupree,” McCray said. “I really enjoyed the teaching aspect. The players knew who I was and they respected me as a player and how I handled myself in the community. So when I opened my mouth, they listened. I realized that coaching was for me. It was just right.”

McCray, 37, will be entering her second season as an assistant at South Carolina after spending two seasons as an assistant at Western Kentucky.

Her hiring at South Carolina was a no-brainer for Carolina coach Dawn Staley, McCray’s old Olympic teammate and WNBA counterpart. When Staley made the move to Carolina last spring after coaching Temple for eight seasons, she knew she wanted to hire her.

“Nikki is very passionate about basketball,” said Staley, who went 10-18 this past season in her first year at Carolina. “She really has a way with connecting with young people. She keeps up with what goes on in the world. She likes affecting the lives of young people.”

The Carolina players certainly have instant respect for McCray, Staley and Carla McGhee, another former Lady Vol on Staley’s staff. That trio has accounted for six Olympic gold medals (Staley 3, McCray 2, McGhee 1), 10 pro all-star team selections (Staley, McCray), two national College Player of the Year awards (Staley), a pro league Player of the Year (McCray), four conference POY honors (Staley, McCray) and two national championships (McGhee).

Arguably, the Gamecocks’ staff might line up right now and win a lot of three-on-three tournaments. Staley disagrees, but she knows her staff is very hands-on and coaches from a player’s mentality, especially McCray, the staff member who was the last to retire.

“We all feel we got the most out of our basketball careers and we want to pay it forward to the young people,” Staley said. “We felt we were pioneers in this sport. So we all work well together.”

McCray, Staley and McGhee were part of the greatest women’s team in history, the 1996 Olympic gold medalists that went an astounding 60-0, starting in ’95 all the way through the 111-87 gold medal game win over Brazil in Atlanta. The USA won that final test easily because of McCray’s smothering defense on Brazil’s Hortencia Olivia, one of the world’s most explosive women’s players.

“I never doubted we wouldn’t lose a game,” McCray said. “I knew how hard we worked. The talent we had was unbelievable. It was the best team that ever played. We played all over the world against the best players. The games were hard, but our practices were harder. Every practice was a bloody battle, a fist fight. We knew no one was going to have mercy on the USA team. Everyone wanted to beat us.

“We felt it was more than just about winning. We were putting women’s basketball on the map. Our success helped start a professional league (the American Basketball League in ’96, the forerunner to the WNBA). I’ve been on a lot of great teams, but none as great as that because of the impact it had.”

McCray, Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo became the most marketable players in the formative years of the WNBA. McCray never played on a WNBA championship team, but she enjoyed her travels, her various teammates and got married to Thomas Penson in 2001.

Everyone knew McCray was destined for greatness as a player after a high school career in which she was a two-time Commercial Appeal Best of the Preps Player of the Year. Even now as a coach, things she learned from her high school coach Joe Brock, as well as Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt and McCray’s many pro coaches, have stuck with her.

“When I was in high school, Coach Brock stayed on me about being on time for practices and classes,” McCray said. “In college, Pat taught me discipline, how to study the game, work ethic, the toughness, how to value every possession, how to be coachable. I always talk to my kids about being coachable.”

McCray admits she doesn’t have the cold-blooded Summitt stare.

“No one has that stare, that’s Pat’s signature stare,” McCray said. “It lets you know you’ve done something wrong, and no matter what, you say she’s going to be right. You don’t like getting that stare. But it’s a way to get your attention, and she gives it to all her players. She’s going to find a way to motivate you.”

Carolina’s players kid McCray about her high-pitched voice. But when the tone drops, it’s like Summitt’s stare because “our players know that Coach McCray is really serious now,” McCray said.

McCray said the one thing she understands now as a coach that she didn’t always grasp as a player is time management.

“We require a lot out of our student-athletes, everything from going to class, to meeting with tutors, to making sure they eat well-balanced meals, not to mention having some sort of social life,” McCray said. “I’m very understanding of their time. It’s not just the two or three hours they spend every day on the court. We are preparing them for life, and it’s not easy.”

McCray said she learned a lot in her two years on Western Kentucky’s staff under Mary Taylor Cowles. She’s doing the same at Carolina under Staley, and she hopes her next move in a few years will be to the hottest seat on the sideline.

“I think I’ve grown and grown and grown as a coach,” McCray said. “Hopefully in a couple of years, I’ll have my own team. But you first have to learn how to manage your players and parents and fans. Tennessee and the WNBA have helped prepare me, but the more experience I can get as an assistant will help.

“I don’t know if you are ever ready to be a head coach, but you can always be prepared.”