McCray gets another assist from former coach McBee

Melissa McCray-Dukes remembers Doug McBee's advice as an order: "You better not quit."

"And those were the nice words,'' the former Tennessee women's basketball player said, laughing.

The sanitized version was no less poignant than McBee's actual directive, which was more like a plea. He was McCray-Dukes' girls basketball coach at Rutledge High School. He was about to become her ex-coach. She was moving to Johnson City after her sophomore season and intended to give up basketball.

Despite the disappointment, McBee could stand losing one of his favorite players. But he couldn't abide her abandoning the game. She'd be giving up on herself.

Turns out Coach made a great call.

McCray-Dukes' skills afforded her a career at Tennessee, during which she played for two national championship teams. More importantly, the game helped forge the values and determination that the minister's wife and mother of two children now uses in her fight with cancer.

Tennessee's game against LSU on Monday at Thompson-Boling Arena (TV: ESPN2, 7 p.m.) is billed as "Live Pink, Bleed Orange." The evening will be part of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Pink Zone initiative to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research. The initiative began in 2007, and last season's campaign raised more than $1.3 million. At least 56 schools set attendance records for their event.

For the occasion, the Lady Vols will wear pink uniforms.

McCray-Dukes was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. She has been a guest speaker at the Cancer Survivors Day program at the UT Medical Center's Cancer Institute. Last February, before Tennessee's game at LSU, she spoke to the team and shared with the players that she again was battling the disease.

"It's my reality to fight,'' she said then. "I know it has to be theirs."

The echo of the former player is unmistakable. It wouldn't be nearly as forceful, though, without McBee's influence.

McBee, the father of UT men's basketball freshman Skylar McBee, recalled his version of the don't-quit speech last week before the Vols' game against Georgia:

"I said 'Melissa. God has blessed you with a talent. God has blessed you with an opportunity, giving you the talent, that you can pay for an education. Your parents can't pay for an education. But God has blessed you with that talent for you to use that to glorify Him but also to use it as a means of getting an education and bettering yourself and bettering your life.' ''

McCray-Dukes believes that McBee is the only person who could've made this case - just one of his many timely assists on her behalf.

"He was the person I absolutely had to have and needed with the right amount of love and toughness,'' she said.

McCray-Dukes' family moved to East Tennessee from Miami, Fla., when she was a fifth grader. McBee was part of what she described as a relay team that handed off her progression like a baton. Peggy Corum encouraged her to try basketball. Steve Hopper then coached McCray-Dukes in middle school before passing her on to McBee.

"I came from Miami,'' McCray-Dukes said. "I didn't function with a lot of white people. I learned to trust him and accepted his advice."

With her parents involved in church work, McBee took responsibility for McCray-Dukes getting home from practice and games. He first suggested that she could earn a college scholarship through basketball.

"I thought, 'This man is crazy,' " she said.

McBee also was the last coach to make her cry. He yelled a lot, kicking his heels against the bleachers. McCray-Dukes began learning to separate the man from the message. McBee playing a parental-type role likely aided the process.

"I just know it was important what he thought of me and what I was trying to do,'' she said.

McCray-Dukes said she can't find the words to convey her love and appreciation for McBee's tutelage. She's tried anyway, sending him a letter. She sent an e-mail to his wife, Sue.

Player and coach have run into each other at church events over the years. McCray-Dukes said that she attended one of Skylar's games during his junior season and then went to the McBee's home afterward for hamburgers and fellowship.

"Hopefully I gave her the opportunity to see what she could develop into and through that she developed a good work ethic, good skills to be able to cope in life,'' said McBee, an assistant coach with the boys' team at the school, now called Grainger High. "This is something she's coping with that's one of the hardest things in life you can cope with."

Along with her basketball experiences, McCray-Dukes also draws on her faith and what she calls "the peace of God" in dealing with cancer.

"You get a certain attitude where you're content with your life,'' she said. "... I would rather live than worry myself sick about something I can't change anyway."

For McCray-Dukes, coping involves thinking about life and, as she said, "who you are."

She hears the voices of her former coaches. McBee can be heard above Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt's roar. He gave her the nickname "Skeeter" because she was all arms and legs.

"Skeeter, what are you doing?"

McCray-Dukes laughs again. The thought of nice words does her good.