From the day she was introduced nearly three years ago as Old Dominion University's women's basketball coach, you knew Nikki McCray-Penson was the right person to rebuild ODU's once-proud program. She was articulate, smart, charismatic and passionate, and her resume was golden.
McCray was a two-time Gold Medal Olympian, two-time All-American at Tennessee, a three-time All-WNBA choice and an inductee into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She came here from South Carolina, where she was an assistant coach for a decade, just weeks after the Gamecocks won the national title.
McCray enriched that resume at ODU, where she took over a program that was floundering and turned it into an almost sure bet to go to the NCAA tournament.