The world lost two Tennessee women’s college basketball legends, Nikki McCray-Penson and Tasha Butts, to breast cancer earlier this year. As the Lady Vols get ready to take on Ohio State in the Jimmy V Classic this weekend, Tennessee coach Kellie Harper talked to CBS Sports about their long-lasting impact.
“Two amazing people with big personalities who influenced a lot of people along the way. Whether it was their teammates, their coaches, their players, they had a profound impact, a positive impact in our game,” Harper said. “They were much too young. Much too young. So I think it’s been a gut punch, I think not only to the Tennessee Lady Vol family, but to women’s basketball in general.”
The Jimmy V Classic aims to raise money and awareness for cancer research. The inaugural games took place in 1995 with only men’s college basketball teams. Women’s basketball started getting involved in 2002.
This year, the women’s games take place Sunday with South Carolina at Duke, UConn at Texas and Ohio State at Tennessee. The men’s teams will play a doubleheader Tuesday at Madison Square Garden, as Florida Atlantic will take on Illinois while North Carolina battles UConn.
Last year, “V Week” helped raise…
