MSU assistant Brownlee had good first impression of Mccray-penson

There’s something to be said about first impressions.

Scepter Brownlee knows all too well how important they can be because a single encounter in 2006 changed his life forever. It was on the campus of the University of Tennessee when Brownlee first met Nikki Mccray. He had no idea who she was at the time, but she let him know soon enough.

A graduate assistant for the Volunteers men’s basketball team, Brownlee was working out standout players Chris Loftin and CJ Watson when a woman walked onto the court with them and wanted to get in on the workouts. Brownlee obliged.

“She proceeded to jump in and 30 minutes into the workouts I said, ‘I don’t think I’ve seen her miss yet,’” Brownlee stated.

Brownlee finished up the workout and went to his computer to figure out who it was. When it was revealed he was working out with one of the all-time greats of women’s basketball, Brownlee understood why she was dazzling on the floor, but he found out the next day just how different Mccray was.

The WNBA All-star struggled in ball-handling drills that the trio went through that day. It bothered her so bad that she went somewhere else to work on it.

“The drill we did at the end of the practice she wasn’t very good,” Brownlee said. “She came back the next day and had perfected it. I may have been the trainer, but really she was teaching me,” Brownlee said. “The number one thing she taught me was the pursuit of perfection. There’s a reason why she’s great. She understands she’s not going to be perfect, but she understands the pursuit of it.”

Brownlee has since worked in men’s college basketball at Tennessee, Southeast Missouri State and Georgia State as well as coaching high school basketball. He also founded a training program called Great Day Basketball to help high school and college athletes.

When that familiar voice from Mccray-penson called for him to join her staff at Old Dominion two years ago, he was all in on it. He