Brownlee leaves MSU staff
There’s been some turnover on the Mississippi State women’s basketball roster this offseason, but the coaching staff hasn’t been immune from that either.
Sources said that Nikki Mccraypenson and the Bulldogs have parted ways with assistant coach Scepter Brownlee. The assistant has been a part of Mccray-penson’s staff for the last three years including two seasons with the head coach out of her three years at Old Dominion.
Brownlee joined Mccray-penson’s staff in her second season at Old Dominion after the Monarchs won just eight games and in year two they won 21 games and made the WNIT. Old Dominion went 24-6 in 2019-20 and was expected to make the NCAA Tournament before the pandemic cancelled postseason, but Mccray-penson made the move to Starkville with Brownlee being one of the first hires she made.
The relationship between the two coaches goes back to the mid-2000s when Brownlee was a graduate assistant for Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee men’s team. Mccray-penson trained with Brownlee when she came home from playing in the WNBA.
After coaching the Tennessee men, Brownlee coached at Southeast Missouri State in 2006 and Georgia State from 2007-11. He coached high school basketball at King’s Ridge Christian School in Georgia from 2014-18 before joining Mccray-penson’s staff.
Brownlee is the second coaching change on MSU’S staff this offseason. Shortly after the end of the season, recruiting coordinator Brittany Young left Starkville to become the head coach at Austin Peay. Included were six transfers from the Bulldog roster as
Jamya Mingo-young, Yemiyah Morris, Xaria Wiggins, Sidney Cooks, Aliyah Matharu and Madison Hayes all hit the transfer portal.
State has since stopped the bleeding and shifted some positive momentum from the portal. Last Wednesday, the American Athletic Conference’s Freshman of the Year Jerkaila Jordan transferred in from Tulane after a standout first year with the Green Wave. Mccray-penson followed that up by landing a trio of sisters in Anastasia and Aislynn Hayes from Middle Tennessee State and Alasia Hayes from Notre Dame. The Bulldogs have two more scholarships to give and are expected to take two post players if they can find them.
MSU is hoping to have both of the assistant coaching vacancies filled by the beginning of next week with a source indicating that the Bulldogs will be hiring a couple of coaches with Power 5 experience.