Former LSU women’s assistant basketball coach Tasha Butts died Monday morning following a two-year battle with breast cancer. She was 41.

Butts was an assistant coach at LSU from 2011-2019, and she was the current head basketball coach at Georgetown University. Prior to her head coaching position at Georgetown, she held assistant roles at LSU, Georgia Tech, UCLA and Duquesne.

Butts was diagnosed with advanced-stage metastatic breast cancer in 2021. This inspired the “Tasha Tough Campaign,” which raises money for women with breast cancer who are unable to afford quality care.

She also has a storied background as a player; She was a consensus All-American and Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year at Baldwin High School in Milledgeville, Georgia. 

Butts went on to play at Tennessee, where she won back-to-back national championships in 2003 and 2004. Butts was the No. 20 overall pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft by the Minnesota Lynx, and she played in the WNBA until the end of the 2008 season.

She took the head coaching job at Georgetown in April 2021. In September, the school announced that Butts would be stepping away from her role to focus on her battle with breast cancer.

She is survived by her parents, Spencer Sr. and Evelyn, her brother, Spencer Jr., and extended family.