Former Georgia Tech women’s basketball associate head coach Tasha Butts died Monday after a two-year battle with breast cancer. She was 41.
Butts was also a first-year head coach at Georgetown University.
Butts was announced as the coach at Georgetown on April 11 after a long coaching and professional WNBA career. She served four years at Tech under coach Nell Fortner, arriving in 2019 as an assistant coach. Butts was promoted to associate head coach in 2021.
In four years with the Yellow Jackets, Butts helped guide Georgia Tech to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, two 20-win campaigns, nine wins over ranked opponents and the program’s highest outright ACC finish in program history at third in 2021.
“The news of Tasha’s passing is incredibly sad,” Fortner said in a statement. “Tasha was so instrumental to the success of this program. What she did as a member of this coaching staff cannot be undervalued. She was tough — tough on her kids, tough in her expectations, but yet she was soft underneath when players needed her to be there for them, and she was always there for them. We are incredibly sad this day has come. She battled from the day of her diagnosis. We are proud of her fight to the end. We will forever love Tasha. She will forever be missed.”
Butts was selected to the ABIS Women’s Basketball Black College Coaches Watch List in 2023 and was the recipient of the 2023 Giant Steps Award as an individual who has shown courage, heroism and triumph amid adversity and community activism through the power of sport.
A Georgia native, Butts was also previously assistant coach at LSU, UCLA and Duquesne.
A four-year letterwinner at Tennessee, Butts helped the Lady Vols to a 124-17 record from 2000-04. As a senior she earned All-SEC second team honors after averaging 10.4 points per game and ranking second in the league in three-point field goal percentage (43).
Butts graduated from Tennessee in 2004 with a degree in sports management while minoring in business administration. She was chosen by the Minnesota Lynx with the 20th selection in the 2004 WNBA draft and saw action in all 30 games as a rookie, helping the club equal a franchise record with 18 wins and earn a spot in the playoffs.
Following the 2004 WNBA season, she returned to her alma mater and served as a graduate assistant coach with Pat Summitt. The Lady Vols won the 2005 SEC Championship that season and advanced to the Final Four.
Butts played overseas in fall 2005 for Essa/Barreiro in Portugal, averaging nearly 18 points per game. The following season, she played for Raanana Hertizliya in Israel where she scored 15.5 points per game. Butts also played briefly with the Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets of the WNBA.
In 2016, Butts was one of just 14 assistant coaches from around the country chosen to participate in Advocates for Athletic Equity’s (AAE) annual “Achieving Coaching Excellence” Professional Development Program for basketball coaches. In her first year at Georgia Tech, Butts was selected to participate in the 2020 Women Coaches NEXT UP program. Butts was selected among a competitive field by the WBCA and Women Leaders in College Sports to participate in the program. She has also served as a WBCA mentor.
A native of Milledgeville, Butts attended Baldwin High School where she was a consensus All-American and the Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year. She remains the all-time leading scorer at the school and her high school jersey No. 23 was retired in 2000. In 2004, the city of Milledgeville honored Butts with a key to the city and a proclamation of achievement on “Tasha Butts Day.”
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