‘It’s an amazing feeling’: Michael McCray tapped to lead Northwestern boys basketball
Michael McCray and Jimmy Duncan still remember it.
It was a chilly February 2018 night. They were a few years into their tenures as boys basketball coaches; McCray at Lewisville, Duncan at Great Falls. And the two teams — which were representing the two schools that share one of the most magical rivalries in small-town South Carolina sports — were meeting for a third time that season in the third round of the Class 1A state playoffs.
Expecting a big crowd, Duncan and McCray rented out South Pointe High School’s gym in Rock Hill. By game time, it was “practically sold out,” McCray remembers. The gym was hot. Intense. Fans saw 32-plus minutes of full-court pressing and fouling and dunking and everything else that makes that rivalry sing.
It was, in essence, the first glimpse of what McCray and Duncan could bring to Rock Hill’s high school basketball scene.
And now, the two want to bring that magic to Rock Hill full time.
Duncan, who’s been the Northwestern athletic director since 2020, introduced McCray as Northwestern’s head boys basketball coach Tuesday morning. The Rock Hill Schools Board of Trustees approved McCray’s hire on Monday night.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” McCray told The Herald on Tuesday. He had just finished addressing a few of the returning players in Northwestern’s media center, wearing dark-rimmed glasses and a gray suit and an appropriately Trojan-purple tie. “I was so happy I was presented with the opportunity to be the head coach here at Northwestern. This is such a great school. I’m just ready to get started.”
McCray is coming from Lewisville High School in Chester County. He got the job in 2014 and spent eight years there, notching an overall record of 97-77 and stringing together six straight winning seasons between 2014 and 2020.
The coach’s best season came in 2016-17, when his team made a state championship appearance. McCray also had a special team that next year, in 2017-18, when Lewisville beat Great Falls in the previously mentioned battle in Rock Hill. (For what it’s worth, Lewisville won that game in overtime and, as a result, advanced to its second-straight Upper State title appearance.)
“Lewisville was the first school that gave me the opportunity to be a head coach,” McCray said. “And I’ll forever be grateful for that. We had some wonderful times there. That’s an irreplaceable experience.”
McCray went 2-15 in Lewisville in 2021-22 and 1-10 the year before, per MaxPreps.
McCray will be replacing Caleb Gaither, who left the Rock Hill school to lead Spartanburg’s program after one successful season. Gaither was 19-7 overall and 6-2 in Region 4-5A in 2021-22, earning a 2-seed in the 5A postseason and winning a first-round playoff game before falling to Dorman in the second round.
A lot of what McCray wants to do — play fast and unrelenting — mirrors the coaching styles of Gaither and even Gaither’s predecessor, John Bramlett.
And that has been clear to Duncan for years.
“The passion he has for the game of basketball, and how he gets that to translate from him to the kids when they play, is awesome,” Duncan told The Herald on Tuesday. “They play hard. Extremely hard. And to get kids to play at that level, there has to be a good relationship with the coach.”
McCray was a high school point guard star at Hemingway High in the two-stoplight town of Hemingway, S.C. His team won back-to-back state championships in 1997-98 and 1998-99 — McCray’s junior and senior years — before McCray ventured off to play college ball at Spartanburg Methodist College.
After a few years at SMC, McCray joined the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office and finished his bachelor’s degree while working there. He’s now been there for 17 years and serves as the Community Engagement Officer — another plus for Northwestern, which takes pride in all of its community service.
“His history on the floor and off the floor and in the classroom is just a great match here for us at Northwestern,” Duncan said. “There are a couple things that we pride ourselves on here — obviously the winning and the classroom — but there’s also the community service portion.
“We’re trying to find a coach in here who can make a complete player on the floor, in the classroom and in the community.”
McCray now lives in Rock Hill, with his wife, Brenda, and his daughter, Lauren, who attends Saluda Trail Middle. His son, Joshua, graduated from South Pointe and is a student at College of Charleston.
McCray has at least part of his coaching staff in place. His best friend since middle school, Antwan Green, will be his head assistant. Green played college basketball at Coastal Carolina — but before that, he was there alongside McCray for Hemingway’s two recent state championships and was there for all of the success Lewisville enjoyed the past eight years.
“We grew up together,” McCray said. “Everywhere I’ve been, he’s been. And it’ll always be that way.”
Before he sent the group of players he’ll one day coach off to class, McCray asked them to take his phone number down. He encouraged his players to text him and said he looks forward to watching his guys play in local AAU tournaments.
Summer basketball activities, after all, start soon. And five years later — after that big game at South Pointe and a few other times since — McCray is ready to see what he can offer the Rock Hill basketball scene again.
This story was originally published May 24, 2022 at 3:05 PM.
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