BATON ROUGE – LSU announced the passing of former assistant coach Tasha Butts following a battle with breast cancer.

Read the announcement from the university below. 

Tasha Butts, a former LSU assistant coach and the current head coach at Georgetown, passed away Monday morning at the age of 41 following a two-year battle with breast cancer. 

“Tasha was a great player and went on to have a successful career as a coach too,” LSU Head Coach Kim Mulkey said. “More importantly, she had an impact on so many lives throughout her lifetime. We are sad to lose her at such a young age.”

Butts was diagnosed with advanced stage metastatic breast cancer in 2021 and her diagnosis inspired the Tasha Tough campaign, which has brought awareness and raised money to bring quality care to women who can’t afford it through the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of Tasha’s passing,” said LSU Associate Head Coach Bob Starkey who serves on the board of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund. “The courage she displayed as she battled cancer should set an example for us all and her spirit should inspire us all to continue in her honor to work towards a cure for breast cancer."

Prior to becoming the head coach at Georgetown, Butts was an assistant at Georgia Tech and LSU, UCLA and Duquense.

Butts’ stint in Baton Rouge. During her eight seasons at LSU, Butts was part of four 20-win seasons and six NCAA Tournament appearances highlighted by back-to-back Sweet 16 runs in 2012 and 2013. She helped ink three top-20 recruiting classes (2011, 2017, 2019), while signing seven top-100 prospects. In eight seasons at LSU, Butts coached and mentored six all-SEC academic honor roll recipients and developed seven all-SEC selections.

Butts had a successful playing career at Tennessee where she graduated in 2004 with a degree in sport management and a minor in business. As a Lady Vol she was part of four SEC regular season championship teams as Tennessee compiled a 55-1 SEC record during her four-year career. She left UT ranked fourth all-time in games played (141) and tied for seventh in three-point shots made (103).