Former Lady Vols basketball star Tasha Butts has died after a two-year battle with breast cancer. She was 41.

Butts was entering her first season as the women’s basketball coach at Georgetown before it was announced in September that she was stepping away to focus on her health and ongoing breast cancer battle.

“Our program is heartbroken to lose a member of our Lady Vol sisterhood much, much too soon,” Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper said in a school release. “Tasha was the type of person who connected with people everywhere she went. She had such a positive impact not only on our Tennessee family but on women’s basketball as a whole. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of her family and friends during this extremely difficult time.”

Butts was hired at Georgetown in April in her first head-coaching job. She spent the previous four seasons on the staff at Georgia Tech, first as an assistant and then associate head coach.

“The news of Tasha’s passing is incredibly sad,” Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner said in a school release. “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.