College Basketball Star Derek Gray Dead at 20
College basketball is mourning the loss of a rising star.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater’s athletic department tweeted that the Warhawks’ guard Derek Gray “passed away unexpectedly on July 24th, 2022, playing the game he loved.”
The cause of the athlete’s death was not made public. However, UW-Whitewater men’s basketball coach Pat Miller told Madison, Wis. TV station WKOW that Derek collapsed at a basketball camp for kids on campus. He said emergency responders arrived quickly and about 100 campers were escorted out of the facility without becoming aware of the player’s worsening condition.
“It was just a very surreal situation where you’re thinking, ‘Okay, he’s going to be all right,'” Miller said, “and then you’re very scared and the longer it went on, it became apparent that this was extraordinarily serious.”
Derek is survived by his parents, Traci Pine and Donneil Gray, twin brother David Gray, and an older brother, Donneil Gray Jr.