Ole Miss Women’s Basketball Prepares for SEC Tournament

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

The Ole Miss (22-7, 11-5 SEC) women’s basketball team is headed to the 2023 SEC Tournament this week as the No. 4 overall seed in Greenville, South Carolina.

Head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin met with the media on Tuesday to talk about how the Rebels finished the conference slate with 11 wins.

“The awards came out (Tuesday) and I’m really excited for our program with Angel Baker and Madison Scott being named to the first team, second and All-defensive team respectively,” McPhee- McCuin said. “It really goes to show the power of our team.”

McPhee-McCuin added that going into the tournament being in the top four was a great achievement.

“We wanted to be top four to get 11 wins and surpass last year’s record,” she said. “We wanted to finish 2-2 in the last pod.

The Rebels closed out the regular season with wins over Missouri and Alabama.

“I’m really glad for our group to do it back-to-back in spite of losing a lottery pick (Shakira Austin), four out of the five starters and a new staff,” McPhee-McCuin said. “It shows for this program that our foundation is very strong.”

Last season, the Rebels made the NCAA tournament after playing in the WNIT championship the year prior. Coach Yo and her staff look to build on the experience.

“Experience, you can’t replace it,” McPhee-McCuin said. “There was a lot of firsts last year and we have had a lot of firsts, but we don’t have a lot of firsts in our locker room.”

Coach Yo added that the Rebels this year won’t have a lot of first-timers going to the SEC and NCAA tournament.

“I think that makes a difference,” McPhee-McCuin said. “We ran up against South Dakota who made it to the Sweet 16. Experience is something that we hold on to. We know what it is like. Now we are not looking at pods, we have to go win one-game championships. We are going to try and win a championship every time we suit up.”

This season, Ole Miss played a schedule that helps them for this time of the calendar. Starting this weekend in the SEC Tournament, the Rebels will play three days in a row.

“I think we are incredibly prepared. We are going to rest and manage our bodies,” McPhee-McCuin said. “One thing I have enjoyed about this team is to know the situation and we have followed and at times even superseded it, in those pods (at the start of conference play), going 4-0 and 3-1.”

The Rebels take the court in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament on Friday at 1:25 p.m. and can be seen on the SEC Network.