Yolett McPhee-McCuin calls out Ole Miss fans for lack of women's basketball support

Women’s basketball has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States in recent years, with the college game catching on behind the likes of big-time stars and programs. But one program on the rise — Ole Miss — is still lagging for attention from the home fans and head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, better known as “Coach Yo,” isn’t going to stand for it.

After the Rebels topped Florida on Wednesday night to move to 14-5, McPhee-McCuin shared her frustrations with the lack of home crowds. She spoke at length about the need for more buy in from fans.

“What I’m trying to get the Oxford community to do is to catch up because the rest of the world has caught up to the fact women’s sports is legit and it’s real,” McPhee-McCuin said. “So I’m not going to allow people to make it seem like what we do doesn’t matter. I’m not going to allow people to make it seem like our women are less than. Because that is a false narrative out there and the Oxford community needs to catch up to that and that’s the truth.”

She went on to cite the fact that the student section, Club Red, wasn’t at the game and that attendance should be hitting higher marks than it is. While Ole Miss isn’t quite to the level of some of the very top teams in the sport, or lacks the distinct star power of an Angel Reese or Caitlin Clark, McPhee-McCuin doesn’t think a team of this caliber should have so few fans.

The official attendance on Wednesday was 2450. McPhee-McCuin thinks they should be doubling that in Oxford.

“We should have had Club Red up in here,” she said. “It should have been packed in here. How does a team that goes to the Sweet 16 and only has two [SEC] losses not have an average of 5000 people in the stands? How? You know what it is? It’s the lack of value and it needs to change. I don’t care who’s upset about me saying this because I’m going to speak the truth.”

She ended her remarks on the matter with a plea for fans to show out in force for her team going forward.

“Women’s sports is a legitimate entity and maybe because Oxford right now doesn’t think so, the rest of the world has caught on,” McPhee-McCuin said. So the Oxford community needs to catch on. The Ole Miss campus community needs to catch on.”