‘Borderline Top 25’ Ole Miss women’s basketball has officially unveiled its 2024-25 roster

Ole Miss ushered in its seventh season under head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin by unveiling the Rebels’ official 2024-25 roster on Wednesday.

The program is celebrating 50 years all this season. Ole Miss has appeared in the NCAA Tournament three years in a row. The Rebels return eight players, including three starters. 

Ole Miss stayed hot in recruiting this week, too. The Rebels landed a commitment from ESPN Top 100 point guard Lauren Jacobs on Sunday.

“We’ve got to figure out how to be a Top 4 seed, Top 16, so we can have the home-court advantage,” McPhee-McCuin said after the Rebels’ loss to Notre Dame in last spring’s NCAA tournament.

“If you’re going to go in someone’s place and knock them off like we did (at top-seeded Stanford in 2022-23), you need to have all cylinders clicking. We didn’t get to have that.”

Ole Miss forward and leader Madison Scott is entering her fifth season.

Scott is on the precipice of entering the Top 10 in games played, career double-doubles, double-digit scoring games, rebounds, points and blocks. She was named first-team All-SEC last season. Scott is looking for her third straight selection to the SEC All-Defensive team.

Second-year guard and former North Carolina transfer Kennedy Todd-Williams appeared in 33 games (25 starts) in her debut as an Ole Miss Rebel last season. She has one year of eligibility remaining.

Todd-Williams averaged 10.6 points per game a year ago and paired with Scott to account for 45 percent of the team’s assists. She turned it up in SEC play, matching her career-high in scoring (22 points) at Georgia. 

“I love what coach Yo is doing over at Ole Miss,” On3 national women’s basketball analyst Taila Goodman said, in a sit-down interview with the Ole Miss Spirit’s Zach Berry. 

“Ole Miss looks like a borderline Top 25 team at the moment, and that’s without seeing them play a minute.”

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Another transfer, KK Deans, got off to a hot start last November. 

However, she was ultimately lost for the season because of a knee injury. 

She applied for and was granted a sixth year of eligibility. Deans ultimately showed up in six games and chipped in 9.3 points and 3.8 assists.

“I’m intrigued to see how KK Deans will fit back in with this team after the injury,” Goodman said. “She was someone I had really, really hoped to watch more last year. 

“She’ll be a big part of what this team is.”

Kharyssa Richardson is a junior and played in every game for the Rebels last season, including six starts. She averaged 5.8 points and shot 44 percent from the field. Richardson had a career-high 21 points in the Rebels’ first win over Tennessee since 2017.

Ayanna Thompson’s in her third Ole Miss season. She came off the bench in 29 games as a sophomore. Thompson had a season-high nine points against Notre Dame. The Rebels also return sophomores Rhema Collins, Mariyah Noel and J’Adore Young.

Ole Miss added three transfers with a combined 10 years of Division l experience: Christeen Iwuala, Starr Jacobs and Tameiya Sadler.

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Iwuala spent the previous two seasons at UCLA. Both teams went to the Sweet 16.

Iwuala saw action in 68 games and 47.5 percent from the field. She earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors in 2022 after 10 points and eight rebounds against Cal State Fullerton. She was ranked as the nation’s No. 49 recruit out of high school, according to ESPN.

Starr Jacobs has been a prolific scorer throughout her collegiate career. She sat out last season at Arkansas-Pine Bluff due to NCAA rules. However, she spent two years at UT-Arlington and became the first player in school history to surpass 1,000 career points. 

She was the 2023 WAC Player of the Year after posting averages of 18.1 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Iwuala earned first-team All-WAC, as well as WAC All-Defense. She led the WAC in scoring during conference play as a redshirt senior.

Tameiya Sadler is playing her final college season at Ole Miss after three at at Colorado, where she was part of back-to-back Sweet 16 teams. She’s been in 94 games (26 starts) and averaged 5.2 points and 1.5 assists. 

Sadler had six double-digit scoring games for the Buffalos. She also spent another season at Washington, finishing with the second-most points (10.4), on average, of all Huskies.

“Their off-season has definitely been a successful one,” Goodman said.

Ole Miss has four freshmen: Heloisa Carrera, Fatu Djaló, Jite Gbemuotor and Sira Thienou.

Carrera represented her native Brazil in the 2023 FIBA Women’s Basketball U19 World Cup in Spain. Djaló lit up the European Circuit for Portugal. She averaged 11.4 points over seven games in the 2023 Women’s European Championships,.

Gbemuotor is from Nigeria and was a member of the Slovenian national team at the 2022 FIBA U18 European Championships in Bulgaria. She was named one of the Women’s Adriatic League five best players. Gbemuotor posted 9.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals.

Thienou hails from Mali. She got time for her home country in the 2023 FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup, scoring 15 points in six out of seven games. She was ranked a four-star rby Prospects Nation. Thienou poured in 11.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists at the Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Mexico City this past summer.