Ole Miss misses out on a host seed on way to earning fourth-straight NCAA Tournament bid
While it had been a very educated guess that the Ole Miss women’s basketball team would start its NCAA Tournament in Oxford next weekend, that is not what happened.
In the opening moments of the NCAA Women’s Tournament selection show the Rebels learned their fate and it was instead a trip west to Waco, Texas as the 5 Seed in Region 1 Spokane.
The air came out of the SJB Pavilion club level room packed with Ole Miss fans who were expecting to celebrate hosing first and second round games next weekend. Instead it was a tempered excitement as the Rebels punched their ticket to a fourth straight NCAA Tournament.
They will play 12 Seed Ball State in the first round. Host team and 4 Seed Baylor plays 13 Seed Grand Canyon rounding out the four-team quadrant.
“Yes, I’m shocked,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “With a strength of schedule of 3 and strength of schedule of 12 and in the last month beating the number seven and number eight team in the country, you would think that we would have a chance to host. But that is not something that we could control and so I’m not going to give a lot of attention to that. I am going to say I’m excited about our team.”
Sunday’s NET ranking update actually had the Rebels at No. 11, tying their highest ranking of the season and in program history during the NET era.
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This is the 21st NCAA Tournament appearance for Ole Miss in program history and their highest seeding since being a 5 Seed in the 1995 tournament.
There is a bit of a full circle moment here as the Rebels first time back in the NCAA Tournament was in 2022 and took place in Waco. They were the 7 Seed of the Wichita Region but lost to 10 Seed South Dakota by 15 in the first round.
For McCuin it is not about her emotions of missing out on a host seed. Instead she reverts back to looking at the facts, and the facts were strong in Ole Miss’ favor to be playing more games inside the Pavilion.
“If I’m being honest I don’t have a lot of hope when it comes to people and when they get to use their opinion,” McCuin added. “I like to deal with the facts. That’s why I started off stating the facts. Like, NET 12, strength of schedule three. These are facts. We go to LSU and beat them. That’s a fact. No one can make it up, but when you allow people to get involved there’s no telling what can happen. We haven’t been in the Top 25 all year, so nothing surprises me anymore.”
