What She Said: Coach Yo, Ole Miss women get No. 1 UCLA in Sweet 16

Ole Miss women’s basketball is in Spokane, Washington, this week for its second Sweet 16 in three years. 

The 5-seed Rebels (22-10) draw No. 1 UCLA (32-2) Friday at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN. The teams are facing off for the first time in history.

Ole Miss is in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight season. Friday will be the school’s 12th-ever Sweet 16, while the Rebels have been to five Elite Eights. They’re in Spokane for the first time for a postseason game.

Seventh-year Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin met the media on Thursday to preview the showdown. Here’s everything she had to say.

OPENING STATEMENT

McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, we’re grateful to be here in Spokane. I had spent a year in the Pacific Northwest at Portland. I coached with the Portland Pilots. Shout out to Jim Sollars.

Yesterday, we were able to practice in an off-site at Gonzaga, and that was nostalgic because they were in the WCC at the time. So just really grateful for us to be here representing Ole Miss and still being one of the 16 teams that are vying for a National Championship.

ON UCLA STAR LAUREN BETTS

McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I mean, I think the conversation has to be about UCLA being a really good team. Unless she’s getting ready to put 70 on us, I don’t know that that’s their game plan. So I think we should probably give more credit to their team as a whole and what they’re about and what they’re able to do.

So she’s not the only one on our scouting report. We’re kind of looking at everybody and we’re from the Southeastern conference. I think we’ll figure out a way to do our best.

ON OLE MISS GUARD AND UCLA TRANSFER CHRISTEEN IWUALA

McPHEE-McCUIN: We loved Christeen out of high school, so we wanted her out of high school. So once she got into the portal, it was a no-brainer for me. Although she didn’t play much at UCLA, I knew what she was capable of. So sometimes it’s about opportunity and a need. And then, obviously, we had a need for her size and what she’s able to do. And honestly, when I look at portal kids, I kind of see where they’re coming from too, and so I have a lot of respect for Cori and how she runs her program, so I knew the type of kid I was getting, and that’s important too.

ON OLE MISS PEAKING IN MARCH

McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, if you’ve followed my head coaching career, this is my 12th season, we’ve always gradually got better because for me, I kind of coach through an explorative type of style. Let’s figure things out. With the transfer portal, you don’t know what you know until you’re in those situations. So what people were able to see is just us grow as a team. But I always said we would peak in March. So we’re definitely doing that now.

ON IWUALA HELPING WITH THE SCOUT OF THE BRUINS

McPHEE-McCUIN: You know what? These kids don’t remember anything, and so they let me know. It let’s me know. Like, they don’t have to worry about us gaining any advantage because Christeen, she has not been a help (laughing). You know what? We haven’t asked her. Y’all, there’s 16 teams left and all of us has played at least 30 games. We watch film. We know what each other does. So we actually didn’t even ask her.

ON THE CHALLENGE IN UCLA

McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I mean, our strength of schedule this year has been a 3. We opened up versus Southern California, we’ve played UConn, we’ve played NC State at their place, we’ve played South Carolina, Texas, LSU, Tennessee. We’ve played half of this Sweet 16, so we could care less what anybody is ranked. We’re from the Southeastern conference. We have the best teams in that league. Six of us in this.

So as far as I’m concerned, we kind of just take it game by game, matchup by matchup. And we always go into games as underdogs. When we went to LSU and beat ’em, we were the underdogs. This will be our — I think our fourth No. 1 seed that was ranked a No. 1 that we have had to play. So I think we have a lot of experience and the pressure’s not on us.

ON RETURNING TO WASHINGTON

McPHEE-McCUIN: For sure. I mean, the first time we — I mean, we just partied the whole time. We were just — after we beat Stanford, it was like, whatever, you know? Like, we just really had a blast the first time.

Now, we go to Waco, we don’t even sightsee. Like, we’re not taking anything in. We are here for business. We have kind of built the team like that. My first year when we went to the Sweet 16, I think there were only four of us in the whole program that had experienced the Sweet 16, and I was one of ’em, and then my coach was another. So I think there had maybe, maybe been two others.

This time the only people — first of all, our whole team has experienced the NCAA tournament, but only the freshmen hadn’t, and then Toddy, Madi, Ayanna, Christeen, Tam have all been to the Sweet 16. So we’re just a little bit more mature and understand what’s at stake. The first time, we were just partying like rock stars (laughing).

ON ACTUALLY EARNING UNITS FOR OLE MISS FOR THE FIRST TIME

McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, it means a lot. It’s been a hard fight. A lot of people that were definitely wiser — that’s what I say to people that are older, they’re wiser, they have fought for this opportunity to happen. I think it’s going to even get better. I mean, you cannot deny the impact that women’s sports has in 2025, unless you just want to.

So we’re doing our part. I definitely sent the sheet to my AD, even though I knew he knew. People could try to say, Oh, it’s not enough. We don’t get to decide that. I just know that it is something. And I don’t think that there’s value of anything if it’s free. So I love the fact that now there’s a value for women’s basketball, and I’m 100 percent sure it will increase.

ON THE TRANSFER PORTAL

McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I mean, I just think it’s a part of our job, especially I’m a self-proclaimed portalista. So we kind of prepare for this moment. We have an idea of who may go in the portal because of just the rumor reel, and then we kind of just sit back and wait and see if it happens.

Coaches now are GMs. We’re all figuring out who is leaving, who is staying. So we only signed one freshman because I prefer a mature team. I don’t think in today’s times, you can be young. By the time they get old, they’re ready to get rid of you, so you kind of got to stay mature and stay old, and you can see that with my team. It’s just a part of it.

Do we want it to — I would prefer for it to be at the end of the season, but I’ve also been in those rebuilding stages when I needed an opportunity to be able to recruit and get in there. So I don’t make the rules. I just play the game.

But it’s been wild because I have been reading stuff, and I’m like, That’s not right. Like, we’re not recruiting that person. But you know what? They say even if it’s bad news as long as they’re talking about you, it’s good.

ON THE OLE MISS COACHING STAFF

McPHEE-McCUIN: That’s a great question. Shout out to the Mississippi media that’s here, way to represent. But I’m glad you asked that because last year I was under a lot of scrutiny because I had made changes on my coaching staff. And the whole thing was, we had just went to the NCAA tournament, why would I do such a thing. But I’ve never really been a traditional-type coach and I’ve always been pretty open and clear with my staff. The reason why I made a change is because I felt like for me, at the end of the day, I want to win a National Championship. 

So in order to do that, since I hadn’t done it, I thought it was important to have people around that had. Like, Quentin Hillsman coached in the National Championship game. And then Coach Emp and Coach Joy played in the Elite 8. And then I was able to bring in two of my former players and put them on staff, so that they can teach everybody the Ole Miss way. There’s no coach that’s out here doing it by themselves. My staff is elite. They understand what’s at stake. They have been great for me, and I’ve really been able to do my best job as a coach because of them. The things that they handle for me, the things that they take off of my plate, and I’ll put my staff up against anybody.