Ole Miss women's basketball knows exactly where it stands when it comes to the NCAA Tournament
Last season Ole Miss women’s basketball head caoch Yolett McPhee-McCuin kept a lot of the off the court numbers away from her team as it headed for its first NCAA Tournament berth in 14 years.
Now, McCuin cannot give her players enough information as Ole Miss is all in on keeping up with where it stands currently and what must be done to earn a second straight bid to go dancing in a couple months.
The NET Rankings, RPI, bracketology projections are all pieces of information McCuin discusses with Ole Miss, who is a year older and a NCAA Tournament wiser. The decision was made by the fifth year coach due to experience gained a year ago.
What served as a gateway to that plethora of information was McCuin also choosing to let the players in on her pod-system when it comes to conference play.
There are 16 games in the women’s Southeastern Conference schedule that McCuin breaks down into four, four-game pods. Ole Miss (15-2) just went through its first pod and came out the other end sitting at 4-0 for the first time in SEC play since 2007.
With the pods, McCuin has a goal of going no worse than 2-2 in each one as an eight SEC-win team usually makes the NCAA Tournament field of 64. Ole Miss playing with house money after sweeping the first pod.
“When we got to practice (on Tuesday) we started talking about the second pod and where we are right now,” McCuin said on Wednesday. “What’s cool about our team is last year they didn’t know about a lot of these things but now our players understand our NET, they understand everybody else’s NET, what we had to do in a game, how does it work, if we win it needs to look like this, if we don’t win it can’t look like this. They’re really interested in the whole process.”
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Those numbers, including the NET rankings, are looking very good for Ole Miss a quarter of the way through SEC play.
Securing the road win at Texas A&M on Sunday has Ole Miss sitting with a NET ranking of 30. The RPI, which is not viewed as the only resume barometer any longer, is currently sitting at 52 as of Wednesday.
In the latest NCAA Tournament projection put out by ESPN’s Charlie Creme on Tuesday had Ole Miss as a No. 8 Seed in the Seattle half of the bracket. Creme had Ole Miss playing No. 9 Seed Louisville in the Bloomington bracket hosted by No. 1 Seed Indiana.
Being able to talk through all of this with the team is a process McCuin is enjoying, though it is often times unorthodox for a coach to not shy away that discussion.
“One is because it’s education,” McCuin said of the postseason talk. “Sometimes you don’t know what to do with stuff if you don’t know what’s at stake. For me I just don’t want a player to say, ‘Had I known.’ You’re gonna know what’s up.”
The Rebels have not yet received a vote in the Associated Press poll this season despite the strong start to the season and SEC play. With 12 more games and nearly two months of regular season left, cracking the Top 25 in mid January is the furthest thing from McCuin’s mind.
“Last year they put us in and in a week we were out. For me, they can keep their votes,” McCuin said. “I’d rather do without. We’re more intrigued by the NET ranking because that’s the stuff that matters. Yeah, the Top 25 matters to some degree, too. Everyone saying, ‘Oh you should be ranked. You should be ranked.’ I’m not sure if we should be. I don’t think about it a lot.”
Ole Miss hits the road to play at Georgia (13-5, 2-2 SEC) on Thursday at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.
Watch McCuin’s full press conference from Wednesday below. Video provided by Ole Miss Sports Productions.
