Ole Miss women's basketball riding historic streak as non-conference play concludes
The season opener for the Ole Miss women’s basketball team saw them lose to Belmont and had head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin wondering why she did not schedule an exhibition game first.
Since that game on Nov. 11, McCuin might not be questioning that schedule decision any longer. The Rebels are currently on a 10-game winning streak since that loss.
The streak is the longest since 2000 and the longest during the McCuin era. Following the Rebels (10-1) most recent win, a 73-48 victory over Samford last Friday, McCuin provided context through the first 11 games.
“The ‘Yo, let’s just be honest’ type in me is excited because you’ve been in here when it’s been a very rough road,” McCuin said during Friday’s post game press conference. “But, I expect us to be able to have the performances we’ve been having. So now, we’re trying to put things together.
When looking at where the success of this season is coming, it starts with the play of senior Shakira Austin.
The Rebels 6-foot-5 center is the crown jewel of McCuin’s 2020 signing class, transferring from Maryland. Austin made an immediate impact a season ago, helping lead the Rebels to the WNIT Championship last March.
Austin’s play has picked up during the Rebels win streak. Against Samford, Austin scored at least 20 points for the third game of the season and is averaging nearly a double-double a game with 14.5 points and nine rebounds a night.
Heading into this season, Austin was tabbed as a potential top-five pick in next spring’s WNBA Draft. That trajectory is continuing with latest mock drafts from ESPN placing Austin as the third overall pick.
Another place to look for a source of recent success is the play of the Rebels defense.
The term ‘dictate and disrupt’ has been McCuin’s motto and creed for the past couple years as she has worked to improve the program’s play on the defensive end of the court.
Top 10
- 1New
Dan Mullen
Former Florida HC coach targeted by UNLV
- 2Hot
SEC Football Schedule
Week by week schedule revealed
- 3
Rich Rodriguez
WVU expected to hire former HC
- 4
Belichick contract
Details out on UNC deal
- 5Trending
Flag planting felony
Ohio politicians get involved
So far that has continued over from last year to the early portion of this season. After Friday’s game, the Rebels became the first team in program history to hold an opponent to under 50 points eight times in a season.
The Rebels are also ranked first in the SEC in scoring defense and 10th, nationally, with an average of 49.2 points per game.
“A lot of people can say, ‘Oh, well they’re supposed to beat these teams,” McCuin said. “But we’ve pushed ourselves. We’ve been on the road, we’ve been in other people’s gyms. We’ve played a Pac-12 Power 5 team. We went to Cincinnati. We’ve been pushing ourselves and our defense travels.
“That’s one thing that I know is legit is when we’re locked in, defensively, we’re pretty good. We’re long, we have size. We have a system that is to dictate and disrupt.”
The Rebels once again take that defense on the road with a pair of games in West Palm Beach, Fla. this week to wrap up non-conference play. They will face Texas Tech (7-2) on Monday followed by a test against No. 16 South Florida (8-3) on Tuesday.
Both games are set to begin at 12:15 p.m. CT and can be seen on FloHoops.
