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‘We will continue to build’: Top-ranked UCLA bounces Ole Miss women from NCAA Tournament

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•03/29/25•

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Team 50 of Ole Miss women’s basketball wrapped the 2024-25 season with its 12th Sweet 16 appearance in program history and a 22-11 overall record.

The Rebels, a 5-seed ranked No. 25 in Top 25 polls, were bounced by No. 1 UCLA (33-2), 76-62, on Friday in Spokane, Washington. Kennedy Todd-Williams had 13 points, her 20th game this season scoring in double figures, while the Rebels forced a collective 19 turnovers.

KK Deans finished with the second-most made 3s in a career in school history. Tameiya Sadler led all Rebels with 14 points, her eighth game with 10 or more points this year. Ole Miss trailed 30-29 at halftime.

Here’s everything now-eighth-year Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin and select players said afterwards.

OPENING STATEMENT

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Well, first of all, I’d just like to thank the city of Spokane. It’s been great to — the hospitality that we’ve had and just the way we were taken care of, really, we’re really grateful for that.

When I look at this season, no one wanted us here, no one thought we would be here, and we’re still here, and we got this far, and unfortunately, we ran into a tough team tonight and did not prevail. But at the end of the day, we will continue to build. This is our second Sweet 16 in two years. If I’m not mistaken, this is UCLA’s third in a row. Third time’s a charm. We’ll be back again and be able to move forward.

ON THE GROWTH OF THE PROGRAM

KK DEANS: Yeah, just thankful for this program, this opportunity, Coach Yo for just believing in me and everybody that she put around us as a team. As a program, we on an upward. Like she said, this is the second time in three years that they made it to the Sweet 16, so I expect nothing less. I expect Sweet 16 to be the goal, and I know she’s not going to stop until she gets to the top. So they’re surrounded by a great woman, a great coach, and a great coaching staff that’s going to push them every day to get to that goal.

RELATED: ‘Ole Miss basketball isn’t going anywhere’: Everything Beard and Co. said after Sweet 16 loss

ON MADISON SCOTT

KK DEANS: Madi is a great person on and off the court. She does a lot and not only on the court, but the impact she has on the Oxford community, her foundation, they love her. She’s built a legacy that no one can take away from her at Ole Miss.

And I know she’s proud to be an Ole Miss Rebel, and I love her, being a teammate with her. I mean, she can shoot, she can get downhill, like — and she’s six-three, so she’s a guard and a post body. So I love her and she’s going to have a great career.

ON THE LASTING LEGACY OF TEAM 50

KK DEANS: Lasting legacy? That we fought hard. We love each other, we played for each other. No matter what was going on, we always came together and decided that we were going to fight, and we were going to be who we were, which is a defending team. And I just think we should be proud of where we came from. I mean, from the first game in Paris, we didn’t run away from anybody. Whoever they said was the best, we laced our shoes just like them, and we came on the floor and we respect all and we fear none. So I think we really took that to heart this whole entire year, and I think that should be our legacy.

TAMEIYA SADLER: Yeah, to continue on what she was saying, I think this team is one that we only believed in ourselves instead of listening to the outside noise. So at the end of the day, it was really up to us. Our legacy, although it ended, it fell short, I feel like we accomplished a lot of what we wanted to accomplish throughout the year.

ON SADLER’S OLE MISS EXPERIENCE

TAMEIYA SADLER: Five years and three schools later, I feel look I finally found a place that I could finally call home, and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to play here at Ole Miss. Coach Yo has been tremendous throughout my journey, and she really helped me find my confidence and find myself again.

So I’m really thankful just to be able to be a part of something that’s bigger than myself. It was a great journey, and I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish here and proud of this team, I’m proud of this program, and I know we’ll go on and do great things in the future.

ON REPLACING MADISON SCOTT

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: You know, last summer — I do a lot of work with Nike, and so last year, I went to speak to their leadership team. And I asked them, What will happen when Phil Knight, you know — you know, like the inevitable? They looked at me confused. And they said, What do you mean? We’re going to thrive. The work that he has done, his legacy, his staple, he has taught us to thrive through it all.

So when I think about Madison Scott and what she has done here, her journey has done here, but what do you think we’re going to do? We’re going to thrive or everything that she’s done has been in vein, and I won’t let that happen.

ON UCLA’S LAUREN BETTS

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Well, obviously, whatever we tried didn’t work. And it didn’t work for 33 other teams — or 32 other teams either, it seems like. So she is everything as advertised. Anytime they got in a bind, they just threw it to her. That is a luxury. You don’t have to run a play, you don’t have to — you can just throw it in to your dominant post player. And she is that.

We played against her two years ago at Stanford, and I was, like, really glad she didn’t play a lot. I think that’s how we got out alive. But she played tonight and showed her dominance. The game plan we had was really working, but starting the third quarter really took us out. You know, a 1-point game at the half. She was scoring, but she was scoring twos. They had only made one three, and then all of a sudden we let them get loose and hit two threes and get the momentum going. Now we’re tight and she really got rolling.

So she is a very tough matchup. UCLA looks like a team that can win the National Championship to me because I don’t — like, who is going to stop her? Now, they’re going to have their work cut out. They’re going to — there’s some good teams, and I’m SEC all the way, so obviously I’m going to root for my people. But at the end of the day, they are very, very tough as long as she’s playing the way she plays.

ON THE NCAA TOURNAMENT EXPERIENCE FOR RETURNING PLAYERS

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I think we have put ourselves in the position to be a perennial Sweet 16 team.

Now it’s going to be up to the support that we get to be able to move beyond that. Talent matters. A lot of people don’t give any — every time I hear about our team, I hear about how tough we are. I never hear about coaching. And I don’t understand it, because I don’t have All-Americans on my team, and every team we play, they have four or five All-Americans. So clearly, from a coaching perspective, something is being done right.

“Now the next level for us to move forward is to be able to do what UCLA did.”

Okay, they have been going Sweet 16, Sweet 16. What did they do? They go get Janiah Barker and bring her off the bench. She’s an All-American. They go get Lauren Betts and let her play. Timea Gardiner. Like, they went and got pieces that allowed them to move forward.

The next step for us is to be able to do the same in the portal, because freshmen ain’t doing it, I’m just telling you. So we have to be able to have the support to be able to go and get what we need so that we can move forward. But at minimum I think we should be a Sweet 16 team. Anybody that’s looking at us that has interest, that is what they expect, from the conversations we’ve been having. But that’s just not enough for me. I’m not one of those coaches that, I’m not going to sit here and say, Oh, you know, it’s all about the kids, it’s all about the kids.

Yeah, but I have dreams, too, and I want to be a Final Four coach. And in order to do that — and I want players that want to be a part of the Final Four, and this group did, all right? But this is — I’m young in this, and we’re just getting started. And so the next step is to get a Janiah Barker out the portal (laughing). To get a Lauren Betts out the portal. Because that’s what Cori did and now they’re going to the Elite 8.

MORE ON THE LEGACY OF MADISON SCOTT

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I mean, when Madi and I talked about what the dreams and aspirations would be, I told her, you know, by your senior year we’ll go to at least a Sweet 16. And Madi has done way more than that. This is our second Sweet 16, four 20-win seasons, the list goes on and on, and she’s been a part of that. So she just believed. And that’s what I was telling her in the locker room, like, I know the game didn’t go how you wanted it to go, but don’t be mistaken the imprint that you have left in the Oxford community, me, and this team and this program.

Now, the standard now is Sweet 16 or beyond. My whole life I’ve just never thought that you can just skip steps. I’ve always said that, you’ve listened to me talk a lot of times. And I look, and we just lost to a team that went to the Sweet 16 twice, and now it’s their time to reap. So I’m just not going to lose hope and faith, we’re just going to continue to sew, so that when it’s our time to reap, we’ll be ready.

ON YO’S IMPACT ON TEAM 50

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Well, you see these gray hairs I got right here? And I’m 42 years young (laughing). You know, I just, the way that the sport is right now it makes you want to have a cold heart. It makes you want to have everything transactional. And that is a challenge. Because we, as coaches, I don’t know that any coaches from my era has got, or before me, got into it for it to be transactional. We all had good leaders, Pat Summitt, I mean, C. Vivian Stringer. Like, we were taught to do this because this was our ministry. And so, you know, I try to get people that fit the Ole Miss culture, and I just try to pour into ’em. And some days I wonder if I can still do that, because the way it’s become a business, and it’s disheartening to watch. 

But my dad is 78, and every Saturday at nine a.m. if you’re looking for him in the Bahamas he’s on an outside court working with like 20 to 25 kids developing them. It’s in my DNA. So, for me I’m just going to always try to pour into people, inspire them, get them to be more than they think that they should be. Because that is what a coach is. A coach is someone that makes people believe more than they do themselves. So I’m going to stick with that and hopefully I can still have a job moving forward in this environment (laughing).

ON THE LASTING MEMORY OF TEAM 50

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: I think when we had our reunion and the players came back. We had players and coaches from Team 1 all the way up. So that was pretty cool just to be in the presence of, in our practice facility you walk in and all of the Elite 8 teams are up and I opted not to take it down, because it’s inspiring to me. I don’t think you erase history, right. 

So, one of the things that’s cool about being at Ole Miss is all of those coaches, from Van, to Carol Ross, even Lin Dunn, I hear from them like all the time. Carol Ross was at Baylor. Our mentee was on this trip, she was a part of one of those Elite 8 teams. And the support has been tremendous. So, I think that one, that moment was the best. I really enjoyed it, I really want to make them proud. They pour into me so much, I don’t know how many other institutions, the coaches, like still pour in to the present coach. And I hear from every last one of ’em, so, you know, and that would be the one that I would always remember.

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