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The waiting game is no longer stressful for Ole Miss women's basketball, but expected

11by:Jake Thompson•03/11/24•

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Ole Miss forward Madison Scott (photo courtesy of Ole Miss athletics)

They say the waiting is the hardest part but for the Ole Miss women’s basketball team it is not such bad thing. Having to wait means there is something on the other end worth waiting for and for the Rebels that is another NCAA Tournament bid.

For a third straight year Ole Miss is heading to the big dance, tying a mark not seen since 1994-96, and there is not much sweating it out this time.

In fact, the this year and last was more about when will the Rebels see their name pop up on the 68-team bracket and not if. Since getting back to the NCAA Tournament in 2022 Ole Miss has improved its standing.

Finally ending the 15-year drought in 2022 was the only time Ole Miss has had to white-knuckle it during the selection show. But last year another top-four finish in the Southeastern Conference made Selection Sunday a little more enjoyable.

This year the party will continue on as sixth-year Rebels head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin might have crafted her best coaching season to date and got her team firmly in the tournament with the help of a seven-game winning streak over the course of the regular season and Friday’s SEC Tournament quarterfinals.

Saturday’s loss to No. 8 LSU in the semifinal round marked a third-straight year Ole Miss has exited the tournament in that round. This year’s game against the Tigers was one where the Rebels had confidence, coming off the overtime loss to LSU in Oxford back in January.

“We definitely came into the game wanting to win. I just thought we had a lot of missed opportunities,” McCuin said after Saturday’s loss.

Missed opportunities is the one thing Ole Miss is still needing to get over the hump of to make that run beyond the Sweet 16.

Ole Miss knows it is in the field and just waiting on where it will be sent and who stands in its way of reaching the second weekend.

The latest projection from ESPN’s Charlie Creme continues to have the Rebels as a 7-Seed but shifted them over to the Albany 2 Region, starting against 10-Seed Miami.

Ole Miss has been projected by Creme for the last week to be starting its NCAA Tournament run in Los Angeles. Monday’s update keeps it in the City of Angels but moved it across town from playing at Southern California to now playing at 2-Seed UCLA.

Last year the Rebels knocked off 1-Seed Stanford last year to reach the Sweet 16 before falling to Louisville in Seattle.

All will be revealed on Sunday when the NCAA Women’s Tournament Selection Show airs at 7 p.m CT on ESPN. The first round begins on March 22.

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