WATCH: Ole Miss women’s basketball looking to ‘bring back some hardware’ in NCAA Tournament
Ole Miss women’s basketball, on Sunday, earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the third straight postseason.
Not since 1994-96 has the program rattled off such a successful stretch.
But it’s just more history for sixth-year head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin and her formidable Rebels, who, this week, are a 7-seed, matched with 10-seed Marquette, in the first round of the Albany 1 region in South Bend, Indiana.
Ole Miss has won at least 20 games in each of the last three seasons. The Rebels, in 2023-24, secured an all-time-record 12 SEC wins. They closed out third in the SEC, their highest finish since 1991-92.
“I don’t know if this feeling ever gets old,” McPhee-McCuin said. McPhee-McCuin cleared 100 career wins at Ole Miss earlier in the year. “Seeing and hearing your name get called, the anxiety has been killing us the last two Selection Sundays, because we were the last and second-to-last (team in). But it was pretty cool to get it out of the way and not have to sit through a bunch of names trying to figure out where we’re going to go.
“Super excited for our team (and) really grateful for Rebel Nation and the Oxford community for coming out. According to my GPS, it’s a (little over a nine-hour) drive, so that’s definitely doable. They’re up there car-pooling right now. If you don’t want to fly, just all hop in some vehicles and come out, because we’d love to have great fan support in South Bend, Indiana.”
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RELATED: Ole Miss women’s basketball reaches NCAA Tournament for third consecutive season
See you soon, South Bend 🤩 pic.twitter.com/H2BScZxPZS
— Ole Miss Women's BB (@OleMissWBB) March 18, 2024
Ole Miss will be making its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Rebels have been to 11 Sweet Sixteens and five Elite Eights in their 49 years. Seven current Rebels have already played in the tournament previously in their careers. McPhee-McCuin is making her fourth trip.
Tipoff on Saturday is 3:45 p.m. CT. The Rebels are hoping for a strong showing from fans, just as they received during the team’s selection watch party at The Pavilion. McPhee-McCuin even quipped the Rebels will have to move next year’s party to the court because of the amount of fans that showed up to show support on Sunday.
“Big shout-out to Rebel Nation,” Ole Miss forward Madison Scott said. “It makes my heart so happy, this being Year 4 for me, seeing how much we’ve grown (and) the support continues to grow. Just warms my heart (and) makes us want to go hard and make them proud. Give our all and bring back some hardware.”
