Yolett McPhee-McCuin 'hoping to learn' something new daily during Ole Miss' trip to Italy
The year’s edition of the Ole Miss women’s basketball team has been together for only three weeks but the group gets the ultimate bonding experience over the next week-plus.
The Rebels begin their 10-day trip across Italy on Sunday and will culminate on August 8. For sixth-year head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin the trip is equal parts fun and exploring new places with her group while also getting as much information as she can over the span of three exhibition games.
Due to the summer international trip Ole Miss was allotted 10 practices this month to prepare which McCuin and her staff took full advantage of. Mixing in a trio of top transfer additions from the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference plus freshman additions and a handful of key returners.
The plan over the next 10 days is to find a way to learn at least 10 things about “Team 48,” according to McCuin.
“Going to Italy, I don’t know what I’m going to learn. I’m hoping to learn something new every single day,” McCuin said when speaking to local reporters last week. “We’ve been due for this trip like three years now and I’ve been putting it off and putting it off. Because I’ve been waiting on that right time and I just felt like with five freshmen, three newcomers this was the perfect time for us to do it.
“Really excited about the educational part but also the fact that we’ll be able to bond as a group.”
Related: Ole Miss finalizes new contract with women’s basketball head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin
Ole Miss will visit Rome, Florence and the Amalfi Coast for three exhibition games as part of its 2023 Foreign Tour.
Mixed with some sightseeing at major tourist stops the Rebels will also be getting practice time in beyond the court time in the three games.
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The three opponents for Ole Miss are Team Slammers-Iska in Rome, Spanish Select team in Florence and the Italian Select team on the coast of Naples.
This week’s trip is the precursor to Ole Miss’ encore performance off the program’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2007. The Rebels were handed a loss at the hands of Louisville in Seattle back in March.
With a new “dish” in the crock pot, McCuin is working to get this new group ready for another deep run in the NCAA Tournament. There is even early prognosticating of a potential hosting chance for Ole Miss next March.
“Would I be happy if we get to the Sweet 16 and move beyond that? Absolutely,” McCuin said. “That is probably the natural step that you would want to take. But we’re not that perennial Sweet 16 program yet until we show that we can do it. We ran into one last year in Louisville and you see what happened. The experience reared its head.”
Ole Miss will officially kick off its 2023-24 schedule in November and McCuin already announced Oklahoma will be coming to Oxford to complete the home-and-home series that was started last year in Norman.
The full schedule for both the men’s and women’s teams should be released in the near future.
