Coach Yo: "Before you leave, you're going to play in the NCAA Tournament"

There's a new excitement around the Ole Miss women's basketball program.

After two years of cellar dwelling, two years of diminishing basketball returns and vacant fan support, Yolett McPhee-McCuin is finally poised to turn the women's hoops program around.

In addition to signing the nation's No. 9 recruiting class in 2020, the top rated class in the SEC, the Rebels also add Donnetta Johnson, a Georgia transfer who sat out the 2019-20 season. They have another five-star transfer, Shakira Austin, who will likely have to sit out this upcoming season.

It's been a strange two seasons in Oxford to start McPhee-McCuin's tenure. Coach Yo, as she is referred, had a four-year plan when she took the job. This season, year three, is the "proof of concept year."

Finally reaching the proof of concept season has meant a series of years where the head coach would do interviews expressing a lot of future excitement. She would do so even with a group of struggling girls behind her. However, behind closed doors, those girls also understood this plan.

"We were always transparent with the players that we had. They knew what type situation we were in and they knew where we were trying to go. We never hid it from them," McPhee-McCuin said. "When dealing with them I was always present. When there were things to be celebrated, we always celebrated it. They're a part of this."

Mimi Reid started 26 games as a redshirt freshman in McPhee-McCuin's first year. She'll likely be the team's starting point guard this year, even with an influx of new, extremely talented players. The team essentially is folding two teams into one, but it's apparently been well received.

A handful of days ago, Reid made an Instagram post expressing this reception. She joked about a point guard actually having weapons to play the true point guard role.

Coach Yo never shied away from the future with the returning girls, her core group. But how do you pitch them on that future concept, the concept that's now becoming the present? It was simple:

"Before you leave, you're going to play in the NCAA Tournament," McPhee-McCuin said. "They're like, 'Ok good. So what needs to happen?' They want to win. Losing sucks and they're tired of it."

Now, the program just needs to win the games they should be capable of. They have the talent to win in the SEC, the conference in which they've gone 3-29 over the past two seasons.

McPhee-McCuin's goal is to win people back, win fans back and get her players to believe they're capable of winning every night. This team they've built can win games. So how do you win fans back? Win those games.

The basketball staff recently had a marketing meeting over a Zoom call. The coach had to figure out which of these players the team wanted to advertise. Sure, fans know some of the returners like Reid. But those might leave a message about the past. This program is looking forward, so they're going to market the fresh faces.

"People are excited about what's new. They don't want to be reminded about the three and whatever record we've had in conference. They want something fresh," McPhee-McCuin said. "There was a tremendous amount of excitement when I first got hired. That went away when we started losing. Now there's another (wave). Usually it would take a new coach coming in to bring the excitement that's around Ole Miss women's basketball."

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