After navigating days of travel disruptions and emotional strain following severe weather back home, No. 17 Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin spoke candidly after her team’s win over Vanderbilt. The coach reflected on resilience, community, and her team’s response to adversity during a heartfelt postgame press conference.
Here’s everything she said after an 83-75 win against No. 5 Vanderbilt.
Opening statement…
First of all, I don’t even know where to start. I want to begin by thanking the conference for allowing us to make a home here in Birmingham. You’ve all been incredibly hospitable, and it truly means a lot to us.
I also want to thank Shea Ralph and her administration for showing empathy and allowing us to play today instead of tomorrow, given that we couldn’t get out and get here in time. Honestly, I’ve been emotional all week. My heart hurts for the people in our community. I’m a humanitarian first, and it’s been really difficult watching the people who support us, come to our games, and invest in me, my family, and this program go through so much.
When the Bible talks about weeping, I understand that now in a deeper way. When you’re in the middle of it, you don’t have time to weep—you’re in the fight. But when you’re removed from it, you finally have space to decompress and realize just how deeply Oxford was impacted and how many people are still without power.
I told our team that this game was our way of showing that we’re fighting alongside the people back home—the linemen and women, the families, everyone still there. We wanted to lift them up and try to bring them some joy.
I’m incredibly grateful for my team. We could have folded, and we didn’t. I’m really proud of them and happy about the win.
On team’s ability to adapt to adversity…
It says everything about their character. My staff still doesn’t have power or water. We were eating chips and whatever we could find for four straight days. To come out here and show that kind of resiliency—there really aren’t words to describe how big that was for us.
You know me—when life throws me lemons, I’m quick to make lemonade. From our perspective, this was a great tournament field. Vanderbilt is a great team, and what we did today was pretty special. Hopefully, we can continue to build on it.
On Christeen Iwuala…
Christine was due for a game like this. She’s been working extremely hard and hasn’t always seen the results of that work. Today, it was really special to see her lead and play the way she did.
On travel plans between games…
Yes, we’re staying. We’ll play here again on Monday at 6 p.m. Auburn agreed to give us that day, and we really appreciate it. I also want to give a shout-out to the city of Birmingham—our Birmingham Alumni Club and the fans who came out, including some who traveled from Oxford. It felt as close to a home game as it could. We’ll likely stay on the road since we have Alabama afterward.
On team’s response to Vanderbilt’s runs…
Basketball is a game of runs. We were up by a lot, but we didn’t expect to stay up like that. Vanderbilt is a legitimate team. They made their run, and we knew they would.
What I was most proud of was how our team managed their emotions. They beat us 26–16 in the third quarter, but we held our composure and held serve. That’s something people should really take notice of—it was impressive.
On positive takeaways from adversity faced this past week…
The good thing about Team 51 is that they genuinely like each other. We don’t have drama. They enjoy each other’s company, and that matters in moments like this.
Our administration and senior staff—Chelsea, Patrick, Michonne, Maya, Ryan—have done a great job, along with our administration, of keeping things as normal as possible. We made time to be together, to fellowship, and also to give players space when they needed it.
We really try not to feel sorry for ourselves. We’d rather put our energy into caring about those who are without. We’re together, we have power and light, and there are a lot of people to thank for that.
