No. 19 Ole Miss just completed one of the toughest four-game stretches any team will experience this season.
Four consecutive games against ranked opponents, including two top 10 teams, one of which was a road trip to No. 3 South Carolina, isn’t something many others have played.
The Rebels didn’t come out completely unscathed, though. They went 1-3 and the only win was against the lowest-ranked team of the four, then-No. 21 Tennessee.
Those results aren’t because the Gamecocks, LSU and Kentucky all have more talent or are better teams (well, maybe South Carolina does and is). A stretch like that in the season’s penultimate week, in seven days, will test the stamina of any player.
That stretch of games shouldn’t punish the Rebels too much, but it did in the latest top 25 rankings and bracket projections.
“I haven’t seen anyone get punished for losing to South Carolina, so hopefully we don’t,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “And that’s for whoever needs to hear it. They’re beating teams by 30, and sometimes those teams aren’t even competitive. If we move down, I’ll be shocked.”
Ole Miss dropped two spots in the AP Women’s College Basketball Top 25 Poll to No. 19. In ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament bracket projections released Tuesday morning, the Rebels are no longer hosting a NCAA Regional.
ESPN’s projection has Ole Miss returning Cotie McMahon to her old stomping grounds in Columbus, Ohio where she spent three seasons with Ohio State. The Rebels are a No. 5 seed and would face No. 12-seed Miami (OH) in a first round game.
The goal of hosting a NCAA Regional for the first time in program history is still within reach. Win the final two games and maybe one or two at the SEC Tournament and that should be enough to put Ole Miss back in the top 16 teams of the bracket.
“The next two games are very important for us,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I don’t think we can afford to drop them.”
Speaking of the SEC Tournament…
The Good News
Ole Miss has secured at least a first-round bye for the upcoming SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. The Rebels are currently a No. 6 seed and could move up or down one spot depending the results of their games and others.
They won’t be able to get another bye, but if the Rebels win out and Oklahoma splits its final two games (against Arkansas and Missouri) they would get the No. 5 seed because of the head-to-head win back in early January.
Conversely, if Ole Miss splits its final two games against Florida and Texas A&M, and Tennessee wins both of its games, the Rebels would fall to the No. 7 seed.
