Ole Miss didn’t leave the SEC Tournament with the trophy, but the Rebels may have reminded the rest of the country just how dangerous they can be in March.
After knocking off No. 2 seed Vanderbilt and pushing No. 3 seed Texas in the semifinals, coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin spoke about the team’s journey, the fight they showed in Greenville, and why they believe the Rebels will be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament.
Here’s everything she said after the game.
Opening Statement…
Just really proud of my group. The Southeastern Conference is the best league in the country, and we had some really good games here. We’ll have some really good tape as we prepare to see where we land for the NCAA Tournament. Maybe we’re falling off — this is the most we’ve lost to Texas by in a while. Usually it’s a barn burner, but they got the best of us tonight. Compliments to them, and I know it’ll be a great championship game with them and South Carolina.
On the team’s run in the SEC Tournament…
For me, I just have an incredible amount of gratitude.
It’s a long season, and like Denim alluded to, I wanted our team to feel like I was going to fight with them the whole time. When they remember anything about me, that’s what I want them to remember — that Coach fought with them through the highs and the lows.
This has been such a challenging season for us, but there are so many lessons we’ve learned through it all. I’m grateful for those opportunities because we’re going to use them as we try to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
On Texas guard Madison Booker’s impact…
She’s 6-1 and extremely skilled. I feel like every time she plays us it’s personal because she’s from Mississippi. Sometimes I joke that I don’t even want to shake her hand because I’m like, Why didn’t you come here? You could have done this with us. But she always seems to break things open when we play them. I remember when we played them at our place — we had them beat, she missed a shot, followed it, got the rebound, and scored. She just has a knack for making those plays. She’s a special talent. I’m super proud of her.
On what changed in the fourth quarter…
They started getting some shots in the zone, and when young players get tired they sometimes stop thinking clearly. We lost track of her a couple times. Texas did a really good job working the back line of the zone. I don’t prefer to play zone against them for long stretches because eventually they’ll figure it out. I would have preferred to go back to man earlier, but I didn’t feel like we were physically and mentally ready to do that. When we did go back to man, she just blew by us. Once she gets comfortable and finds those spots — the short corner, mid-range — she’s really difficult to guard.
On what people should understand about this team entering the NCAA Tournament
When I turned the TV on and saw all the projections, we weren’t mentioned anywhere. As far as they were concerned, we weren’t even supposed to be here. But I was filled with pride. My goal is to win a national championship. To do that you have to go to the Elite Eight and the Final Four, and I haven’t done that yet. But think about it this way: when you reach the Sweet Sixteen, that means there are 16 teams left in the entire country out of more than 300. Well, our conference has 16 teams, and we were one of the final four still playing on the last day before the championship in arguably the best league in the country.
We did that after a four-game skid. We did it with one of our starters out — and she’ll be back. I probably could have played her today, but it wasn’t worth it. People saw what we did to Auburn and Vanderbilt. They saw how we fought back in this game. It was a two-point game late, and it was much closer than the final score shows. We’re going to be a tough out. Coach Vic even said that to me in the handshake line. We’re going to defend, we’re going to compete, and we’re going to represent our conference and our university at a high level. The committee will do its job, and we’ll deal with whatever comes our way.
