Ole Miss women’s basketball season is over a lot sooner than most expected.
The Rebels’ 65-63 loss to Minnesota in the second round of the NCAA Tournament ends what could’ve been a special postseason run. They were playing some of their best basketball in the last weeks, had one of their best players back from an injury and were getting meaningful minutes from bench players.
But a Minnesota team playing on its home court got a lot of help from its fans and a little bit of help from the officials to send Ole Miss into the offseason.
It should be an busy offseason for Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin. With seven seniors on the roster, including All-American and SEC Newcomer of the Year Cotie McMahon, the Rebels have some work to do.
But don’t call it a rebuild.
“We don’t rebuild at Ole Miss,” McPhee-McCuin said after the loss Sunday. “We lost six last year and had the best start that we’ve ever had here at Ole Miss in my tenure, so we reload.”
Part of reloading involves keeping the best players you have returning from entering the transfer portal. Ole Miss won’t have many to work to retain, but there are two that standout.
Here are two Rebels that Ole Miss should work to keep in Oxford and not enter the transfer portal.
Sira Thienou, G
Duh, right?
Thienou showed how good she is in the Rebels’ two NCAA tournament games. She scored 30 points in the two games, grabbed 13 rebounds, made four blocks and had four steals.
Yeah, she’s EVERYWHERE😮💨
Sira Thienou👏#HottyToddy x #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/z2Am2b0Imm— Ole Miss Women's BB (@OleMissWBB) March 20, 2026
Ole Miss ended the regular season without Thienou and lost four-straight games. McPhee-McCuin believes Ole Miss is hosting a NCAA regional if Thienou isn’t injured.
“If Sira didn’t get hurt, we would be hosting this year,” McPhee-McCuin said. “Those two games (at Florida, vs. Texas A&M) we lost at the end really hurt our chances.”
Thienou ended the season with 9.7 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game, 67 assists, 48 steals and 14 blocks. The Rebels will need another player to have an impact like McMahon did this season and Thienou could be that player.
And Ole Miss is already working to make sure she’s back in Oxford next season.
“We already had our meeting with Sira for next year,” McPhee-McCuin said. “That is one of the things we talked about. Talking about two Coties (McMahon), how about two Sira’s? She’s going to be that one. She knows that. She will be ready to step into that. She has blossomed so much in the little time. She’s only a sophomore. She’s way ahead of any of my sophomores that I’ve ever coached going into her junior campaign. This young lady was out for a month and came back and just played with so much heart and we really missed her.
“Really excited about her having a great offseason and building her. The goal is to build around Sira so that we can continue to move on and even be better in the future.”
Tianna Thompson, G
The second Ole Miss player who showed enough on the court to warrant being added to this is the player who came inches away from creating her own March Madness moment.
Tianna Thompson took the three-point shot with 0.8 seconds to play Sunday against Minnesota. It was a good look, but the shot bounced off the front of the rim.
Thompson, though, showed she’s shooter. While averaging 14.9 minutes a game Thompson shot 41% from the field, including 42% from three-point range. Her 37 made three-pointers led Ole Miss.
In today’s game of basketball, having a shooter on the perimeter than can drain threes is almost a requirement. Thompson fulfills that requirement.
