No. 17 Ole Miss women’s basketball had a difficult few days last week.
There was the big comeback win against No. 19 Notre Dame on Thursday. It was the largest comeback in program history and required every bit of energy and emotion the Rebels had.
Three days later, the Rebels were in Missouri for Bill Snyder Classic and lost by one point to Kansas State.
“Just an unfortunate ending for us,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said on Tuesday. “Our team has to understand that as much as we think we’re hunting, we’re also being hunted. We’re a ranked team; Kansas State had the whole week to prepare. A lot can happen in that time. It was a valuable lesson for our group.”
It’s not the worst problem in the world to have a group of players needing to be reminded they’re ranked and that that comes with a target on your back.
“It was an opportunity to build after such a big win, but our team is a work in progress. Success isn’t linear. That’s always been our story,” McPhee-McCuin said. “We didn’t want to lose, but it’s not the end of the season. A lot of lessons came from it. I haven’t seen the team since; I won’t until Thursday. That’s enough time for them to reflect, and we’ll figure out how to move forward.”
The sentiment about success not being linear was also echoed by one of the Ole Miss players on Tuesday.
“Growth doesn’t just go straight up,” forward Christeen Iwuala said. “It goes up, down, left, right. As we grow into who we want to be, it’s going to look how it looks, but I feel like the end result is going to be good as we keep preparing.”
Ole Miss has been off this week for finals and with the short turnaround after the Notre Dame game, there hasn’t been time to talk about last week’s events.
“I can’t wait to talk Thursday and unpack everything, including Notre Dame, which we didn’t get to dissect before Kansas State,” McPhee-McCuin said. “That game was emotional — being down 19 — then flying out right away. I want to hear truth from them and give truth from my perspective. They’re all learning and becoming who they need to be.”
Next up
The Rebels will have an excellent chance at bouncing back from its first loss of the season, starting this weekend.
“We want to capitalize on what we learned in November,” McPhee-McCuin said. “We wanted to be undefeated in that stretch, and that didn’t happen, so now we start another run.”
Ole Miss will host Wofford on Saturday at noon and South Carolina State on Sunday at 2 p.m. Three days later, the Rebels will host Mississippi Valley State at 6 p.m. All three games will be on SECN+.
There are only six more non-conference games before Ole Miss begins SEC play on New Year’s Day against Georgia.
