How Ole Miss ended the regular season nearly sent the Rebels out of the top 25 women’s college basketball rankings.
The No. 24 ranking was the lowest Ole Miss was ranked all season long. Losing four-straight games will do that, even if the team has a pair of wins against top five teams.
But the Rebels played some of their best basketball this week at the SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C. They lived up to their mantra “dictate and disrupt” in a dominant 73-57 win against Auburn. Ole Miss did it again just as well against No. 5 Vanderbilt, 89-78.
Ole Miss couldn’t sustain that great level of play for a full third game, falling to No. 4 Texas in the tournament’s semifinals. Even with that, it was a great showing by the Rebels and the AP poll voters noticed. And the Longhorns winning the SEC Championship helped, too.
The Rebels moved up five spots to No. 19 overall in the latest AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll. Now, Ole Miss awaits to find out where it’s headed in the NCAA Tournament. One thing is certain, whoever joins the Rebels in their NCAA Regional, are going to have a hard time beating them.
“People saw what we did to Auburn and Vanderbilt. They saw how we fought back in this game,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said after Saturday’s loss to Texas. “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. (Texas) Coach Vic (Schaeffer) 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.”
Happy Birthday, Breasha!! We hope you have an amazing day! 🫶#HottyToddy x #Give pic.twitter.com/zhaa8u76s2
— Ole Miss Women's BB (@OleMissWBB) March 8, 2026
Selection Sunday will be March 15, six days from now and as McPhee-McCuin put it, the goal is simple.
“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,” McPhee-McCuin said. “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.”
If the Rebels play like they did in Greenville, then that’s a realistic goal.
AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll
- UConn 33-0
- UCLA 31-1
- Texas 31-3
- South Carolina 31-3
- LSU 27-5
- Vanderbilt 27-4
- Iowa 26-6
- Duke 24-8
- Michigan 25-6
- Oklahoma 24-7
- Ohio State 26-7
- West Virginia 27-6
- Louisville 27-7
- TCU 29-5
- North Carolina 26-7
- Kentucky 23-10
- Maryland 23-8
- Minnesota 22-8
- Ole Miss 23-11
- Michigan State 22-8
- Baylor 24-8
- Notre Dame 22-10
- Princeton 24-3
- Georgia 22-9
- Texas Tech 25-7
Others receiving votes: Alabama 47, Fairfield 45, Villanova 42, Colorado 11, Rhode Island 9, South Dakota St. 5, Oregon 5, Illinois 3, Quinnipiac 1.
