Ole Miss women's basketball's 'perfect story' ends in Sweet 16, and that's OK with its coach
SEATTLE — Perhaps Ole Miss women's basketball wasn't quite ready for this. The stage. The stakes. The attention.
Yolett McPhee-McCuin seemed to think so, explaining that the Sweet 16 lights were too bright for her Rebels in their 72-62 loss to Louisville on Friday night in the Seattle 4 Regional semifinals.
"There were a lot of times where I didn't even know who I was coaching," she said postgame. "Like, when do we give up 20 (points) in a quarter? That's uncharacteristic. Look at our box scores from the last 15 games, that just don't happen. And the fact that we couldn't get stops in transition.
"I just felt like we couldn't get a hold of the moment and settle in like I wanted us to."
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Louisville ‒ not the Rebels ‒ dictated the tempo and flow of the action. Even when Ole Miss loses, that's an abnormality. The Cardinals (26-11) used pace to make a Rebels defense that tormented an elite Gonzaga offense and top-seeded Stanford look ordinary. Louisville's 45.8% field-goal percentage is the third-highest Ole Miss has surrendered all season.
Offensively, the Rebels (25-9) got what they needed. They'd lost only twice when scoring at least 62 points. The defensive frailty, however, indicated to McPhee-McCuin that her program had gone a step too far.
Ole Miss' trip to the NCAA Tournament last season marked its first March Madness appearance since 2007. The Rebels are just three seasons removed from an 0-16 campaign in SEC play. This is all still so new. And the month of March leaves no room to adjust. Fail to meet the moment, and the moment will send you home without a second chance.
"I think it's almost a perfect story for it to end where it is right now," McPhee-McCuin said. "Sometimes you could go too far and then all of a sudden, next year, we lose in the second round and they want me gone. I think the pace and what the program is building is really good, and actually, we're two years ahead. But I like where we're at, and I think we can sustain it."
One of the few Ole Miss players who didn't seem flummoxed by the moment was point guard Myah Taylor, who posted a season-high 19 points to top the scoring chart for the Rebels alongside Marquesha Davis.
Taylor, a Mississippi State transfer, had played on this stage as a freshman in 2019, when the Bulldogs made a run to the Elite Eight. Her experience showed.
When she and McPhee-McCuin met before the season to discuss their goals, they settled on a trip to the Round of 32. They outdid that by claiming one of the best wins in program history, upsetting No. 1 seed Stanford on its home floor last week.
The hope now – for both Taylor and her coach ‒ is that the experience for this group bears fruit the next time the Rebels encounter the bright lights that doomed them Friday.
"I definitely think that, what I came here to do, I did – of course with the help of my teammates," Taylor said. "... I think we put the country on notice.
"Ole Miss basketball is on the map now."
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss women's basketball growth is on schedule despite Sweet 16 loss
