Ole Miss women’s basketball reaches SEC Tourney Semifinals for first time since 1993; Will Face No. 1 South Carolina
Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin and her team put up a solid performance Friday, taking down the Florida Gators, 70-60, in SEC Tournament quarterfinal action at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
“I’m grateful for the win,” said Coach Yo after the game. “We have a lot of new faces. I thought there were a lot of good things.”
Preparing to face the nation’s best
The Rebels’ path now includes a familiar foe, as they will face the No.1 seed South Carolina Gamecocks (28-1) today at 4:00 p.m. CT in the semifinals.
This will be the third meeting between both teams. The Rebels lost both times to the nation’s No. 1 Gamecocks, most recently 71-57 in Oxford to close their regular season. In spite of losing both matchups, Ole Miss is not backing down.
Standout post player Shakira Austin talked about facing South Carolina again.
“We are familiar with the scout. We’ve played them twice already,” she said.
“We know what they pretty much want to do, and we also know the reason we lost. So having that quick turnaround and coming into the second game of the tournament with a little bit more energy and effort; I think we know what to do.”
Ole Miss post Shakira Austin
In the last meeting against the Gamecocks, Austin put up 20 points and went 8-of-14.
The Gamecocks may have only lost once all season, but this Rebel team is more than hungry — this is the first semifinal appearance for the Rebels since 1993. The winner of today’s game will advance to the finals and face either the Kentucky Wildcats or the Tennessee Volunteers on Sunday.
Regardless of today’s outcome, the Rebels are putting themselves in a strong position for favorable seeding in NCAA postseason play. This will be Ole Miss’ first NCAA tourney appearance since 2007.
Game Info:
Tipoff from Bridgestone Arena in Nashville will be 4 PM CT on ESPNU.
Are You Ready!
(Feature image credit: Josh McCoy)
Lee Ann Herring-Olvedo
Lee Ann serves as the Director of Recruiting for The Rebel Walk. She sees college football the way championship programs do—from inside the personnel room. Every evaluation, every roster move, every recruiting battle tells a bigger story about identity, culture, and how a program is built to win in December, not just July.
With more than 15 years covering the SEC and the national recruiting landscape, Herring-Olvedo has built a reputation as one of the sport’s most respected personnel-driven voices—blending film evaluation, roster construction, and long-term program vision through a true front-office lens. Her coverage of powerhouse brands like Ole Miss Rebels and Kentucky Wildcatshas consistently gone beyond headlines, focusing instead on the blueprint behind winning programs: development, fit, culture, and recruiting strategy.
That foundation was formed early at Brown University, where she worked in player personnel and recruiting while competing as a student-athlete. Inside those recruiting operations rooms, she learned how elite organizations are truly built—through relentless evaluation, relationship building, projection, and trust in the board. Those experiences shaped the way she studies the game today: part scout, part storyteller, part architect.
Her analysis and reporting have appeared across major platforms including ESPN, NFL coverage spaces, USA Today Sports, and Saturday Down South. She also brought her personnel-minded approach to the airwaves as an on-air analyst for the Wake Up 502 College Football Show on Big X Sports Radio 96.1, where she became known for combining film-room detail with a wider understanding of roster identity and program trajectory.
In 2025, covering the rise of Houston Cougars football under Willie Fritz reignited the part of the sport that first drew her into football—the culture, the edge, the belief that a roster can reshape an entire city. That inspiration led to the launch of Coogs 365 Sports, a platform built to cover Houston athletics through a true scouting and recruiting lens while connecting the emotion of the game to the heartbeat of H-Town.
Now, Herring-Olvedo returns to The Rebel Walk where with an even deeper perspective shaped by years inside recruiting circles, national SEC coverage, and hands-on evaluation experience. Her return brings a familiar voice back to Ole Miss coverage—but with an evolved lens rooted in roster architecture, player development, and the modern realities of building championship-caliber football in the NIL and portal era.
For Herring-Olvedo, recruiting has never been about stars beside a name. It is about identifying competitors, projecting growth, and building a locker room capable of sustaining success. Her philosophy mirrors the best front offices in football: stack traits, trust culture, and never stop building.
