TRANSCRIPT: Everything Coach Yo said after Rebels earn No. 7 seed and berth in NCAA March Madness

OXFORD, Miss. — For the third season in a row, Ole Miss women’s basketball heard its name called on Selection Sunday for yet another trip to the big dance and its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. The No. 7 seed Rebels slotted in the Albany 1 region, begin their tournament journey Friday in a first-round matchup in South Bend, Ind. facing off against No. 10 Marquette.

After the selection show, head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin met with media. Here’s everything Coach Yo had to say.

Coach Yo’s Opening Statement

I don’t know if this feeling ever gets old, seeing your name and hearing your name get called. The anxiety has been killing us the last two selection Sundays because we were last and second-to-last. But it was pretty cool to get it out of the way and not have to sit through a bunch of names and trying to figure out if where you’re going to go and and that kind of stuff. So, super excited for our team. Really grateful for Rebel Nation and Oxford Community for coming out. According to my GPS, it’s a nine hour and 35 minute drive, so that’s definitely doable. And I think that they’re up there carpooling right now. If you don’t want to fly, you can just all hop in to some vehicles and come on out, because we’d love to have great fan support in South Bend, Indiana.

Question: You haven’t been shy about wanting to make history here. It’s the first time since 94, 95 and 96 this program has made it to three straight tournaments. What does history like that mean to you?

Coach Yo: I mean, when you’re a head coach and you take a job, you have goals, and honestly, you know, I knew this would happen, but I’m not going to sit here and say, this is all going according to the plan. You know, step by step. I do think that I’ve always thought that we could be a perennial tournament team. The next goal is to be a perennial sweet 16 team. We have our work cut out with the opponents, with Marquette, who we’re getting ready to play. And then if we beat Marquette and then who we play after that. So, Notre Dame and in their own place. But we’re no strangers to that either. So, you know, as far as we’re concerned, this is an opportunity for us to continue to build the momentum that I hope we can have as we head into next year. So I’m excited to see how far we can take this.

Question: What were your emotions all day today? 

Coach Yo: Well, I didn’t really sleep much last night. I gave the team a day off, so I went and tried to do some things normal people do, like grocery shop and that kind of stuff, but you know, my my emotions are just like really focused on being able to get back to the office, watch film, talk to people that have played Marquette and see how we can put together a good game plan so that we can be successful.

Question: Just looking at their (Marquette’s) stats very quickly. It seems like they’re very good at denying the opposition offensive rebounds. And I know that’s something that’s very important to the way that you you win. When you come up with a foe that’s good at that, I mean, is there a way that you can try to attack that or just kind of have to do what you do?

Coach Yo: I mean, for us, we just have to be who we are. You know what we do. It’s no mystery to who we are and what we’re capable of doing. I like to think that the Southeastern Conference has prepared us for that, night in and night out. I’m really excited about the opportunity to go up against a team like Marquette, you know? They’ve had ups and downs this season, but have a lot of respect for Coach Duffy. And she played at Notre Dame, so you know she’s a competitor. And their players Liza and McKenzie and Jordan are all super talented. That’s their big three. And so we have to figure out how to stop them. And they’ve also had successful wins. They beat Arkansas, beat Creighton, beat Illinois and the game is closer to home for them. So I bet they’ll have home court attendance there. And so all in all, for us, we’re excited about the opportunity to play someone outside of the Southeastern Conference. That’s a blessing because, you know, it’s a jungle in the SEC. And we’re excited about seeing what we’re able to do out there, for sure.

Question: Have you been following any of the Bracketology over the last week or so? When you are watching it, are you thinking, oh, this is where such and such is how it is projected to play? Yeah. How are you watching it and reading all that stuff?

Coach Yo: I don’t believe any of like where you’re going to be or who you’re going to play. But Charlie Creme has been pretty consistent in the past years of your seeding. And I think two weeks ago he had us at that eight seed and dropping, and then we went on a win streak and he started moving us up. But I felt like we should have been a six or a five, honestly. But you know, for us being in the seven seed. You know, it’s an improvement from where we were last year. So as far as I’m concerned, I don’t know how much much it matters with seeding. I think it all matters with the matchup and styles makes fights. I have not seen Marquette, so I’m not sure what their style is compared to ours, but once I see that, then I’ll know what type of fight we’re in and up against.

Question: Like you said, that you feel like seeding doesn’t really matter. I mean, y’all showed that last year, right? Like when you have a team that’s been there and done that as an eight seed, knocking off a one seed, how much confidence does that give you guys moving in that hey, whoever we’re facing we’re able to win. Like it doesn’t really feel like a David and Goliath to you guys.

Coach Yo: Well I think the Southeastern Conference has prepared us for that. You know, night in and night out. You have to bring your best. It doesn’t matter against who. You have to bring your best. And, we have been a team that has been challenged. You know, we lost our starting point guard early in the year. We had our forward playing the point for a short stint. We’ve been trying to figure it out, but I think we did pretty good for ourselves. So like I said, for me, like, I’m excited to just dig into the film. I don’t know that I leave the office tonight and just, uh, really, you know, prepare. I saw my husband and gave him a hug and I said, see you tomorrow. And so we’re going to really get after it and try to figure out how we could play advantage basketball on both ends of the floor.

Question: Madi talked about, kind of flipping that switch from excitement to like, okay, now it’s time to get to work. What’s that? What’s that like for you? The anticipation of waiting an entire week and the excitement of seeing it to now, you know, a game less than a week away?

Coach Yo: Well, here’s the thing is, for me, for coaches, this is the most exciting time of the year. It’s tournament championships. and then March Madness, you know, or postseason because I’ve been excited even to participate in the WNIT in the past. You it’s exciting because you get to play someone completely different. So it’s fresh. They don’t know you as much and you don’t know them, and it’s really going to come down to the team that is most prepared. Now my players, they’re going to sleep well tonight because they have confidence that we’ll have a game plan. I don’t know if we’re going to play Friday or Saturday. Friday, right. Friday. So that’ll be a Wednesday, Thursday prep with us playing on Friday, which is normal for us. So and it was normal, just like how it was for us getting ready to go to the SEC tournament. So we’re just really grateful to be in this position. You all have been with me when we weren’t. So we’re just going to count our blessings and put our best foot forward.

Evelyn Van Pelt

Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn’s love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.