Coach Yo Preaches Perspective as Ole Miss Moves into March: ‘We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves; We’re going to fight like hell…and we’ll be ready to go’
OXFORD, Miss. — As the Ole Miss women’s basketball team closed the regular season with a home loss few expected, head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin was not interested in excuses, but she also wasn’t interested in panic.
Following a 66–58 senior day loss to Texas A&M that extended the Rebels’ losing streak to four games and six losses in their final eight, the Ole Miss head coach spoke at length about perspective, injuries, youth, and what she believes still lies ahead for her team as the college basketball world gears up for March.
“First of all, I just want to commend Texas A&M,” McPhee-McCuin said. “They are definitely a tournament team. They’re coming along at the right time.”
The Aggies, who entered the night hovering just outside the NCAA Tournament picture, controlled the game from the opening quarter, jumping out to a 23–13 lead and forcing Ole Miss to play catch-up the rest of the way… and the Rebels simply never caught up, having delivered one of their most disappointing performances of the season, shooting just 32 percent from the floor while Texas A&M connected on 48 percent overall and an impressive 67 percent from beyond the arc.
“I hate that we lost the game because it’s Senior Day, and who wants to lose on Senior Day?” But glass half full, I could be in another situation and this could be the end of our season—and I just know that’s not the case.”
Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin
McPhee-McCuin pointed to one factor above all others when explaining the team’s struggles down the stretch: the absence of sophomore guard Sira Thienou.
“When I built this team, she was a big part of it,” McPhee-McCuin said. “We just don’t have any margin of error with Sira being out, and it’s definitely showing its head.”
Thienou’s impact, McPhee-McCuin said, extends far beyond one area of the stat sheet.
“Sira starts our defense. She rebounds for us. She was shooting 45 percent from the field, almost 40 percent from three. She was our lead defender. She averaged five rebounds a game. That’s what we’re missing.”
Coach Yo on Sira Thienou’s absence
Without her, Ole Miss has been forced to rely on younger and less experienced players in expanded roles—a reality McPhee-McCuin acknowledged has come with growing pains.
“That 23–13 first quarter just completely took us out,” she said. “We don’t have any room for error like that. We can’t recover. We don’t have the bodies, and we don’t have the experience to recover. And pretty much, that was the game.”
Still, McPhee-McCuin repeatedly returned to what she views as the long-term benefit of the current situation.
“There are people that never played that are playing now,” she said. “And when Sira comes back, they’re going to have a lot of experience.”
One player that McPhee-McCuin used as an example to illustrate her point was sophomore Tianna Thompson, a very talented, yet not terribly experienced, backup guard.
“For me, it’s painful. For her, it’s incredible,” McPhee-McCuin said. “When you’re a program like this, you don’t play people when they’re not ready. And Tiana’s not really ready — but she’s getting ready.”
McPhee-McCuin harped on the importance of experience come tournament time.
“The exposure she’s getting is going to pay off big for us,” she said. “She’ll be someone we can rely on in the tournament. And I would have never known that had Sira not gotten hurt.”
Despite a string of recent disappointing outcomes, McPhee-McCuin pushed back strongly on the idea that the program and the season is trending downward, or that it’s time to give up on hope on what could still be accomplished this year.
“For the people that feel disappointed and think we’re on a decline, I’d argue differently. I don’t think we’re on a decline. I think I have a brand-new team at a crucial time.”
Coach Yo on new faces getting playing time due to injuries
The Rebels’ overall body of work, she emphasized, still matters.
“Our reality is we’re 21–10. That’s our fifth 20-win season. That’s our fifth NCAA Tournament. People who know, know that’s not easy to do.”
Coach Yo on the Rebels’ 20-win milestone
As for Thienou’s return, McPhee-McCuin made clear there will be no rushing—even if it might knock her team’s standing in the committee’s eyes.
“If I don’t feel like she’s all the way ready, I may hold her,” she said regarding the upcoming SEC tournament. “Let’s keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is we’re in the tournament.”
Ole Miss finishes the regular season 21–10 overall and 8–8 in SEC play, still undeniably a lock for their fifth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The Rebels’ impressive showings earlier in the season (which included wins against tournament-projected teams like Notre Dame, Georgia, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and Tennessee) were certainly enough to prevent Sunday’s senior day game from being a must-win as far as making the big dance is concerned. However, a win was definitely was crucial if they had any hopes of booking the SJB Pavilion as an NCAA Tournament venue.
“I think we’d probably have to win [the SEC Tournament] to host,” she said.
Instead, McPhee-McCuin said she and her team remains focused on navigating what she repeatedly referred to as the team’s current “storm.”
“You don’t get to decide when the storm is over. “You rely on the film. You rely on what’s true. You don’t listen to outside noise.”
Coach Yo
That mindset, she said, comes from experience.
“I’ve coached for 22 years. This is my 13th year as a head coach,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I know how this works.”
For now, the Rebels will head to Greenville for the SEC Tournament with a lineup in question, something to prove, and a strong desire to return to playing the kind of basketball we saw from them earlier in the season.
“We’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves. We’re going to fight like hell, keep getting creative, rest up, get healthy, and we’ll be ready to go.”
Coach Yo
And despite everything, she remains confident the story isn’t finished.
“You can bookmark this. When we’re at full strength, we’re going to be a tough out.”
The SEC Tournament is slated for March 4-8 in Greenville, South Carolina.
Jacob Quaglino
Jacob is a New Orleans, LA native and Ole Miss alumni, Class of 2024 and staff writer with The Rebel Walk. He has been a diehard fan of all Ole Miss sports his entire life, with his earliest Ole Miss sports memory being the Rebels' iconic 2008 upset of then-No. 4 Florida. Among his other favorite Rebel sports memories are storming the field after beating LSU in 2023 and Georgia in 2024, watching the Rebels upset Alabama in back to back years in 2014-15, seeing the women's golf team win the school's first-ever NCAA-recognized national championship in 2021, and watching the Rebel baseball team win the College World Series in 2022. He remains exceedingly hopeful that the Ole Miss Athletics Department's national championship trophy collection will grow in the coming years. Outside of The Rebel Walk, Jacob also works for a local radio news station and has many interests and hobbies, including reading, writing, watching college sports, playing pickleball, and traveling.
