Coach Yo, Ole Miss Women’s Basketball Focus on Fit, Development with Portal Additions
OXFORD, Miss. — Change has become the norm in today’s college basketball landscape, and at Ole Miss, that reality is on full display. Following another NCAA Tournament appearance, Yolett McPhee-McCuin has embraced a complete roster reset, leaning heavily into the transfer portal to reshape her team with both immediate impact and long-term growth in mind.
She has had a lot to reload since Lauren Jacobs and Desrae Kyles are the only returning names for the Rebels. Earlier this week, Coach Yo spoke on the new additions, Sira Thienou’s exit, and more.
Before she did her deep dive into the roster, she opened with a statement.
“Busy season, since the regular season has been finalized, I always get a chuckle, because people would say, ‘Oh, so what are you gonna do now that the season’s over?’ I think people forgot that we had seven seniors, and so we had a lot of work to do, even from there. So, we lost three in the portal and (have) two remaining. So then we really had a lot of work to do. And I thought that as a staff, we did a phenomenal job. Really happy with the class that we put together. Thought we were intentional, like we are every year, about trying to fill in spots. And then we were intentional this year about the roster build from their years. You know, last year we went and got all those one-year kids. This year, I think I have only seen three or four seniors. So, you know, the portal gives, and the portal takes, so the goal will be in the future for retention, which is just as difficult as going out into the portal and getting new players. But nevertheless, really, really happy with this group. We’re at 12, and I think that’s where I’ll stop.“
Coach Yo’s opening statement
New Additions
When people hear 10 new additions for a basketball team, they see that as a challenge. At the same time, Coach Yo is used to those types of numbers of players rotating in and out from past experiences.
“I’m the national team coach, so for the Bahamas, you don’t get but two weeks to kind of go and compete for a gold medal with them. So the whole speed training is something I’m familiar with, and also I’ve spent a lot of time at WNBA training camps, where they don’t have a lot of time either, so just kind of learning how they install and the things that they expect from them, and one of the things that was unique for me.“
Coach Yo
She talked about the nature of having so many new players and what it looks like.
“Last year we had eight players; the year before, I think six; and the year before that, eight. So we do have a lot of experience with it, and pretty much what you have to do is less is more. You know, you can’t try to pack four years into one. It takes a while. I know people think that’s coach-speak, but it’s not. It takes a while. So we’re going to try to play 15 games again like we did last year, so we can get the experience, and then when it clicks, it clicks season.“
Coach Yo
Positional Size
Coach Yo recruited players of different positional sizes from the transfer portal, and she let people know why that is so important to her recruitment class this year.
“Positional size is important, especially for our defensive scheme. We prefer to switch from one through five, or at least from one through four. Sometimes that gave us some issues, because we were undersized. This time, we kind of really focused. I think our average height is 6’1″ with the group. And so that was intentional for women’s basketball. That’s a great size. So that was intentional for us moving forward this year.”
Coach Yo on why she recruited different positional sizes
Ole Miss landed former Tennessee guard Talaysia Cooper in the transfer portal. She was ranked as the fourth-best guard in the transfer portal according to ESPN and was Tennessee’s leading scorer, averaging 16 points per game.
“I don’t know if y’all have seen Talaysia Cooper, but she is arguably going to be one of the best guards in the country,” Coach Yo exclaimed.
The Rebels’ head coach would further dive into how long she had her eyes on Cooper and the reason the senior guard had her eyes on Ole Miss.
“I recruited her way back when she was in, like, the ninth, 10th grade, and since she went to college we didn’t have any communication. When she did go into the portal, and I was able to talk to her, one of the things that she was looking for was just a place that she could go to and prepare herself for what’s next. And, you know, people can say what they want about Ole Miss women’s basketball. They can’t say that our players don’t go pro. We have four on one team, you know, so clearly we’re doing something right? And she saw that, and she was able to see that.“
– Coach Yo on Talaysia Cooper coming to Ole Miss
Coach Yo also discussed Boise State transfer center Emily Howard and what she can bring to the table next season.
“Emily just has a great feel for the game. She’s from a basketball family. She will probably do better in our league. She was in the league where, y’all, know, in the non-conference game, sometimes I struggle playing my bigs because everyone’s so small. So like, she was just running around with a bunch of undersized people. Now she’ll run into some people of her size. She has great hands. Just a great person was looking for a challenge. I guess we got a little Canadian pipeline right now, because we have three Canadians. And then, of course, Tosh just left us. She’s Canadian, so she’s just going to be just a mature presence, someone who understands, you know, how to get her own buckets. I’m really excited about her, but all of our five players.”
Coach Yo on Emily Howard
Sira Thienou departs Oxford
Coach Yo lost three players in the portal, including guard Tianna Thompson and center J’Adore Young. However, the biggest and most shocking was the announcement of Sira Thienou’s entry into the transfer portal. Thienou averaged 9.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists, but was known for her defensive efforts on the court. Coach Yo admitted it caught her by surprise and reflected on what the portal does.
“We weren’t prepared at all,” McCuin said earlier this week of Thienou’s exit.
“But the portal, like I said, the portal gives and the portal takes. And for me, I’m never going to be one that sits around and be upset when someone leaves when we make a living out of the portal. It’s just a part of the game. It is my first player that I’ve lost in that manner, but at the end of the day we wish her the best and we’re really excited about what’s to come moving forward.”
Coach Yo on Sira Thienou
Transfer Portal Changes and Selling Point
Coach Yo gave a lengthy statement outlining what she would like to see changed in the portal cycle, as she knows the system is not perfect. She pitched her idea for a change.
“I would want, especially because I’m in it so much, first of all, they gave players two weeks. We couldn’t recruit players in the portal until, I think it was April 6. Well, there were some teams that were done early in March with no postseason hopes, and I like the fact that they gave them a window, but it should have been after your season was over, so people could move around freely,” Yo explained.
“What that did was it gave a lot of people time to kind of see what’s out there,” she continued. “You know, people say all the time, like, ‘oh, you know, it’s tampering.’ But…I don’t believe people are tampering. I believe that there are people out there who are definitely speaking on behalf of players. And so most times, by the time April 6 opens up, there are already a lot of deals done, not like set in stone, obviously, but most times, they’re already having conversations. So I think once the season is over, they’re going to do it anyway. So when their season is over, give them seven days or 15. It doesn’t take long, because most of the time, these kids know that they’re going to leave or they’re going to stay. Most times, like, from my experience, they already know.”
She also suggested a cap for each class, especially for freshmen, even though she does not believe it will happen. She also didn’t understand why people compare NIL to how coaches negotiate, since there are more rules in play for them when seeking other jobs or landing spots. At the end of her lengthy statement, she mentioned the money component, and sometimes the numbers she hears are wild.
“First of all, like you talk about market base in our profession, there’s a market, and people drive the market. Right, in college athletics, they claim they drive the market, but they don’t really, because the numbers fluctuate. It’s not even real numbers. So, unless you can get with someone who will be honest with you, you don’t even know a real number. Someone can come to you and say, ‘School X offered 500k,’ and when school X only offered 200k, sometimes, when we hear what we offered, I’m like, ‘Wow.’ Sometimes I roll with it because it just sounds good. Like, yeah, that’s what we paid. Like, no, we didn’t pay that. We didn’t have, you know, sometimes I let it float. So if I’m doing it, what do you think about everybody else? There’s just no transparency, which makes people from the outside work in a way where, you know, they’re chasing something that maybe is not there.“
– Coach Yo on the misinformation spread about numbers among schools
Coach Yo also gave her “selling point” for players in the transfer portal.
“I think our biggest selling point was that we’ve had so many transfers, and, you know, we’ve had more of a success rate than a failure rate,” she stated.
She used many examples, such as Cotie McMahon, Latasha Lattimore, and Christeen Iwuala, who came and trusted the system, and now look where they are headed.
Offseason, Evaluation, and Culture
As previously mentioned, Coach Yo has been quite active this offseason and decided to share more specifics about what it has been like.
“We’ve been busy. I swear. I feel like this weekend was the first time I was able to get some sort of rest, and then my daughter decided to have a soccer tournament in Murfreesboro. So, but we have been going, I mean, non-stop visits. I think how many new players? Did we sign 10? And I think we missed out on two. So we had 12 visits in this short span. So we’re pretty exhausted and looking forward to the shutdown period,” she noted.
Coach Yo explained that while some players this offseason who aren’t coming in with big numbers, she’s not concerned about that as she trusts her and her staff’s evaluations and development.
“…Sometimes, when you see a player and look at their numbers, you don’t take it at face value. You kind of look at the film and say, Why did they average their average, whether it’s a lot of points or whether it’s minimal for it. So, like with Marquesha (Davis), she was averaging four points a game. Christeen Iwuala didn’t play. Marquisha is a WNBA Champion, and Christeen is is in training camp right now and survived the first round of cuts. So it’s about looking to see what you need, and seeing if they fit, and if they fit, then it doesn’t really matter what they did. You know where they were at now we have some players from the league, which we kind of know what they can do, but those other players, it took a lot of intentional evaluation from us, seeing if they fit us, conversations with them, trying to figure out what it is they want out of this, and going from there and then. And then, Coach Joy is very good at working and developing the post, so that will be her task this year.“
– Coach Yo on evaluating players
What Matters to Her as a Coach
To end her discussion this week, Coach Yo laid it all out: what has changed over the years with respect to her primary concerns as a coach.
“I think, when I first got into this profession, if I’m being completely honest, it was more about the goals I wanted to achieve, and as I started to see my players achieve their goals, it became more about what they wanted to achieve,” the Rebels’ coach began.
“And that’s the true win. You know, do I want to be a Final Four coach? Do I want us to host? Do I want to continue having 20-plus-win seasons, as we’ve done over the past five years? Absolutely, but not at the expense of hearing their name get called. So, you know, for me, it’s trying to figure out where we could find that balance that everybody wins, but I take great pride in it. I take great pride in the fact that now GMs and coaches are starting to see us as a place that develops pros. I remember watching other coaches start off, then have one, and then all of a sudden get a reputation, as if they go there and develop pros. And we’ve, we’ve done that, you know, and now you’ve got coaches in press conferences talking about it. They know if they get a player from Ole Miss, they’ll get a two-way player. We play a pro-style system. So super proud of all of them, and hopefully we can we? My goal is to be at the draft every year. I was walking out and said, ‘See you next year, you know.’ So, it’s a very proud moment for me, for sure, and our program.”
Coach Yo on her priorities as a coach
As Ole Miss turns the page to a new season, the roster may look different, but the foundation remains the same. With a blend of intentional additions, returning leadership, and a clear vision for development, Coach Yo has positioned the Rebels not just to compete, but to evolve. In an era defined by constant movement, Ole Miss isn’t just keeping up — it’s building something sustainable, with an eye on both the present and what comes next.
Parks Burcham
Parks Burcham is a sophomore at the University of Mississippi. He is majoring in Journalism, emphasis in Sports Media, with a minor in Sports Management. He is originally from Booneville, Mississippi and graduated high school from Jumpertown Attendance Center.His favorite sports are basketball and football. He chose this path because he has always been extremely interested in the sports world. Parks enjoys all aspects of the game and hopes to do great work in this field.
