By JONATHAN BURROWS
Tribune Sports Reporter
jburrows@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMIAN head coach Yolett McPhee McCuin is preparing to lead Ole Miss into another competitive Southeastern Conference women’s basketball season, with the Rebels facing the challenge of rebuilding their roster after reaching the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year.
McPhee McCuin, affectionately known as ‘Coach Yo’, addressed the team’s preparations for the 2026 to 2027 campaign at SEC Tipoff ‘27 on Tuesday at Hotel Wildemont in Birmingham, Alabama, where she discussed the programme’s new additions and continued development under her leadership.
The Freeport native is entering her ninth season as head coach of the University of Mississippi and will have a considerably different group to work with this year, with 10 newcomers joining two returning players who saw limited playing time last season.
The Rebels will have no returning starters, leaving McPhee McCuin and her coaching staff with the task of establishing new combinations, building chemistry and identifying the players who will lead the team on the court.
“We have 10 newcomers and two returners that didn’t play a lot of minutes. So basically I have a brand new team,” McPhee McCuin said.
Despite the significant turnover, the Bahamian coach believes the new roster has the personnel to give Ole Miss a different look offensively while maintaining the defensive intensity that has become a defining feature of the programme.
“We have height. We have shooting. We have point guard play. I mean, we have scorers. We have a little bit of everything, and that’s something that we focus on building with this roster,” she said.
Ole Miss has continued to make the transfer portal a major part of its recruitment strategy, securing the top transfer class in the SEC for the second consecutive year.
One of the key additions is guard Talaysia Cooper, who arrives after playing in the SEC at Tennessee. Cooper said her experience competing against McPhee McCuin’s teams gave her an understanding of the coach’s approach before joining the programme.
“I have been in the SEC my whole college career, so just playing against her and knowing how she coaches her team and how she holds herself accountable for certain things,” Cooper said.
She also expressed excitement about the opportunity to play under McPhee McCuin, describing her as a strong leader whose approach to the game is something she can learn from.
“Coach Yo, I’m just excited to be here. She’s a great coach, she’s a great leader. Strong willed coach. Just somebody I can look up to, so I’m just happy to be here,” Cooper said.
Guard Jada Richard is another important addition to the roster, having previously been recruited by McPhee McCuin out of high school before choosing another programme. The coach said bringing Richard to Oxford became an obvious decision when the guard entered the transfer portal.
“I recruited Jada out of high school, and she chose to go somewhere else. For me, it was a no brainer once she got in the portal that I would want to recruit her, just because I believed in her before she even got to college,” McPhee McCuin said.
Richard is expected to assume a prominent role in the backcourt, with the coach identifying her as the team’s primary point guard and leader. “She’s definitely PG 1. She’s the leader of the team, for sure,” McPhee McCuin said.
The new additions will be expected to build on the foundation established during the 2025 to 2026 season.
Ole Miss finished with a 24 and 12 overall record, including an 8 and 8 mark in SEC play, before advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Rebels opened their tournament campaign with an 81 to 66 victory over Gonzaga but subsequently suffered a narrow 65 to 63 defeat against Minnesota, ending their hopes of advancing further.
That performance extended the programme’s run of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances to five seasons and continued a period of sustained success under McPhee McCuin, who has guided Ole Miss to two Sweet 16 appearances in three years.
With another demanding SEC schedule approaching, McPhee McCuin said the focus is on improving the programme rather than becoming preoccupied with results or external expectations.
Her theme for the upcoming season is “RISE”, an acronym representing resilience, intensity, sacrifice and execution.
“Five consecutive NCAA Tournaments, two Sweet 16s in three years. What’s next for us?
“The only thing we can do is continue to level up, and the word ‘RISE’ just stuck with me,” she said.
“Really, it has nothing to do with the outcome. It’s just a process every single day for my young women to just focus on being their best selves.”
McPhee McCuin also acknowledged that the new roster is younger than the groups she has traditionally preferred to coach, although she believes the decision could help the programme improve player retention moving forward.
The challenge will be turning those individual qualities into a cohesive unit capable of competing consistently in one of the country’s strongest conferences.
The coach also credited the support of Ole Miss’s administration, staff, players and local community for helping her remain in Oxford for nine seasons.
“I just think it’s a blessing every single day, for sure,” she said.
Beyond basketball, McPhee McCuin remains committed to community involvement through her No Ceilings with Coach Yo Foundation, which supports women and children through basketball clinics and educational initiatives in the United States and The Bahamas.
The Rebels were selected to finish seventh in the preseason SEC media poll, setting a benchmark for a team that must integrate a largely new roster before the regular season begins.
Ole Miss is scheduled to host Lane College in its lone exhibition game on Wednesday, October 28, before opening its regular season.
McPhee McCuin enters the campaign with the backing of a programme that has established itself as a consistent NCAA Tournament contender, but the success of the latest roster will depend on how quickly its newcomers adapt to her system and translate their individual strengths into results.