SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2023

Yolett McPhee-McCuin

Madison Scott

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Ole Miss Rebels

Postgame Press Conference

South Carolina 80, Ole Miss 51

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Ole Miss head Coach, Yolett McPhee-McCuin and student athlete Madison Scott.

Coach?

COACH McPHEE-McCUIN: First of all I gotta figure out how to get out of playing South Carolina in the semifinals. That would be my first order of business moving forward. Having to play them two years in a row has been an incredible task, especially when no one in the country has found a way to beat 'em.

I think they look like a championship team tonight. Dawn is in her 15th year. They look like a program that has been moving for 15 years. They showed their strength and their dominance from start to finish. I thought it was an incredible game by them.

Disappointed we didn't show up and compete harder, but nevertheless it's not the end of our season, so we will figure out how to prepare once we find out who our opponent is in the NCAA tournament.

Still think our team is a team that can go beyond the first round. I will leave it at that.

Q. Madison, you took this team to double overtime last time; what was different today?

MADISON SCOTT: Today we didn't show up. I didn't show up. We're a super team and we need everybody to show up to be successful, and today that didn't happen.

In the future we need to play better and do better and make sure we don't have to worry about that in the future.

Q. What do you learn about your team from a game like this going into March Madness?

MADISON SCOTT: We know that's not us, that's not who we are. We didn't play to the best of our abilities, so going forward we need to grow. We need to get better because we want to get past the first round. We gotta learn from today, move on, and do better the next go-round.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Madison.

Questions for Coach?

Q. Yesterday you talked about how badly you wanted to beat those three teams that you hadn't beaten. From your perspective, what is the next step for this program to get over the South Carolinas, Tennessees, and LSUs?

COACH McPHEE-McCUIN: Again, Dawn has been there 15 years. I'm in year 5. She has 6'6", 6'5", 6'6", 6'4" 6'5". I gotta recruit, so that's how it works. You can't beat a team like this during the season. You've gotta beat 'em in the off-season.

People can say what they want with my comment. I've never heard Dawn Staley saying, when Pat Summitt was beating her and Geno Auriemma was beating her say she didn't want to beat them.

At some point we're going to catch up. What we need to do is try to get -- if we're not going to be one, we don't need to be four. Let's try to be second and third and we will deal with them in the championship game. That's pretty much it.

Q. How quickly do you think this team will be able to flush what happened today and concentrate on the NCAAs?

COACH McPHEE-McCUIN: If you ever doubt what 18 and 24 years old are like, it will be two hours they will be over this. It will be me who will have sleepless nights for about two weeks until we find out who we will play next.

They're probably over that right now. I don't think it's going to be hard at all. We're not going to let a game like this -- I was walking out and someone said, great season, and I wanted to be like, our season is not over, ma'am. It's one game and we have done some really cool things this year, so we will just focus on that.

Q. It looked like you guys got off to a slow start offensively and that took you out of the game. Was that your players not making shots or was South Carolina doing something to help that?

COACH McPHEE-McCUIN: I think it was a combination of both. I thought that like Maddie said, we're a super team, so people gotta show up, and we didn't have that collectively as a team, initially.

South Carolina is -- I don't see anybody beating them. You can quote that. I'm just telling you. Not when they are playing like that.

Now, if they're not playing like that, then, okay, but -- we got in a 3-point competition at one point, you know? They don't even make those like that.

And they're big! Come on. When they're playing like that they're hard to beat. Trust me, we've had -- as a college -- as a community, 29 of us have tried! They're tough to beat. You gotta be on your game.

When we started seeing them shots rim in and out we were getting really good looks in the beginning. The difference when we were in Oxford, we were making those shots. Home court advantage. We were in a neutral site.

This is like a home court for them, you know what I'm sayin'? This is how we feel when we go to their place, just about 12,000 more people.

But, you know, when we couldn't get it going offensively, that just gave them the confidence. If you look at the first quarter, 25-14 and after that, it's like an even game. You gotta be able to score against them, and we just weren't able to do that.

Q. Hey, Coach, can you talk about the challenges Laeticia gave you guys in the game in terms of her defensive versatility and how she made an impact on offense as well?

COACH McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I mean, we're a pretty good defensive team and our guards are 5'11", 6'. Her guards are 6'4". The length that they have, it just makes it difficult. We have to shoot higher than we usually have to. We have to jump higher than we usually have to.

I just thought -- I don't know how you can single out one person. I thought their whole team just made it difficult for us.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.