NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - GONZAGA VS OLE MISS

March 16, 2023

Yolett McPhee-McCuin

Maples Pavilion

Ole Miss Rebels

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today's press conference for Ole Miss Rebels Head Coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin.

We will now take questions for Coach.

Q. Welcome to the sunny Bay Area. You missed what we call atmospheric rivers here recently. Two of your players were just up here and spoke about how everything with this group starts with defense and experience and leadership gained over the past year. How has that, kind of that progression been? They're excited as a top defensive team to face a top three-point shooting team tomorrow.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Uh-huh. Yeah, I mean, I just think the experience that we -- well, before I say that, my heart goes out to the Californians that were affected by the windstorm. I was watching the news last night and saw some of the details. Definitely put a prayer up for them.

As far as our team is concerned, we think our schedule has prepared us for any type of matchup, from playing the No. 1 team in the country in South Carolina to a two seed in Utah that average at the time 100 points a game.

So I think that our group has been battle tested. We've had to get on flights, played in the Bahamas, thanks to our administration, and spent a long time there with the hopes that it would prepare us for a moment like this.

Q. You kind of touched on it a little bit, but what are the overall thoughts on Gonzaga, the matchup, and what you see and what kind of test and challenge is that going to be for your team?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: I think Gonzaga is an historic program. Lisa and I were assistant coaches in the WCC way back when, when Kelly Graves was the head coach and Jim Salas was the head coach at Portland.

So I was at Portland and she was at Gonzaga, and so as soon as the matchup got announced I shot her a text and I said, you know, just super proud of you and what you all have done. So I think that first and foremost, there is an incredible amount of respect that we have for Gonzaga and what they have accomplished.

They beat Tennessee this year and also Louisville, so we feel like it's going to be an incredible matchup. As far as styles are concerned, they're contrasting. I don't know how much they have -- I mean, I think both of us have had opportunities to play against contrasting styles, them going up against Tennessee and Louisville and us going up against Oklahoma and Utah.

So it should be a really good matchup.

Q. Since you have arrived in Oxford, how much have you felt the program change and maybe even the support that you've got from the institution grow in your time?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I mean, just coming to Oxford, the reason why I felt like I could be successful at Ole Miss was because that wasn't my first build. I was able to build at Jacksonville University, so I kind of had like a rhythm of what it would take to build a program.

In order to do that, you have to obviously engage the community. You have to bring in talent that fits the university and the style of play that you want to coach. And then obviously you have to win.

So we have been able to do those things, and our support has grown organically because of that. Really excited where we are and where we're about to go.

I'll tell you a quick story. When Kelly Graves was at Gonzaga, he would talk about his first couple years they would never promote the program because they weren't any good.

And then once they started being good, then they started promoting the program. I kind of took that same kind of path. At first I thought it was important to make sure that we had a product that people will want to come out and support.

Three years in a row now, we've been in post season play, and so I think the proof is in the pudding. We have had good crowds this year, some record breaking ones, and we're just getting started. I'm young in this, only five years at Ole Miss, so excited about the future.

Q. Talking a couple days ago after the selection about this being a business trip. When Angel was up here a second ago asked about Gonzaga's three-point shooting, and she said, we're focused on us. How proud have you been over the past couple days of this team handling themselves leading up to this game?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Well, this is definitely a business trip for us. Last time we came out west and the Bay Area, we went to Cal. We had a blast. We went to NBA games. We toured the area.

We hadn't left the hotel, so our girls are just excited to get out of the hotel. We're focused on treating this as such, as an opportunity for us to do something that we hadn't done here with me at the helm. That's try to put ourselves in the position to win a first game. So I'm proud of our team. They've been incredibly focused.

In the nonconference we usually use (indiscernible) to have a great experience. It's something that we promise our players that they're going to have a great experience. We fill them up with a lot of that in the nonconference.

Ever since we got in conference play, you know, we don't do much. We kind of just eat, they eat a lot, and sleep a lot, and we just watch a lot of film.

That's what we're going to continue to do.

Q. One question up here. It's an interesting matchup between and you Gonzaga, tough SEC schedule, No. 1 overall seed twice. They have played a WCC schedule and have only lost twice since December. They're kind of on a run. Your team, tested a lot. What do you think are some advantages and disadvantages of that?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Any time you played an 8-9 game I think the committee does a good job of making it interesting.

At the same time, like you really don't know who can win. Obviously I feel like if Gonzaga is able to impose their will, that can be problematic for us.

Conversely, I think if we impose our will, that can be problematic for Gonzaga. I expect both of us to come out and compete and try to win this game.

Think it'll come down to whoever executes their game plan the best. Them being an offensive team, we've played high powered offensive team like I said, the Utahs, Oklahomas. When we played those girls they were averaging 195 points a game and we hold them in the 60s.

So our team will be up for the challenge as far as Gonzaga is concerned. But winning makes you feel a certain way, you know. They're going to have an incredible amount of confidence, and so will we. We are 11 and 5. It's not like we lost a lot, so really excited about the matchup.

Q. You indulge a big picture question. I know you all recently got hooked up with a team-wide NIL deal. Sounds like a multi-year thing. How important is something like that when you're trying to build a program like you keep talking about?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: I think it's incredible. You know, the fact that our young ladies, from walk-on all the way to the star player has an NIL deal, multiple. I think it is where the game is going.

You know, I have no problem with them buying my dinner now when we fellowship. So they don't even have a -- my players don't have a limit on Secret Santa anymore.

It's incredible to see them. I was broke in college. We had a limit. But they don't. I think it's incredible. I think all players that play this game deserve an opportunity to be compensated fairly, as long as it's legal.

I'm really glad that people got behind, businesses have gotten behind our players and supported them for sure.

Great article today by the way.

Q. You said when we fellowship. I have an idea of what that might mean. Maybe you could share what that means and maybe there are some activities your group does away from the basketball court that are special or meaningful or brought the group together?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Well, something that we do that is unique, I think, is we do a community service project every month. So I know a lot of teams start the year off by doing it, but it's something -- it is core for our program.

So we like to give, and give back and engage in our community. So there hasn't been a month since our players stepped on campus that we had not done some type of community service project and been in the community.

Another thing we do, I mean, our players love to spend time with each other. I was out recruiting in July and I got a call. They were all in my pool. So we spend a lot of time with each other, whether I'm there or not. And we really consider ourselves to be a family. It is our culture at Ole Miss and it's something that I take pride on.

You know, you all ask our players what's been the difference, and our team is just rooted in love. Our players really love each other. I've been coaching 18 years, 10 as a head coach, and I've never had a program -- been a part of a team that has loved each other the way this group does. It's really refreshing to see.

Q. Just to follow up, so we're in March. I'm guessing you've done five or six, if you gathered in September, October. Community service activities.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Uh-huh.

Q. Could you take us through each one, please, really quickly?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, I can try to remember all. We just recently did More Than a Meal, which is a community service project where there are people that are looking for a meal and it's a great program that is -- that they have in Oxford.

What you do is you pay for the meal. So we paid for the meal and our players served the meal and spent time with all of the people that came in, from young kids to we met an 80 year old young lady.

So that was pretty cool. We just did that. We've also -- I don't know if you all remember, we had a water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi. Well, our players went into their own pockets and we sent a truckload of cases of water to Jackson State women's basketball program.

We didn't even put it out there. It was just something that our team wanted to do. So we do things in the community that we don't always have a camera with. In December, we adopted a family and provided clothes and toys for a family.

We did it at Thanksgiving. We start in the summer. Reading projects. We're all over the place. Our community, we're the women's basketball team for the Oxford community and we take pride in that, and they have put their arms around us as a program.

Q. Just talk about obviously if you guys were to beat Gonzaga, presumably facing a No. 1 ranked Stanford team. Just talk about how do you kind of -- be an exciting opportunity, but how do you keep your team focused in the present on the here and now and not looking ahead? How do you as a coach keep your players locked in mentally on one game?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: I just think our schedule has prepared us for that. Early in the year we went on a five-game winning streak and our heads got a little bit big. We had a game at home against a team that had some injuries, and I think human nature set in and we thought we would just win and we lost.

And so that experience I think has prepared our team to just stay in the moment. So we've really done that. It's not really hard to do. We're not thinking about Stanford. We're thinking about Gonzaga.

Soon as we found that out, I hadn't watched any film. This is my first time actually getting my eyes on Stanford because they played Gonzaga. So I watched their game this morning. That was my first time seeing Gonzaga all year. I'm sorry, I just struggle with the west coast with the time difference.

So as far as we're concerned, we're focused on the Zags.

Q. Talk about Angel and what she's meant to this program, how you got her to Oxford.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, in fact, she's an angel, no pun intended to us. Literally, Angel, I saw Angel in the NCAA tournament put on a show against Arkansas, and then followed up. They beat Arkansas and played Missouri State.

And her coach after the season ended up getting a job at Memphis. I called her coach and I said, listen, is this kid going with you? What's the deal? She said, I think she's ready for the big stage and an opportunity to spread her wings. I don't know if you know much about me, but I can recruit so I just started recruiting.

We got her here. She's been a joy to coach. Angel is an incredible human being. Just very humble, very intelligent. People don't get to see that because they just see her on the court, she's a ball of fire.

But she's just really an awesome teammate, too. So she has really made my job easy because I've been able to push her and she's allowed me to do that.

Q. You and I both struggle with watching west coast basketball games. I would like to put that out there.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Even though we're Lakers fans, by the way.

Q. Yeah, we struggle with a lot of basketball on the west coast. A lot has been made of Gonzaga's three-point shooting. From your perspective, is it scheming up good looks? Do they have tough shot makers? A bit of both? What makes them good at what they do?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: I just think their offensive flow. They do a great job of spreading the floor and getting it in the hands of their shooters, and so I think that they take good shots as well. I think that helps them.

And so, you know, I feel like our percentage is not great, but I just want to go on record that we've made some threes here and there, too.

(Smiling.) (Laughter.)

That was a joke. But we really have. I mean, versus Missouri we made nine, so don't let the Rebs get hot. This will become a three-point shootout battle.

That's not what we want. I think that's what makes them special. They just spread the floor. Lisa runs great stuff, spearheaded by the point guard who is just incredibly smart and runs the show for them and sets them up for success.

So I think that's what allows them to get those shots off.

Q. Interesting position where you got the formidable older players and Angel and Myah Taylor, their last tournament. Younger players like Madison Scott. Can you speak a little bit to what this last ride means, but then also the younger folks taking on the reins and the leadership they're bringing?

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Yeah, when building a roster in today's climate, I think you have to have a healthy balance of both. Youthfulness, because they don't know any better; just always excited and ready to go.

Then obviously experience is important because last year we didn't have any and it showed.

We played the South Dakota team that came in and was phenomenally experienced. I think they had four fifth-year seniors and been to the tournament like three times. It was the first time yesterday was the first time I watched that game, by the way.

Because I wanted to show my team what -- and give them a feel like what it was like. But in the off-season that's why we went after Myah once she went into the portal. She sat on the bench in the Final Four, red shirted. Played in Elite 8 games.

Out of 11 players on our team, nine has had NCAA tournament experience. One is a freshman and Rita, transferred from Pitt. This will be her first dance.

And so it's just a different feel for us being in this tournament. Last year I was just so excited taking everything in. I think I've coached -- I know as a coach, head coach this will be my third, but I've been to the Sweet 16. Actually we beat Gonzaga to go to the Sweet 16 when was at Pitt. I got a lot of the history with Gonzaga.

And as far as the future is concerned with Madison and Snudda and Ayanna, it's exciting for them. This is not their first time, but they're waiting and learning and the leadership that Angel and Myah and those give and show. They're just following their lead and doing their part.

So this is been my most enjoyable year at Ole Miss. Been an incredible experience with this group. So humble and great individuals. Not every coach gets to say that. I'm just proud that I'm able to do that, say that.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. Good luck tomorrow.

YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Thank you.