NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL 4 SEMIFINAL - OLE MISS VS LOUISVILLE

March 23, 2023

Yolett McPhee-McCuin

Angel Baker

Myah Taylor

Climate Pledge Arena

Ole Miss Rebels

Sweet 16 Pregame Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.

Q. Can you take us through the last few days from Stanford to now in terms of emotions, phone calls, and what logistics have kind of been like for you in the program?

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: Well, obviously, that was an incredible win for us. It's up there with one of the best wins as a head coach I've been a part of, probably tied with going to Florida Gulf Coast and taking down Karl Smesko, he was a juggernaut, his program, in the Mid Major level, and obviously Tara's been incredible. So it was great.

Our team celebrated, as we always do. It don't matter who we play, it's a big deal when we win. We try to celebrate our wins. We kind of let that hang with us for about 48 hours and came to Seattle and took in the sites and seasons. The girls went to the Pike Market and the Space Needle. So that was kind of cool. I didn't have a chance to do it, but I've lived in the Pacific Northwest, so I'm not a stranger to it. But for them it's been great.

Today, we have been incredibly focused and really kind of shutting off all of the outside noise, so to speak, and starting to get focused for our opponent tomorrow.

Q. I was hoping you could expand a little bit on your comment the other night about just if you see it, you can be it with -- there are three Black women head coaches left, you, Coach Daley, and Coach Ivey, and Coach Brooks being the only male Black coach. How big is that? 12 of the 16 teams left have female coaches in charge. So how big is that overall picture of having three black women and 12 women overall still playing for -- coaching women's basketball?

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: Right. It's a great question. I've thought about it a lot. I just think representation matters, no matter what. I remember going to watch the movie Black Panther and it was the first time I saw a Black superhero, but I didn't even realize I had never seen a Black superhero until I watched the movie. Immediately I felt like I could be a superhero.

It's the same for us, as coaches of color, we coach majority Black and Brown girls. So I think it's important for them to see that they can take this route if they want to later.

And then women, women in sports, this is women's history month. Like, this is the time for women to be celebrated. And I hate the whole narrative about, oh, why is it a big deal, why does it have to be race. It's race because it's not normal. Anything that's not normal is a big deal. It's a big deal that there are 12 women still coaching because we are making it normal for women to be respected and in leadership.

Just three years ago we were complaining about just being respected in the NCAA tournament. We just got the March Madness hashtag, you know? So how can we try to downplay all of these opportunities for people to see women in leadership and then women of color and people of color? It's something cool. I have two daughters. They may want to be a doctor or a lawyer, but they also know that they can be a coach if they want to. I think that's important and that's why I said, you can't be what you can't see.

Q. Curious how did you develop such a strong sense of belief? And then, how did you bring your players alongside to have that belief with you?

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: I just think it's one of my attributes as just a individual. It stems from my heritage from being from the Bahamas. We are small as far as population, but we're prideful people. We just always have a belief in anything we can do and we've just always seen it. Maybe not as often as you see superstars in America, but from track stars in the Olympics, Debbie Ferguson, and Mychal Thompson, and the list goes on and on. Like, these are pioneers for our sport from our country.

So coming up, I've always seen excellence from our small little island, so I've always believed. I'm grateful that I had an opportunity to come to the United States and realize that my head was probably a little bit too big because I got real normal once I came to the U.S., because in the Bahamas I was the best and I came and I wasn't even close.

But I think one of the things that is important for my team is the whole mantra in no ceilings. That there's no limit to what you could accomplish, and I really believe that. I think that young people get told so much what they can't do. All you have to do is plant that seed of doubt, right, and all of a sudden they don't think that they can do whatever maybe it is that they want to do.

So every once in a while I ask my children what they want to be, and they change it every time, but I always encourage them. I don't care if they say they want to be a hairstylist, whatever it is, I want them to believe because I think in the absence of hope, that's where hate comes in and hate creeps in. So I just want everybody around me to be hopeful. So that is our program and that's why they move like that. They kind of get that from me.

Q. Along the lines of belief, we hadn't seen a No. 1 seed lose in the first two rounds at home since it went back to that format, then we see it back-to-back nights with you and Miami pulling that off. Do you feel like there's an element where what your team was able to accomplish led to a belief from somebody else?

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: Probably. I mean, again, representation matters, right? It's not only race or a gender, it's seeing someone accomplish something great. I think women's basketball took a huge turn when Mississippi State beat UConn. Like, right then and there I was -- I was in the crowd, and I was like, whoa. You couldn't even wrap your head around someone beating UConn at the time.

And then once that happened, we saw what? Other teams starting to do it, Dawn and everybody. So I think it did help. They texted us afterwards, so maybe it did.

Q. I was hoping you could speak to the recruiting of Madison Scott, the belief she's had in this program and the impact that she's made in the growth of this program. And then where do you feel like she has grown, on and off the court, in her three years with you?

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: Oh, Madi. Madi is a unique individual. When we were recruiting her, she had four other -- she had narrowed it down to five, and four of the teams were in the top 25. Obviously, we can't even get a vote. Ask Doug. So you know we weren't in the top 25 three years ago if we can't get a vote now. That was a stab at him. I've been waiting on that moment. (Laughing.)

But I went to her and said, Look, we're not in the top 25, but you can come here and you can help us get there if you believe. And I think people that come to Ole Miss believe in three things: They believe in themselves; they believe in me; and they believe in the vision of the program. Her high school coach put a picture up -- Gabriella. They put a picture up of when she said she was coming to Ole Miss and she was crying and I was hugging her. And they put the picture when we beat Stanford, and she was crying and I was hugging her and we were both crying.

And I just think -- Madi means the world to this program. This is Madi's program. She is continuously getting better. She wants to put Ole Miss on the map. She wants to do it for her family, herself, and she is an ultimate joy to coach.

Q. Obviously you went viral the other day with your comment about that you called Ole Miss and pitched yourself. What I was curious about is, a lot of times coaches are not the first choice, but they're the right choice. When you got to Ole Miss and you knew that they had talked to other people, maybe they had offered other people the job, what gave you the confidence to still believe, even though you weren't the first choice? And I'm curious if anyone gave you any sort of like pep talk saying, hey, you know, so-and-so wasn't the first choice and look how good they turned out.

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: Well, you know, I knew I wasn't the first choice because when I called the search firm, they told me that there were people ahead of me and if it got to me, then maybe they will call me back. I was just at peace at shooting my shot, you know what I'm saying? Like, I just don't think you can make the shot if you don't take it.

And so I was actually working out and I stopped in the middle of my workout and I called the search firm and introduced myself and expressed my interest. Well, 48 hours after that, they -- Chad Chatlos called and said, Coach Yo, you have an interview. And I was like, For which job? (Laughing.) And he said, Ole Miss. And I remember getting off the phone and my first call was to Dawn Staley, and I said, Dawn, I have an interview at Ole Miss. What do you think? And she said, Yo, it's a tough job, but if anybody can do that job, it's you. And I said, No, you need to give me more why. And she said, Because you can recruit and you believe in yourself that much and players will play hard for you.

So when I showed up on campus after getting the job, you spend five minutes with me, you believe you can fly too. I just have a belief in myself. I'm you know apologetic about it. I know I'm an acquired taste. You either love me or you hate me, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I was raised that way. My parents raised me to have confidence in myself and to not look for that from anybody else, for it to be internal.

So no one had to give me, you weren't the first. I'm not ashamed of it, you know? Listen, my husband wasn't first, but we've been married going on 16 years, you know? And I almost went in the transfer portal on him a couple times. But we're happily married and June 8th makes us 16 years. So you take it how you get it and you make the most of it.

Q. That whole kind of story, not just with the program going from 0-16 a few years ago to what it is now and --

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: We got to let that go at some point. (Laughing.)

Q. All of this, the overcoming through all of this, but with you personally, all that you've overcame, like what you just said with being able to get this job and coming here from the Bahamas, your own personal overcoming story, do you ever kind of use that to your players or pitches to recruit to show how far you can take the whole situation?

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: Oh, yeah. I tell my players all the time, like, if I can do it -- sometimes they will come by my house or we'll go out -- I live in a -- we have a country club, and they will go out there, and they will say, Man, I want this. I'm like, Shoot, you going to own this, because if I could do it, then you definitely can do it. Because I didn't have the resources that my players have.

And I always tell my players all the time, like, no matter what, this is my ministry. Coaching is not something that I'm doing for me. And I know I get a lot of attention because of my story, but my focus is making sure that my players accomplish whatever it is they want in life. I truly feel like I'm already winning. I don't know -- if God didn't give me anything else, I think I would be fine. My goal and my staff's goal is to make sure our players win in life. So they know the story. I share it with them. We talk often about it. I don't try to be a parent for them. I think I'm a mentor for them. And I share a lot. I'm very open, from struggles to triumphs. I mean, I talk to them about everything and I think that's what makes our team unique.

Q. What mistakes do you feel like you might have made at Jacksonville specifically that help prepared you for this moment or do you feel like you learned from that set you up to get here?

YOLETT MCPHEE-MCCUIN: Shout out to Alex Ricker-Gilbert and President Tim Cost. I just heard from them today at JU. I tell you what, I wouldn't be -- if this was my first stop, I would have been fired already. So I obviously had a chance to make some mistakes without the camera and the lights being on. Some of the mistakes, some of the lessons, I've learned is just understanding what battles to pick, to fight.

Initially, I thought I would fight any battle. I don't care what it was. I think that opportunity at JU just allowed me to grow and mature, and I don't know if you saw my tweet, but I thanked those coaches. I didn't thank 'em because they took me in. I thanked 'em because they kicked my butt over and over and over again and made me go back to the drawing board. And if anything, I was allowed to make those mistakes and grow.

I was also allowed to mature as a coach. I was 30 years old when I got that job. That's pretty young. At the time, I was role playing like crazy trying to be who my other coaches were. At the time, I hadn't found myself, right? So that was probably a little rocky for some of my players. So now that I'm more mature, I know who I am and I'm confident in being who I am, and my players love me for it. Although, my older players think I've gotten soft, but that's for another conversation.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. We've gone over time here.

(Pause.)

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with questions for the student-athletes.

Q. I guess we can kind of start with Myah, but Coach Yo was just in here and told us about how she kind of uses her own story, like coming here from the Bahamas and how she got this job and built this program up to what it is now, her overcoming all of that that she kind of talks to both of you and the rest of the team about it to use it for motivation and kind of create the culture that's at Ole Miss, what have those conversations been like and meant for y'all and how do you think it's helped build the culture there?

MYAH TAYLOR: So Coach Yo is such an inspiration for everybody. She just coaches out of passion, out of love. I just feel like, speaking for me, I think I can speak for my teammates as well, that we feel that energy each and every day. I just think that not only is she my basketball coach, but she's a mentor. Any situation that I have going on outside the court, I'm able to talk to her and she's able to mentor me, give me advice, and lead me in the right direction. So I feel like having that each and every day is just truly a blessing. And so I really think she definitely keeps us going for sure.

Q. Curious if either of you had a chance to see the Miami game on Monday and whether you feel like there was any sort of carryover from what you were able to accomplish and then another team going on the road and taking down a No. 1 seed the next day.

ANGEL BAKER: Yeah, we were able to watch that game. I'm not sure if there was any carryover, but I'm glad they got the win. (Laughing.)

Q. For both of you, Angel, you talked the other night how big it was to have coach be someone like you who represents you as a Black female. Can you talk about how big that is to have someone who you can look up to, is like you? And she was saying how it's big for young girls, her kids, to have someone who is a role model who is like them, and she said she saw Black Panther and didn't realize that was there Black superhero until she saw that. So how big is that for you, having a Black female coach?

ANGEL BAKER: It means a lot. Coach Yo really is a believer and she's a fighter and when she talks about her background, it's just -- like, her journey is amazing. I look up to that. I just try my best to be a reflection of her when I step on the court.

MYAH TAYLOR: I'll just thing that -- Coach Yo, she says all the time, she got it out of the mud. Every time she says it, it puts a smile on my face because we truly see the hard work that she has put in. Just to see what she's been able to do, just even here at Ole Miss over the last couple years has been amazing, and I've been able to watch it from afar, and now being a part of that has just been great.

Q. You guys have quite a few close calls this year against really good teams like Utah, South Carolina, just late game got away from you. Curious how much, how important was it for you going forward to have this opportunity against Stanford where you were able to execute down the clutch?

ANGEL BAKER: I think those games prepared us for Stanford. We kept getting close and we kept falling short. They prepared us to be able to push over that hump and get the job done.

Q. Sometimes teams have these big wins over No. 1 seeds -- and what y'all did was incredibly historic on Sunday. So sometimes it's very emotional and there's kind of an emotional lag for teams in that next game. Yo was in here talking about how focused y'all have been. Has there been kind of a process so you make sure you stay focused and stay focused on the task at hand as well, because I'm sure with all the people reaching out to you and all the national prominence that's been somewhat in a distraction.

ANGEL BAKER: We celebrated and I think, what, for until Monday? And then after that the mindset went win or go home. So we just been trying to stay locked in on that.

Q. Talking about that focus, but also having a little bit of fun while you're traveling around. You explored Seattle a little bit yesterday. How did you feel about touring Seattle, things you liked, anything else you want to experience, or are you now fully into that focused mode, it's game only, game conversation, or are you going to still try and get out?

MYAH TAYLOR: No, yesterday we used it as a bonding experience as well. We think that that's very important. Especially since we play with so much love and passion for each other, those bonding moments outside of basketball I feel like really fueled us on the basketball court. But right now we're just focused on the game that's ahead. I think that starts with the leadership within the team and then Coach Yo and the leadership with the staff. I think they have been very intentional in making sure that we've been laser focused with what's to come and right now the only game that matters is the game tomorrow.

Q. For both of you. I just was hoping you could speak to Madison and the role she has on this team and the growth and leadership that you have seen from her in the past year and then two years.

ANGEL BAKER: Just playing with Madi last year and the growth that she has, like has since this year, her leadership, her voice. But what she brings to the team, like no one else can bring. What she's able to do on both ends of the floor. She can defend well with her length. And then when she's aggressive it's a tough night for our opponent.

MYAH TAYLOR: For me I've been on both sides. I've been able to play against Madi and then finally play with Madi. Just saying playing against Madi is no fun. She's very tough. Just now being her teammate, being her PG, she always reminds me of that. I just think that she fuels everyone on the team. She is the battery in our bag. She just brings her length, her toughness, her grit. All those things have just been really been great for us.

Q. Is there an X factor to this team? You've got talent, you've got depth, you've got experience, you've been in big games. Is there an intangible that has helped you get to this Sweet 16 stage?

ANGEL BAKER: I would say just the love we have for each other. We go out we play for each other. Yeah, I think that the love would be the X factor.

MYAH TAYLOR: I agree.

Q. What did you guys actually do in Seattle yesterday? Again, for either of you, the SEC is obviously a really, really good conference and there's a narrative like, oh, these upsets here. But you guys are a Power 5, Colorado is Power 5, Louisville is a Power 5, and Iowa's a Power 5. So it's not like you guys haven't played really good competition all season long, I'm guessing.

MYAH TAYLOR: So you asked what we did in Seattle, correct? Oh, first, sorry, I was like... So we did a little bit of shopping. We went to the Space Needle. So that was kind of fun.

And then with the competition, yeah, the SEC is a great league. What they say is, It just means more. And I just think that those games have definitely prepared us for these moments now and so we're going to be able to, I guess, use that in sense.

Q. What do y'all see from Louisville when you look at that film? I know y'all watched the game together the other night against Texas, but Angel what sticks out to you the most about their program and what they do?

ANGEL BAKER: Well Louisville's a great team with a lot of experience. I think everybody in the Sweet 16's a good team. So we just got to be prepared for a fight.

Q. I was just following up on a question. Coach said you guys went to Pike Place, did anyone get to catch a fish from the fishmongers? They toss fish to tourists, I think, if you like ask nicely.

ANGEL BAKER: They tried to get our teammate, Destiny. She ran though, but they tried.

THE MODERATOR: All right, ladies. Thank you.