November 10, 2024

‘I called them’: After Ole Miss women top Stanford, Coach Yo explains how she got Rebels job

Coach Yo #CoachYo

An upset over top-seeded Stanford on Sunday night provided Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin – known to most as ‘Coach Yo’ – a platform for reflection.

And reflect she did, throughout a press conference lasting over 30 minutes. Among the highlights was a story about how she landed the job to be the Rebels’ head coach. Coming off a third-straight 20-win season at Jacksonville in 2018, she placed a call to the athletic department with a simple question: “What are you guys doing?”

Mississippi coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin gestures during the first half of the team's second-round college basketball game against Stanford in the women's NCAA Tournament, Sunday, March 19, 2023, in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Josie Lepe) © Josie Lepe, AP Mississippi coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin gestures during the first half of the team’s second-round college basketball game against Stanford in the women’s NCAA Tournament, Sunday, March 19, 2023, in Stanford, Calif. (AP Photo/Josie Lepe)

“I’m hot,” she said. “And y’all can get me for cheap. And I’m recruiting my butt off with a $20,000 recruiting budget. Give me yours and watch what I do.”

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Here’s what she did: After three years of building, she achieved back-to-back fourth-place finishes with a program that hadn’t had a winning season in the SEC for more than a decade. She went to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007, then went again the following season. And, Sunday, she upset a No. 1 seed in its home building on the heels of back-to-back Final Four runs and a national championship.

Her phone call was bold. Her performance has backed it up.

“I wasn’t Ole Miss’ first choice,” she told ESPN postgame. “But I was the right one. And I was naive enough to think that I could do it.”

The Rebels will take on the winner of Texas vs. Louisville in the Sweet 16.

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: ‘I called them’: After Ole Miss women top Stanford, Coach Yo explains how she got Rebels job

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