OXFORD — After turning around the women’s basketball program at Jacksonville, Yolett McPhee-McCuin has been named the ninth head coach in Ole Miss history, as announced Wednesday by Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Ross Bjork.
McPhee-McCuin will be introduced at noon Friday at The Pavilion at Ole Miss. All Ole Miss fans are invited to attend. Food and beverages will be provided. Doors to The Pavilion will open at 11:30 a.m.
McPhee-McCuin led Jacksonville to a 94-63 record (50-24 in Atlantic Sun Conference play) and postseason appearances in each of her last three seasons.
“Yolett McPhee-McCuin was born to teach and coach,” Bjork said. “As the daughter of legendary Bahamian basketball coach Gladstone ‘Moon’ McPhee and her mother a teacher, ‘Coach Yo’ has coaching and leadership running through her DNA. Throughout our search process, it became clear to us (that) coach McCuin is a star in the making, and we better secure her leadership before another program does.
“With her perspective as a collegiate point guard, we know she sees the big picture of what it takes to be successful in the SEC and on the national stage. Coach McCuin’s leadership, style of play, recruiting prowess, energy and passion is what we need to re-establish Ole Miss women’s basketball back to competing for and winning championships. We want to welcome Yolett, Kelly, Yasmine, and Yuri to the Ole Miss family.”
McPhee-McCuin, who also serves as the national team head coach for her native Bahamas, took over a program at Jacksonville that had only won 20 or more games in a season twice in its history and led the Dolphins to three-straight 20-win campaigns in her final three years.
“I am extremely humbled and grateful for the opportunity to be the women’s basketball coach at the University of Mississippi,” McPhee-McCuin said. “Once I stepped on campus, there was no doubt in my mind that Ole Miss had the potential to be a force to reckoned with — not only in the SEC, but nationally as well. I’d like to thank Chancellor Vitter and Ross for their complete vote of confidence in me, and I look forward to getting started.”
In 2015-16, McPhee-McCuin and the Dolphins made history, capturing the program’s first ASUN tournament title and NCAA tournament berth with an upset in the conference championship game against two-time reigning champion Florida Gulf Coast. The victory snapped FGCU’s seven-year, 71-game home streak against ASUN opponents and boosted Jacksonville to a 22-11 record.
McPhee-McCuin’s team followed that up with two more 20-win seasons and the first two Women’s National Invitation Tournament appearances in school history in 2016-17 (23-9, 11-3 ASUN) and 2017-18 (24-9, 12-2).
This past season, Jacksonville broke the school record for wins in a season.
In 2016-17, Jacksonville was the lone ASUN program to receive votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll. It also earned the first WNIT at-large bid given to an ASUN team.
Prior to her time at Jacksonville, McPhee-McCuin was an assistant at Clemson from 2011-13. While with the Tigers, McPhee-McCuin solidified her reputation as one of the best recruiters in the country, spearheading the No. 16 class in the nation in her final year at Clemson, which included five McDonald’s All-American nominees.
Before her stint at Clemson, McPhee-McCuin was on staff at Pittsburgh for two seasons in 2009 and 2010. She was part of a pair of postseason appearances with Panthers, who rose to No. 14 in the national rankings and advanced to a Sweet 16.
Her coaching career also includes stops at Portland, Frank Phillips College, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, where she earned her master’s degree in physical education with a 4.0 grade-point average.
McPhee-McCuin received her bachelor’s in business management and administration from Rhode Island in 2004. She played in 56 games as a junior and as a senior at URI, and helped the Rams advance to the 2003 Atlantic-10 Conference title game. She played her first two seasons at Miami-Dade Community College.
In addition to her collegiate coaching duties, McPhee-McCuin has served as the head coach for Bahamian national team since 2013. Her crowning achievement was the first Caribbean Basketball Confederation title for Bahamas in 10 years. The 55-51 victory against Jamaica helped the Bahamas qualify for the 2016 CentroBasket Championship.
McPhee-McCuin was the first Bahamian woman to sign a Division I letter of intent to play basketball, becoming a trailblazer in the process for other aspiring athletes from her home country. She is the first Bahamian woman to coach at a Division I program, and was the first black female head coach at Jacksonville before now becoming the first black female head coach in Ole Miss women’s basketball history.
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