OXFORD – When it came time for Cotie McMahon to choose her transfer portal destination – and, given her stature as one of college basketball’s top players, she had her pick of nearly anywhere – Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin could offer something truly unique: she cared about McMahon as a person, not just a basketball player.
McMahon was one of the nation’s top high school recruits out of Ohio’s Centerville High School and played her first three collegiate seasons at Ohio State. The forward starred for the Buckeyes, earning All-Big Ten honors every year, including first-team accolades each of the last two. She averaged a career-high 16.5 points rebounds for Ohio State last season, helping lead the Buckeyes to the NCAA Tournament’s second round.
McMahon opted to enter the transfer portal in late March and was ranked as the No. 3 overall player in the portal by ESPN. McPhee-McCuin immediately stuck out among her suitors, and McMahon committed on April 10, per On3.
Entering her eighth year as head coach, McPhee-McCuin has led Ole Miss to the NCAA Tournament each of the last four years, including Sweet 16 berths in 2023 and 2025. She has had previous success with transfers, including forward Shakira Austin, guard Kennedy Todd-Williams, guard K.K. Deans and guard Angel Baker.
“She really just cared,” McMahon said. “ … She really just voiced to me that she wants to push me to work on just a lot of things as far as who I am as a person and just getting outside of my comfort zone. And she expressed to me how we were going to do that and what we were going to do and the steps that needed to be done. And she kind of just told me, as long as I buy in and just trust her, she’s going to take really good care of me. And that’s really just what I was looking for, and I really trusted her with that.”
While the Rebels’ roster next season features just three returners in sophomore J’Adore Young, senior forward Christeen Iwuala and sophomore guard Sira Thienou, McPhee-McCuin once again reloaded through the transfer portal this offseason by bringing in the nation’s No. 2 class. Joining McMahon are a trio of graduate transfers in former UCF guard Kaitlin Peterson (21.4 ppg in 2024-25), former Wichita State forward Jayla Murray (12.4 points, 5.3 rebounds) senior Virginia forward Latasha Lattimore (14.3 points, 8.2 rebounds), among others. Ole Miss loses four of its top five leading-scorers from last season in forward Madison Scott, Todd-Williams, forward Starr Jacobs and Deans.
McMahon is the No.2-rated transfer in the SEC according to ESPN, behind South Carolina’s Ta’Niya Latson.
“I got a call from a friend of mine. I said, ‘There’s no way we can get her.’ And he was like, ‘Give her a call, you’d be surprised,’” McPhee-McCuin said. “So, I just reached out and she was, probably out of the group (of transfers,) the easiest one to recruit. It took maybe two conversations. She was really business-like, came in for maybe eight hours to visit – committed before she even visited, and then I said, ‘ … I need you to come see the place first.’ Came in in the morning and left that afternoon.”
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