OXFORD – For the fourth straight year, the Ole Miss women’s basketball team is dancing in March.
The Rebels earned a No. 5 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and will face No. 12 Ball State in Waco, Texas. It’s the 21st NCAA Tournament bid in program history. Ole Miss was projected to be a No. 4 seed and host the first two rounds by ESPN’s Charlie Creme in his most recent bracket projections. Their No. 5-seeding is the highest for the program since 1994.
With the Ole Miss men’s team earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament earlier Sunday, both Rebels basketball teams will be in the tournament in the same season for the first time ever.
“I guess I’ll address the elephant in the room. I’m shocked, with the strength of schedule of a (No.) 3 and NET of a 12 and in the last month beating the No. 8 and No. 7-ranked teams in the country, you would think that we would have a chance to host, but that is not something that we could control, and so I’m not going to give a lot of attention to that,” head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “But I am going to say I’m excited about our team. … This will be a different opportunity for us, and we’re incredibly excited about competing.”
The Rebels advanced to the Sweet 16 in 2023 and lost in the second round of the tournament last season. The Rebels played in Waco in 2022 and lost to South Dakota in the first round.
After missing the tournament each year from 2007-08 through 2020-21, the Rebels, who are ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll, are currently in the midst of the second-longest bid streak in program history. Ole Miss made 11 straight tournaments under Van Chancellor from 1981-82 through 1991-92. It will be the fifth NCAA Tournament appearance for McPhee-McCuin, who also led Jacksonville to the tournament in the 2015-16 season.
Ole Miss (20-10, 10-6) won 20 games overall and 10 SEC games for the fourth straight season; prior to the 2021-22 season, the program had never accomplished the latter. The 2024-25 Rebels won two games vs. AP top-10 teams – a home victory vs. No. 8 Kentucky and a win at No. 7 LSU to close out the regular season. Ole Miss entered the SEC Tournament as the No. 7 seed and won its first game against Mississippi State before falling to top-seeded Texas in the quarterfinals.
Ole Miss played 11 games against teams that were ranked in the AP top 25 at the time of the matchup, including No. 1 Texas, No. 2 UConn, No. 3 USC and No. 6 South Carolina. The Rebels are No. 11 in the latest NET rankings.
“Honestly, if I’m being honest, I don’t have a lot of hope when it comes to people and when they get to use their opinion. I like to deal with the facts,” McPhee-McCuin said. “ … But when you allow people to get involved, there’s no telling what can happen. We hadn’t been in the top 25 all year. So, nothing surprises me any more.”
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