On the shoulders of one of the best defenses in all of college basketball, the Rebels (25-8) have made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007 and for the 11th time in program history.

The Rebels allow 56.3 points per game, which ranks 20th nationally. They have the third-best 3-point percentage, with opponents hitting at a 24.8% clip. Their overall field goal percentage defense — 35.2% — is ninth in the nation.

In an upset over No. 1 seed Stanford, Ole Miss held Stanford to just 17 of 52 from the field. When the Cardinal started to make things interesting in the game’s waning moments, it was, of course, the defense that sealed the deal, forcing a trio of turnovers in the game’s final minute to secure the 54-49 victory.

The Rebels (25-8) take on No. 5 seeded Louisville (25-11) Friday at 9 p.m. at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

“When I realized that we had to get a stop to win the game, I had far more peace than having to score on the other end to win the game, because that’s who we are,” head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said with a smile. “ … We have won tons of games by having to get a stop, and our team just felt like we could do it.”

What the Rebels are doing this season isn’t just good by the program’s recent standards. It’s good within the historic context of the program’s highest highs.

Ole Miss has made consecutive NCAA Tournaments for the first time since 2004 and 2005. The Rebels are in their first Sweet 16 since 2007, a year that, until last season, was also the last time the program made the Big Dance period. Ole Miss has won 10 or more SEC games in each of the last two seasons. That’s the first time that has ever happened in consecutive seasons.

With a win over the Cardinals, Ole Miss would be tied for the fifth-most wins in a single season in program history. Its current total of 25 is already the most since the 1986-87 season.

There are additional numbers that put into historical context just how successful the last three seasons have been for Ole Miss women’s basketball — Ole Miss’ 48 combined wins over the last two years is the most since the 1986-87 and 1987-88 seasons, when the program won 49 games under Van Chancellor — he of career .740 winning percentage fame.

With Shakira Austin earning first-team All-SEC honors in 2021 and 2022 and senior guard Angel Baker getting the nod this season, Ole Miss has a player on the first team in three-straight years for the first time since Armintie Price did it herself from 2005-07. It’s the first time more than one player has garnered the honor on her own since Clara Jackson (1992-94) and Yolanda Moore (1994-1995, 1995-96).

The Rebels’ upset over top-seeded Stanford last weekend was historic in its own right. It marked just the eighth time a No. 1 seed was knocked out of the tournament in the first two rounds. It was also the program’s first ever victory against a No. 1 seed.

Last year in their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 15 years, Ole Miss was admittedly a bit shellshocked. They were young and inexperienced, not necessarily ready for the moment that was at hand.

That’s not the case this season, and doesn’t figure to be Friday night, either. The Rebels came to win.

“I really felt like if we could get over this hump, beating the No. 1 team; we faced the No. 1 team in the country and come up short,” McPhee-McCuin said. “I felt like if we could get over this, boy, there’s no telling what we can do.”