Women’s Basketball to Open vs. McNeese State

			OLE MISS (0-0, 0-0 SEC) vs. MCNEESE STATE (0-1, 0-0 Southland) Monday, Nov. 30 • 6 p.m. • Oxford, Miss. The Pavilion at Ole Miss
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OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss women's basketball will open its 2020-21 season when McNeese State comes to Oxford on Monday night. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. CT inside The Pavilion and on SEC Network+.

TEAM FACTS

Ole Miss Rebels (0-0, 0-0 SEC)
Head Coach: Yolett McPhee-McCuin • 3rd Season at Ole Miss (16-45) • 110-108 career record (8th Season)

McNeese State Cowgirls (0-0, 0-0 Southland)
Head Coach: Kacie Cryer • 5th Season at McNeese (38-82) • 38-82 career record (5th season)

ON THE AIR

Television/Online: SEC Network +
Play-by-Play: Seth Austin
Color: John Stroud

OLE MISS RADIO

Radio: 105.1 FM
Audio: TuneIn
Play-by-Play: Graham Doty

SERIES NOTES vs. MCNEESE STATE

Series History
Ole Miss leads, 6-1

Current Streak
Ole Miss, 1

First Meeting
Dec. 18, 1981
• W, 83-65, in Dallas
• Dallas Classic
• Eugenia Conner: 15 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists
• First triple-double in Ole Miss history

Last Meeting
Dec. 19, 2015
• W, 96-56, in Oxford

Other Notable Performances
Dec. 1, 2003
• Ashley Johnson: 10-of-10 FT
• One of eight Rebels to go 10-of-10 or better

Dec. 19, 2015
• Erika Sisk: 8 steals
• One of 10 Rebels with 8+ steals in a single game (Valerie Nesbitt included)

TEAM NOTES

YEAR THREE FOR COACH YO
Ole Miss enters the third season of the Coach Yo era with Yolett McPhee-McCuin at the helm in 2020-21.

McPhee-McCuin took over a Rebel program her first year that had just four returners and willed it to outperform all the preseason polls that picked Ole Miss unanimously to finish last. Coach Yo followed that up by signing the SEC's No. 1 recruiting class in 2019, highlighted by five-star signees Madison Scott and Jacorriah Bracey, and improved by the addition of ESPN's No. 1 rated transfer in 2020, Shakira Austin.

COACH YO VS. THE TOP-25
Being in the SEC means facing some of the toughest schools in the nation, and Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin has had a tough road through her first two seasons in Oxford. Coach Yo's Rebels have gone up against 13 nationally ranked squads in two years at Ole Miss, 12 of which have come in SEC play. Ole Miss has one win against those 12, a 55-49 upset over No. 16 Kentucky in Lexington on Jan. 13, 2019, which marked the first ranked road win by a Rebel team since 2011 and the first win at UK overall since 2007.

vs. Ranked Schools (First Year)
#2 UConn - Nov. 22, 2018 (L, 90-50)
#16 Kentucky - Jan. 13, 2019 (W, 55-49)
#6 MSU - Jan. 27, 2019 (L, 80-49)
#20 Texas A&M - Feb. 3, 2019 (L, 72-60)
#12 S. Carolina - Feb. 7, 2019 (L, 76-42)
#6 MSU - Feb. 21, 2019 (L, 88-60)

vs. Ranked Schools (Second Year)
#10 Texas A&M - Jan. 6, 2020 (L, 79-35)
#23 Tennessee - Jan. 9, 2020 (L, 84-28)
#9 MSU - Jan. 26, 2020 (L, 80-39)
#1 S. Carolina - Jan. 30, 2020 (L, 87-32)
#23 Arkansas - Feb. 16, 2020 (L, 108-64)
#14 Kentucky - Feb. 20, 2020 (L, 94-52)
#9 MSU - March 1, 2020 (L, 84-59)

OLE MISS IN SEASON OPENERS
In 46 seasons of action, Ole Miss women's basketball holds a 40-6 all-time record, which yields a .870 winning percentage. Of those 46 games, Ole Miss holds a 27-1 advantage in season openers at home, with the lone loss coming against Clemson on Nov. 16, 1998 (76-54). Ole Miss is 5-5 in openers on the road, and is a perfect 8-0 in openers at neutral sites.

RELOADED FOR 2020-21
Ole Miss welcomes a revamped roster for the 2020-21 season, which includes six newcomers (four freshmen, two transfers), as well as three who sat out last season in Donnetta Johnson (Georgia transfer), Andeija Puckett (Cincinnati transfer) and Caitlin McGee, who enrolled at Ole Miss one year early in 2010-20.

TOP OF THE CHARTS
The Rebels signed the SEC's No. 1 ranked recruiting class in 2019, who will hit the floor for the first time in an Ole Miss jersey this Monday. Five-star signees Madison Scott (No. 13 overall) and Jacorriah Bracey (No. 48 overall) highlighted the group, and were bolstered by three-star prospects Snudda Collins (No. 4 in Mississippi) and Caitlin McGee.

BABY REBELS
With a slew of new faces on the Ole Miss roster, the Rebels now own one of the youngest rosters in the nation with an average age of 19.67 as of Nov. 25. Furthermore, all 15 members of the Ole Miss roster had no more than two years of Division I experience at the beginning of the 2020-21 season on Nov. 25.

WHAT RETURNS IN 2020-21
Scoring: 42.0% (23.8 of 56.6 PPG)
Three-Pointers: 18.8% (31 of 165)
Rebounds: 44.6% (12.3 of 27.6 RPG)
Assists: 56.2% (7.0 of 12.4 APG)
Blocks: 15.0% (0.4 of 2.7 BPG)
Steals: 53.6% (3.9 of 7.3 SPG)
Minutes: 46.8% (94.0 of 200.8 MPG)

OFF THE LINE
Ole Miss proved difficult to damage from distance in 2019-20, holding opponents to five or fewer three-pointers in 21 of 30 games this season. The Rebels were particularly stout from beyond the arc in the last month of the season, stifling Alabama (3-of-20), Vanderbilt (3-of-8) and Florida (3-of-11) to a 9-of-39 clip (.231) in three straight from Feb. 2-13. The Rebel defense held Louisiana to a season-low 1-of-10 clip from the three-point line, the third time in the last two seasons that Ole Miss has held an opposing team to one three-point field goal.

In the Coach Yo era, three-point defense has been a point of emphasis, holding opponents to five threes or fewer in 38 of 61 games in her two seasons. Her first season, Ole Miss held 17 opponents to 30 percent or less from three, including 12 that shot 25 percent or worse and four that haven't been able to break 20 percent. The year before, Ole Miss held opponents under 30 percent just 10 times all season.

VARIETY IN THE STARTING LINEUP
Ole Miss used 20 different starting lineups in 30 games of the 2019-20 season. In Coach Yo's first season with the Rebels, Ole Miss used 17 different starting lineups through 31 total games played.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

BALL DON'T LIE
Ole Miss garnered national attention when it added ESPN's No. 1 rated transfer in April, Shakira Austin of Maryland. Austin was a significant contributor on two Big Ten championship teams at Maryland in 2019 and 2020, averaging 10.1 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.0 blocks, while shooting 47.2 percent overall in 66 games and 47 starts during her two years with the Terrapins. Austin shattered the Maryland single-season blocks record her freshman season with 89, earning her a spot on both the Big Ten Defensive Team and All-Freshman team, and followed that up with a slot on the 2020 All-Big Ten Second Team after ranking No. 1 nationally in 2019-20 in advanced analytic On-Court Forced Turnover Rate (via Pivot Analysis). Coming out of Riverdale Baptist, Austin was ESPN's No. 3 overall prospect and a McDonald's All-American.

BIG FISH
Five-star signee Madison Scott hits the court for the first time in an Ole Miss jersey Monday night, the beginning of a journey that began with her signing last November. Scott, the No. 13 national prospect out of Bishop McNamara in Maryland, is the first McDonald's All-American in Ole Miss women's basketball history (and just the second overall). Scott had a prolific career at Bishop McNamara, which was capped off by a senior season in which she was named the Washington Post Metro Player of the Year after notching a line of 13.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.8 steals and a .570 shooting percentage her senior season.

BUCKETS GALORE!
Fellow five-star signee Jacorriah Bracey was a superb scorer at Thomas E. Edwards High School in Drew, Mississippi, averaging a sublime 31.2 points and 6.3 assists per game throughout her entire career. She finished off her high school career with an out-of-this-world senior year, recording 35.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists en route to a 3A state runner-up finish and Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year honors.

BACK FOR MORE
Returning for the Rebels in 2020-21 are senior Valerie Nesbitt, juniors Iyanla Kitchens, Mimi Reid, Andeija Puckett, and Taylor Smith, sophomores Jordan Berry and Donnetta Johnson and redshirt freshmen Sarah Dumitrescu and Caitlin McGee. Puckett will miss the entirety of 2020-21 due to a knee injury suffered in preseason camp, Johnson hits the floor for the first time this season after sitting out the 2019-20 season, and Dumitrescu returns to the floor following a gruesome knee injury that cut her freshman season short.

OLD GUARD
Redshirt junior Mimi Reid returns as the Rebel with the most experience in 2020-21, with 54 career starts to her name. The Bronx native has finished each of her first two seasons at Ole Miss ranked in the top-10 in the SEC in assists, finishing last season seventh at 4.1 per game. Reid also flashed some scoring aptitude late in the year as well, averaging 15.4 points and shooting 43.6 percent overall in a five-game stretch from Feb. 13-27 last year. In all five games Reid scored in double digits (she had never done so in three straight prior to 2019-20) and her offensive prowess was highlighted by a career-high 21 points at Tennessee on Feb. 27, the first time she had broken 20 points in her career. Furthermore, Reid hit 18 straight free throws across four games from Feb. 16-27, ending up with a 19-of-22 (.864) line in that stretch.

THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART
Redshirt sophomore Donnetta Johnson has been waiting a long time to play basketball again, and she will have her shot Monday night. Johnson played in 27 games and started eight her freshman season at Georgia in 2018-19 before transferring to Ole Miss and sitting out last season per NCAA rules. At Georgia, Johnson sparked the Bulldogs in a historic upset over No. 13 Tennessee, which earned her SEC Freshman of the Week honors. Johnson was the No. 28 guard nationally coming out of Baldwin High School in Queens, New York.

LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY
Redshirt freshman Sarah Dumitrescu is healthy and ready for action after suffering a season-ending ACL injury seven games into her freshman season in 2019-20. At the time of her injury, Dumitrescu was Ole Miss' top rebounder at 7.3 per game, with a career-high 11 boards against New Orleans. Dumitrescu was awarded a medical hardship waiver from the SEC, giving her back a clean slate at a freshman season.

PUCKETT OUT FOR SEASON
Ole Miss received heartbreaking news during the preseason, with redshirt junior Andeija Puckett going down with a season-ending knee injury after sitting out all of 2019-20 due to NCAA transfer rules. Puckett transferred to Ole Miss from Cincinnati, where she contributed for two seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Puckett played in all 35 games for the Bearcats in 2018-19, averaging 4.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game for a Cincinnati team that advanced to the WNIT quarterfinal. Coming out of Griffin High School in her native Georgia, Puckett was rated a three-star recruit by ESPN after a prolific high school career that saw her leave Griffin as its all-time leader in scoring (1,330) and rebounds (790).

OLD DOG, NEW TRICKS
Sophomore Taylor Smith was always known for her smooth mid-range jumper, but she recently developed that just a few feet backward into a deadly three-point shot. With just three trifectas in her career entering a Feb. 13 contest at Florida, Smith drained three from beyond the arc -- including two in a row -- to help stimulate what ended up as an electric outing for the Rebel offense. Smith kept it up against No. 23 Arkansas, going a perfect 2-of-2 from beyond the arc and hitting all six of her first shots, ending with 17 points. Smith followed that up with a 3-of-7 three-point shooting effort at Missouri as part of her career-high 21 points. In a five-game stretch from Feb. 13-27, Smith averaged 13.6 points and 2.0 threes per game, while shooting .456 overall and .526 from three. Prior, she was only averaging 4.7 points per game.

Follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissWBB, Facebook at Ole Miss WBB and on Instagram at Ole MissWBB. You can also follow head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin on Twitter at @YolettMcCuin

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Players Mentioned

Shakira Austin

Jordan Berry

Jacorriah Bracey

Snudda Collins

Sarah Dumitrescu

Donnetta Johnson

Iyanla Kitchens

Caitlin McGee

Valerie Nesbitt

Andeija Puckett

Mimi Reid

Madison Scott

Taylor Smith

The University of Mississippi Athletics