After head coach Carol Ross’s tenure ended in 2007, the Ole Miss Rebels women’s basketball team faced a steep decline, slipping from a consistent NCAA tournament contender to missing out entirely for over a decade. That all changed when Yolett McPhee-McCuin, known as “Coach Yo,” took the helm of a program knee-deep in despair.

Arriving at Ole Miss after a single-win SEC season, Coach Yo saw untapped potential in the team and set out to rewrite its story. Through her leadership, the Rebels have rebounded spectacularly, and have reclaimed their place on the NCAA stage while captivating fans across the country. According to the Ole Miss website, McPhee-McCuin “has elevated Ole Miss women’s basketball back into the national spotlight” over her six seasons. These words ring true as her journey with the Rebels has been marked by a steady climb to success, each season building on the last.

Coach Yo Brings Ole Miss back on the map

In the 2023-24 season, she led the team to a record-breaking 12 SEC wins and helped Ole Miss secure its 20th NCAA Tournament appearance.

This success didn’t come overnight. The head coach, who is also a mother of two, faced significant challenges from the start. In her first season with the Rebels in 2018, the team won only nine games, a tough beginning for a coach who was eager to make her mark. But rather than being discouraged, McPhee-McCuin saw an opportunity. “Once I stepped on campus, there was no doubt in my mind that Ole Miss had the potential to be a force to be reckoned with—not only in the SEC but nationally as well,” she shared, on her profile page at the Ole Miss Rebels website.

It was this belief that led her to stick with her team and slowly build it up from scratch. In fact, it took 3 years since Coach Yo’s take over for the new Ole Miss Rebels to shake off the dust and make its first NCAA appearance in the 2021-22 season.

However, the dramatic shift in the team’s performance began in the 2020-21 season, with Ole Miss securing a 15-12 record and reaching the championship game of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).

This deep post-season run was the first spark of hope that ignited the initial embers of excitement among Rebel fans.

However, McPhee-McCuin’s dedication to defense became a defining characteristic of her teams, setting the stage for future victories. That year, the Rebels defeated three top-25 teams and achieved their first SEC Quarterfinal appearance in over a decade.

Her success can also be attributed to her eye for talent and ability to cultivate players. During her tenure, McPhee-McCuin has helped mold standouts like Shakira Austin, a First Team All-SEC center and Honorable Mention All-American, and Madison Scott, who was named SEC Freshman of the Year. McPhee-McCuin also recruited Angel Baker, who later earned SEC Sixth Woman of the Year, and no one can forget KK Deans another player who joined Coach Yo back in 2019-20 but has now become a bastion that Ole Miss relies on as they enter the 2024-25 season as they strive to make another NCAA appearance.

Speaking of appearances, under Coach Yo, Ole Miss made its first NCAA appearance in 2021-22 season, where they posted a 23-9 record and returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 years. Although, they had to make a quick exit after a gruesome first-round loss to South Dakota. This accomplishment helped the Rebels to climb to a No. 24 ranking in the AP Poll for the first time in over a decade.

That year, the team shattered school records with a season-high 142 blocks, holding a record 10 opponents under 50 points. McPhee-McCuin’s ability to foster a top-ranked defense had firmly placed Ole Miss among the SEC’s elite. However, this was all a by-product of McPhee-McCuin’s efforts at crafting a culture that extends beyond basketball from scratch.

And she did this by using her #NoCeilings motto, a rallying cry that has for sure changed Ole Miss over the years.

Building success the #NoCielings way

According to Coach Yo’s website coachyo.com, she came up with this motto when she was at Clemson “When I was an assistant at Clemson my players knew that I was getting ready to be a head coach and so one of them asked me what my saying will be. Back then it was popular, that if you had a program, you had a saying. A hashtag. So I said well, I don’t really know and she said it should be “No Ceilings”  because every time we feel like we’ve gotten somewhere you’d push us even more, so there’s really no break. And I took it and so that’s how I came up with the name.”

This philosophy encourages players to push past perceived limits in pursuit of greatness. McPhee-McCuin’s commitment to this ideal is not just for her players but also for the young people she mentors in her home country of the Bahamas. Through her foundation, No Ceilings with Coach Yo, she empowers young Bahamians through athletics and education, helping them realize their own potential without boundaries.

In the 2023-24 season, McPhee-McCuin achieved a milestone 100th win with the Rebels, becoming only the second coach in program history to reach this mark. But she didn’t stop there. She led the team to their third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and to their first tournament victory on Bahamian soil at the 2023 Battle4 Atlantis Championship. It was a proud moment for McPhee-McCuin, who brought her team to her homeland, where they won three games in three days. Madison Scott, one of her star players, earned Most Valuable Player honors, adding to the season’s highlights.

One of the most memorable moments came when the Rebels executed the greatest comeback in program history, erasing a 19-point halftime deficit to defeat Arkansas in overtime. This victory marked one of the top comebacks in the NCAA record books and a physical manifestation, a hallmark of McPhee-McCuin’s coaching philosophy.

Breaking Boundaries: Coach Yo’s journey from the Bahamas to NCAA and Beyond

McPhee-McCuin’s journey to becoming head coach at Ole Miss is remarkable in its own right. Born in Freeport, Bahamas, she was the first Bahamian woman to sign a Division I basketball scholarship. After a collegiate playing career and coaching stints at institutions like Pittsburgh and Clemson, she accepted her first head coaching position at Jacksonville University.

In five seasons, she transformed Jacksonville from a program that had seen limited success to a powerhouse in the Atlantic Sun Conference, earning the team’s first NCAA Tournament berth and securing back-to-back 20-win seasons.

She also rewrote history by becoming the first Bahamian woman to coach at the men’s national level in the 2021-22 season, when she joined the Bahamas Men’s Senior National Team as an assistant during World Cup qualifiers. Her body of work has not only elevated various college teams, but has also inspired young athletes across the Caribbean.

Today, Yolett McPhee-McCuin, stands as a leader and mentor, redefining what it means to shatter ceilings and borders. In fact, she is a living embodiment of her motto, a coach who is ready to shatter the ceilings to reach the zenith.