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Ole Miss Goes Punch-For-Punch with LSU in 78-70 Loss

Published

7 months ago

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Ole Miss senior Christeen Iwuala drives into the paint during Thursday night's game against LSU. | Ole Miss Athletics

There’s no such thing as a “good loss” in February, but there are nights that tell you something about where a team stands.

No. 17 Ole Miss didn’t beat No. 7 LSU on Thursday, but it absolutely showed it can go punch‑for‑punch with one of the best teams in the country.

The Rebels fell 78-70, but the game never felt out of reach.

It wasn’t one of those nights where you walk out of the SJB Pavilion wondering what went wrong. If anything, it was the opposite. Ole Miss looked like a team that’s settling into who it is, even against a top‑10 opponent with national expectations.

“I’m super proud of my team. This has been a really challenging time for us, and anyone who watched the game could see that we ran out of gas,” Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “I’m not taking anything away from LSU, but we lost by seven in the fourth quarter, and it wasn’t because we didn’t get shots. We missed 17 shots around the basket. I didn’t think our effort hurt us. We shot 58 percent from the free-throw line in the fourth. There are a lot of positive things to take from this.”

And, as usual, Cotie McMahon was the center of it all.

She dropped 25 points, which at this point feels like her baseline. That’s 17 games with 20 or more this season, tying Peggie Gillom for the third‑most in a single year by any Rebel. She’s also hit double figures in 27 games, the most by an Ole Miss player since 2019.

What helped Thursday was that she wasn’t alone. Christeen Iwuala and Latasha Lattimore both gave Ole Miss exactly what it needed inside: 13 and 12 points, eight rebounds each, and Lattimore adding three blocks, which is something she’s done 11 times this season. That kind of frontcourt stability matters when you’re trying to match LSU’s size and athleticism.

The game itself had a nice rhythm to it. LSU jumped out early, but Ole Miss didn’t panic. McMahon hit a couple of threes, the pace picked up, and suddenly the Tigers’ lead was cut in half by the end of the first quarter. By the second, the Rebels were trading buckets, tying the game, and eventually taking a 43-37 lead into halftime thanks to a last‑second putback from J’Adore Young.

The third quarter was probably the most fun stretch of basketball Ole Miss has played in a while. Tianna Thompson hit a pair of threes, saved a loose ball that looked destined for the sideline, grabbed an offensive rebound, and set up Iwuala for an easy bucket.

It was the kind of hustle sequence that gets a crowd moving. When Thompson buried another triple to push the lead to 13, the Pavilion felt like it was ready to tilt.

But LSU is LSU.

They tightened up defensively, forced turnovers, and chipped away. Ole Miss still had answers but the Tigers controlled the fourth quarter and closed it out the way veteran teams do.

“I think the fourth quarter was completely on us,” McMahon said. “We had a lot of shots around the rim that we usually don’t miss, and we just couldn’t finish — even on putbacks. Those are shots we normally make. Some of the shots I took could have been better. I think we were just a little tired.”

Even so, this wasn’t a step backward for Ole Miss. If anything, it was a reminder that the Rebels can stand in the ring with top‑10 teams and make them work for everything. The effort was there. The execution was there for long stretches. And the pieces continue to look like they’re growing into something sustainable.

Now the challenge gets even bigger: a trip to Columbia to face No. 3 South Carolina on Sunday morning, with College GameDay in the building. It’s another chance to show the same thing Ole Miss showed Thursday — that it belongs on this stage.

And if the Rebels keep stacking performances like this, the wins in these moments won’t be far away.

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Basketball

Ole Miss Basketball Appears in First Look at Expanded NCAA Tournament Field

Published

4 months ago

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May 8, 2026

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Ole Miss Men's Basketball during the game against Mississippi St. at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Mississippi on January 17, 2026. | Ole Miss Athletics

Most college sports fans saw Thursday’s news that the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments are expanding to 76 teams. Eight additional teams will be added to what is currently the First Four, turning it into a 24‑team play‑in stage with 12 games across two days. The winners will join the 52 teams already slotted into the traditional first‑round bracket.

We already talked about what expansion means for both Ole Miss programs, and it’s still way too early to know which teams will actually benefit next season. But you know that won’t stop anyone from trying.

NCAA.com analyst Andy Katz posted his first 76‑team projection Friday morning, based on his initial Power 44 rankings for 2026‑27. Katz or his model must really like what Ole Miss has done this offseason. The Rebels show up at No. 39 in the Power 44 and land as a No. 10 seed in the South quadrant.

Again, it’s early. The last season ended a month ago. Ole Miss shouldn’t start booking hotel rooms in Pittsburgh just yet.

Still, this tells us two things about Ole Miss and the new tournament format.

First, it’s going to be hard for a middle‑of‑the‑pack SEC team to miss the field now. Second, if the bracket had been at 76 teams this past season, the committee would’ve had a real decision to make about the Rebels.

Maybe they get in. Maybe they don’t. Did they deserve a spot? Probably not, and adding eight more at‑large bids doesn’t change that much.

But the future looks better now for Ole Miss.

Andy Katz’s Initial Power 44

1. Duke

2. Florida

3. Michigan

4. Illinois

5. Tennessee

6. UConn

7. Arizona

8. Arkansas

9. Texas

10. Michigan State

11. Vanderbilt

12. Virginia

13. Kansas

14. Houston

15. Louisville

16. Alabama

17. Nebraska

18. Iowa State

19. Purdue

20. USC

21. Gonzaga

22. St. John’s

23. Miami (FL)

24. Indiana

25. Missouri

26. VCU

27. Saint Louis

28. UCLA

29. Ohio State

30. BYU

31. Iowa

32. Texas A&M

33. North Carolina

34. Providence

35. Baylor

36. Wisconsin

37. Auburn

38. Xavier

39. Ole Miss

40. Marquette

41. Texas Tech

42. Kentucky

43. Maryland

44. New Mexico

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Basketball

What NCAA Tournament Expansion Means for Ole Miss Basketball

Published

4 months ago

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May 7, 2026

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Ole Miss basketball players celebrate a SEC Tournament win against Alabama on Friday night. | Ole Miss Athletics

Missing the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments is about to get a lot harder.

Multiple outlets reported and the NCAA itself announced Thursday that the committees overseeing both tournaments have officially voted to expand the fields to 76 teams.

None of this should catch anyone off guard. The NCAA started exploring expansion about a year ago, and reports two weeks ago made it clear the process was in its final stages. Now it’s done. The new format will debut in 2027.

According to ESPN, top NCAA officials met with the tournament’s media partners to finalize the updated contracts before the vote. The committees required signed agreements before making anything official, and once those were in place, expansion moved forward.

The biggest change comes at the front end of the tournament. Eight additional teams will be added to what is currently the First Four. That round will grow into a 24‑team play‑in stage with 12 games spread across two days. The winners will join the 52 teams already slotted into the traditional first‑round bracket.

The NCAA is expected to rebrand the First Four language, but the structure stays familiar. The opening round will still include both automatic qualifiers and at‑large teams. All 16 seeds and half of the 15 seeds will make up half of the 24‑team group. The other half will come from the lowest‑seeded at‑large teams, including a mix of 11 and 12 seeds.

It’s a significant shift, but the goal is simple: more teams, more access, and fewer seasons ending on Selection Sunday with nothing to show for it.

What This Means for Ole Miss

On the women’s side, this doesn’t move the needle much. Yolett McPhee‑McCuin has raised the bar to the point where simply making the tournament isn’t the goal anymore.

Ole Miss wants to host a NCAA Regional for the first time in program history, and that standard doesn’t change with a bigger field.

The men’s side is a little different. It depends on the year. Two seasons ago, expansion wouldn’t have mattered. This past season, it would’ve changed everything.

Ole Miss finished 15-20 and sat at No. 80 in the NET. In a 76‑team bracket, that puts you on the bubble, and one more win in the SEC Tournament probably gets the Rebels into the field.

For programs in a league as deep as the SEC, the extra spots matter. The women’s side won’t feel much of a shift, but the men’s side absolutely will. Bubble teams in this conference won’t be living on the same razor’s edge anymore.

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Basketball

Ole Miss Basketball Transfer Portal Picture Comes Into Focus

Published

4 months ago

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May 5, 2026

By

Ole Miss coach Chris Beard

It’s been two weeks since the transfer portal window closed, and after a slow start, Ole Miss is finally nearing the end of its roster‑building phase.

The Rebels have added seven transfers, plus TJ Clark who committed back in December. Four‑star recruits Jaron Saulsberry, Yohance Connor and Daniel Patton are also on the way this summer.

Those 10 newcomers will join Ilias Kamardine and Patton Pinkins, the only returning Rebels, to form the foundation of next year’s roster.

The question is whether that’s enough, and whether Chris Beard is actually done adding.

The honest answer is maybe and probably not.

Nobody knows yet if this group will be better or worse than what Ole Miss just put on the floor.

There’s no headline addition, but that doesn’t mean the roster can’t mesh, grow together and avoid needing a miracle run in March.

There’s also the chance it looks like last season, when the pieces never fully clicked.

Given the current guard‑heavy build, it feels likely Beard will look for more frontcourt help. Stefan Cicic gives Ole Miss a true 7‑footer and Santiago Trouet adds more size, but the Rebels could still use another proven interior presence.

One name to watch is former Florida Atlantic forward Devin Williams, who has reportedly met with Ole Miss over Zoom and is visiting Arizona this week. Williams finished fifth nationally in blocks last season at 2.58 per game, which would give Beard a real defensive anchor inside.

In the end, Ole Miss won’t know what this roster really is until the group gets on the floor together, but the picture is at least starting to take shape.

Beard has rebuilt almost the entire program for the second straight offseason, and there’s still room for one or two more pieces to round it out.

Whether this version ends up being better, worse, or simply different from last year’s team is impossible to know in May, but the next additions will tell us plenty about how the Rebels plan to finish the job.

Ole Miss Basketball Transfer Portal Tracker

Men

Outgoing

Incoming

  • Christian Brown, F, 6-8, Fr. (James Madison)
  • Stefan Cicic, C, 7-0, Fr. (Pepperdine)
  • Adam Clark, G, 5-10, Jr. (Seton Hall)
  • TJ Clark, G, 6-3 (Hermosillo)
  • Dasear Haskins, G, 6-8, So. (St. Joseph’s)
  • ND Okafor, F, 6-7, Jr. (Washington State)
  • Roman Siulepa, F, 6-6, Fr. (Pittsburgh)
  • Santiago Trouet, F, 6-10, Jr. (Arizona State)

Women

Outgoing

  • J’Adore Young, 6-4, C, Soph.
  • Sira Thinenou, 6-1, F, Soph.
  • Tianna Thompson, 5-10, G, Soph. (Baylor)

Incoming

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