By RENALDO DORSETT
Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
THE Bahamas will be an active venue for NCAA basketball this month and that list of programmes will include Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s Ole Miss women’s programme.
Ole Miss will participate in the eight-team field at Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship at the Baha Mar Convention Centre.
Ole Miss is scheduled to face the Dayton Flyers at 8pm on November 21 and the Utah Utes at 7pm on November 23. “242 we are on the way! This has been a dream come true! To be able to bring my team to The Bahamas here at Ole Miss!” McPhee-McCuin posted to Instagram.
“Come out and support your own and her Lady Rebels for two really good games! I can’t wait to be back home and show my programme what our beautiful country is about!”
The remainder of the Pink Flamingo field includes the Kentucky Wildcats, Virginia Tech Hokies, Alabama Crimson Tide, Missouri Tigers, and Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Five of the eight teams in the field were participants in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
All eight games of the Pink Flamingo Championship will be broadcast on FloHoops.
“We are going to look at those two games as a tournament,” McPhee-McCuin said.
“We would like to win that championship. Yes, this is a business trip, but it is a life experience, too. [It will] give our players an experience that maybe they won’t ever get again.”
Ole Miss is off to a 4-0 start this season.
“I think we are starting to get a bravado about ourselves,” McPhee-McCuin said following their most recent win 92-46 over Southern Mississippi.
“I think we are extremely confident on the defensive end. We just have to mature. This group is still figuring out who they want to be.”
The Pink Flamingo event is a part of the expansion of Baha Mar Hoops.
In its second edition, 20 men’s and women’s teams will compete over the Thanksgiving holiday at Baha Mar.
Between November 18-27, the schedule of events includes 24 games played across three events - the Baha Mar Hoops, Nassau and Pink Flamingo Championships.
The Rebels have improved each year under McPhee-McCuin’s tenure and after a season that produced the programme’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 15 years.
Ole Miss concluded the season 23-9, 10-8 in the SEC to earn an at-large bid and the no.7 seed in the Wichita Region where they lost to South Dakota.
She led Ole Miss to its first top 25 ranking since 2007.
The season was highlighted by a 13-game win streak, the third longest win streak in programme history.
It also included wins over three ranked opponents in conference postseason play.
The Rebels also found themselves slotted in the national polls with its first AP Poll appearance since 2007, when Ole Miss came in ranked at No. 24 on January 24.
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