{"id":884897,"date":"2026-01-14T06:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/support-pours-in-after-coach-yo-publicly-challenges-ap-poll-on-ole-miss-ranking\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T06:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:17:08","slug":"support-pours-in-after-coach-yo-publicly-challenges-ap-poll-on-ole-miss-ranking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/support-pours-in-after-coach-yo-publicly-challenges-ap-poll-on-ole-miss-ranking\/","title":{"rendered":"Support Pours In After Coach Yo Publicly Challenges AP Poll on Ole Miss Ranking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Basketball <\/p>\n

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Yolett McPhee-McCuin, the head coach of the Ole Miss women\u2019s basketball team, has built a program that deserves respect, and she\u2019s not going to wait for pollsters to notice it anymore. McPhee-McCuin is making it clear that her team deserves recognition that matches their performance on the court after leading the Rebels to a 16-3 record and big wins over ranked teams.<\/p>\n

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Watch What\u2019s Trending Now!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After the latest AP Top 25 poll came out on January 12, Yolett McPhee-McCuin went to X to complain about the ranking system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a joke! And if the voters not going to do their jobs, we don\u2019t need a AP POLL! Had we lost two games in a row, we\u2019d be fighting to stay in, or we\u2019d be out!\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

The coach\u2019s harsh words came after Ole Miss moved up only two spots to No. 16, even after having a great week that included beating then-No. 5 Oklahoma, 74-69, on the road and Mississippi State, 93-68, at home.<\/p>\n

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This is a joke! And if the voters not going to do their jobs we don\u2019t need a AP POLL! Had we lost two games in a row we\u2019d be fighting to stay in or we\u2019d be out! https:\/\/t.co\/7oGRafewzN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Coach Yo (@YolettMcCuin) January 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

The coach didn\u2019t hold back during her January 13 press conference either. \u201cI always feel like we have to do stuff three times more in order to get the respect that we deserve,\u201d she said. To make her point, she cited the UConn\u2013Michigan example. \u201cYou know, Michigan barely lost to UConn, and they treated them as if they were like the number six team in the country right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

For context, back in November, the top-ranked UConn Huskies held off a valiant comeback from the No. 6 (at the time, now no.8) Michigan Wolverines, escaping with a 72\u201369 win. Despite the loss, Michigan stayed at No. 6 in the following poll after pushing the defending champions to the final buzzer.<\/p>\n

Coach Yo also pointed to LSU\u2019s jump (six spots) after beating Texas before turning to Ole Miss\u2019 own week. \u201cOkay, we go on the road. We lose to Texas by three points. We go on the road to Oklahoma who\u2019s number five. We won. Then we come home against a Mississippi State team that is it\u2019s rivalry and we do something we hadn\u2019t done since 1991, right? Beat them by 25 points and you move us up two spots. Like where\u2019s the consistency?\u201d she said frustrated.<\/p>\n

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The numbers back up Yolett McPhee-McCuin\u2019s argument. So, naturally, fans supported Coach Yo\u2019s message and flooded social media with support for the program.<\/p>\n

Basketball Fans rally behind coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin\u2019s call for recognition<\/h2>\n

McPhee-McCuin<\/a>\u2018s direct message struck a chord with people outside of Ole Miss, and fans agreed with her frustration.<\/p>\n

People were upset with how the AP voters judged Ole Miss\u2019s performance. \u201cAgreed! Keep ballin\u2019 and prove them wrong,\u201d remarked one fan. The Rebels have indeed been balling. The three-point loss to Texas featured an incredible fourth-quarter turnaround that saw Ole Miss cut a 19-point deficit down to as little as three. Texas entered the final quarter with a 15-point lead, but a vicious effort from Cotie McMahon nearly powered the Rebels all the way back to complete the comeback.<\/p>\n

Maybe performances like that are why people keep believing in Coach Yo\u2019s group. Another backed up the coach\u2019s point of view, writing, \u201cThat\u2019s right! Let them know, coach. Get it right.\u201d Sure, this must have fired up the Rebels, but the road ahead doesn\u2019t get any easier, with matchups against Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, LSU, and South Carolina still looming. We\u2019ll see if coach\u2019s can turn that frustration into something tangible on the court.<\/p>\n

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Basketball Top Stories<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For now, fans continue to give more examples, as one wrote, \u201cYou must be talking about Iowa State. And WVU who blasted them isn\u2019t even ranked.\u201d Meanwhile, another added, \u201cKentucky beat LSU & OKC and is still ranked under LSU.\u201d These were just a few. Another example of the inconsistency is Ohio State moving up five spots to No. 14 for beating No. 8 Maryland by four points. The Buckeyes, though, are two spots behind Maryland this week in the rankings.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Oklahoma, who lost at home to Ole Miss and on the road to Kentucky. The Sooners dropped eight spots to No. 13, two spots ahead of a team they just lost to. Hence, the skepticism around the AP Poll has always been there. There is this whole section that argues that the AP Poll is never to be trusted. \u201cAP is a joke as I have said before,\u201d read another response.<\/p>\n

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\"basketball<\/p>

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Imago<\/p>\n

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We know these rankings have long been a topic of debate, to the point where fans often feel voters aren\u2019t watching the games and that there\u2019s a lack of week-to-week consistency. \u201cThe AP poll has been crooked for over a decade. I swear the voters do not watch any of the games,\u201d as a fan penned. And it\u2019s not just a women\u2019s basketball issue, or even a basketball one. The same concerns exist in college football as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo your job, AP voters! These players deserve it!!!\u201d was another reaction. And this is our final note, too. These athletes give everything they have on the court. While coaches will always want their teams to be up there and frustration after every ranking makes sense, it shouldn\u2019t come down to inconsistency or feel unfair week after week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a> Buffy Wiers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basketball Yolett McPhee-McCuin, the head coach of the Ole Miss women\u2019s basketball team, has built a program that deserves respect, and she\u2019s not going to wait for pollsters to notice it anymore. McPhee-McCuin is making it clear that her team deserves recognition that matches their performance on the court after leading the Rebels to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":884898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124942,3681,25409,2530],"tags":[16302],"class_list":["post-884897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","category-basketball","category-pours","category-support","tag-nba"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}