How unbreakable chemistry has led Ole Miss to the precipice of history
Mar. 3—GREENVILLE, South Carolina — Teams don't always get along.
Ole Miss senior Myah Taylor and junior Madison Scott have been on such teams in their basketball lives, though they quietly opt not to divulge where and when. They choose to smile and laugh instead.
Head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin acknowledged that, if you coach long enough, you'll find you enjoy coaching some teams more than others.
But the 2022-2023 Rebels — yes, the team with a whopping seven new players? That's about the most fun either of the three has had.
All the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle just fit ever-so-perfectly together, each complementing the one to its right or left to create a work of art that hasn't been seen in Oxford in quite some time.
Close-knit Rebels succeeding with chemistry
Taylor and Scott didn't know each other personally before this year — Taylor, a star from Olive Branch who played at Mississippi State before choosing to change everything she knew by moving 100 miles northwest, and Scott, the highest-rated recruit in Ole Miss history who has seen a bit of everything in three seasons on-campus. Sure, they knew —of— each other, but not much about each other.
Is Taylor surprised she's found family so quickly in Oxford?
"No," Taylor said without hesitation. " ... Knowing them now, and then just backtracking to when I first came on campus ... they showed their true selves. And it's not a surprise. They are genuinely good people, basketball aside. And so I think that's why we just gelled so quickly."
This Ole Miss team knows what was said about it — that the program was going to take a step back, that this iteration of the Rebels lacked the star-power to make consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since 2004 and 2005 without Shakira Austin, the third pick in the WNBA Draft.
Oops.
As Ole Miss (22-7, 11-5) prepares for its SEC Tournament opener against Texas A&M or Mississippi State in the quarterfinals, the Rebels are a lock to make the NCAA Tournament again and have won 20 games in consecutive years for the first time in almost three decades. They have won double-digit SEC games in back-to-back years for the first time ever.
Scott hasn't necessarily kept the receipts, but she did chuckle when preseason prognostications were mentioned.
"Me being here last year, playing aside the great Shakira Austin, definitely there was a little bit of (a) chip, little bit of pressure. But pressure, I look at pressure like opportunity," Scott said. "I look at being doubted as a chance to prove people wrong, prove yourself right. We believe in ourselves."
McPhee-McCuin has said from the start of the season that this team doesn't have a superstar; it's a super team of meshed personalities that knows what it does well and does whatever it takes.
Personal connections — an unbreakable chemistry — got the Rebels over the hump in Fayetteville, Arkansas, down 19 at halftime to the Razorbacks. And, when March Madness reaches its maddest, it's what helps great teams whether the harshest of storms.
"When you truly love somebody, you don't ever want them to feel like you're not in a fight with them," Scott said. " ... The love that we have for each other, it translates on the court, because I'm going to go hard for you this play, I'm going to make sure I have your back if you get beat on defense this play, I'm going to get this rebound because you just worked your butt off on defense this play. It's like, we want to do well for each other. We don't want to let each other down."
Two key moments helped this team turn the corner
There's a balance between wanting the best players and wanting the players that best fit your program. They aren't always mutually exclusive.
When McPhee-McCuin recruits, personality is looked at as much as stats or measurables.
"We do a deep dive and (do) extensive research. We talk to a lot of people," she said. "We talk to people that aren't even necessarily popular to speak to — it could be their hairstylist. It could be someone from the church. We don't just take their word.
" ... I'm almost brutally honest when I recruit, and sometimes that hurts us. But usually, because of my honesty, it weeds out people that don't match the philosophy of our program."
McPhee-McCuin will be the first to admit she wasn't sure what she had in her team when the season began in terms of what on-court success might look like. A win at Mississippi State changed that, she said, and let her know what she was working with from a basketball perspective.
But there was a moment before the season began that brought the team especially close together. And it involved someone Rebels fans haven't seen on the court this season.
Brooke Moore, a transfer guard from Purdue, was expected to be a major piece for the 2022-23 Rebels. She was involved in a serious car crash over the summer that nearly cost her her life.
That, McPhee-McCuin said, was a moment that changed her team. It also reminded everyone not to take a day for granted.
"Right then and there, my team decided that, one, they need to value each other in those moments," McPhee-McCuin said. "I just think when that happened, my team decided like, man, we have to value each other, we have to spend time with each other, we have to give each other a chance."
Taylor turns struggles into success
Taylor wasn't used to messing up.
As a five-star, top-50 recruit coming out of high school and a three-time Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year, things didn't tend to go wrong for her. She started 78-straight games at Mississippi State and was among the most consistent point guards in college basketball her final three seasons with the Bulldogs. She was named a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award as a redshirt junior.
Familiarity with the Mississippi State program had her in a very comfortable spot. But when she decided to take her talents to the other side of the Egg Bowl rivalry, there were trying moments. Not because of the new people — Taylor felt like she was at home from the moment she stepped on campus, she said.
No, it was different being the new kid on the court.
"I wasn't used to messing up, being where I was at. I knew that program like the back of my hand," Taylor said with a smile. " ... I could never mess up. I was the princess."
It was indeed a learning process being at a new place with new people. Learning new schemes and teammates is hard. She had to be a different sort of leader in Oxford than she was in Starkville. And it led to some tearful, frustrating moments.
"She had to come in, she had to start right away. She didn't have time to ger familiar ... She had to dive in headfirst and figure some things out, about what I like, what I don't like and what I need," McPhee-McCuin said. "... She went from probably being the most established person on the team to coming here now and having to figure things out again."
But that's what teammates are for.
Everyone on the Rebels has a role. Taylor is the Team Mom of sorts (Scott calls her "Mama Taylor"); if anyone needs anything, she probably has it in a Ziploc bag, and likely has options for you to choose from. Scott refers to herself as an Energizer Bunny, but she also likes to let her teammates know how much she cares. Freshman guard Ayanna Thompson and senior guard Marquesha Davis are the jokesters, McPhee-McCuin said.
When Taylor struggled, Scott knew how to handle her new teammate. Everyone is handled a bit differently, Scott said, and knowing when to push the right buttons and the times to do so is part of being a great teammate.
Before the season started, McPhee-MCuin took her team on an offsite retreat. It was the first time she had ever done that with a team, she said. The team took personality tests; it helped McPhee-McCuin understand how each of her players worked.
"That really helped me, because I understand who's in the room and what they need to go," McPhee-McCuin said. " ... And I really think that that has helped us."
For Taylor, it was reassurance that it was OK to mess up. That being perfect wasn't expected every single time and, that if mistakes were made, it wasn't the end of the world.
Life goes on, play after play, quarter after quarter, game after game.
There's a saying on the Rebels that Taylor had to get used to — "give yourself some grace." She's learned how to do that because her teammates reassured her that one bad play didn't define her.
"I just let her know we're here for her, and that we know what she's capable of." Scott said. " ... I let her know that, there's nobody else that I would want to be my PG in this moment."
'Yo train' keeps chugging along
McPhee-McCuin has a train analogy she likes to use to illustrate her program.
A train doesn't stop in the middle of its journey. It picks people up, and it lets people off. Seven new players were picked up by the Ole Miss train this offseason, and Austin was the biggest name to get off of it. But the train keeps chugging along, regardless of who is on it.
"I love Shakira, she's doing great at her next destination. But the train keeps moving," Scott said. "We still have to keep making the Oxford community proud. We still have goals ahead of ourselves."
Scott does take pride knowing her team has proved people wrong this season — Ole Miss was picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll — but she's also grateful for the new pieces that have gotten aboard the train.
Chemistry isn't something that necessarily shows up on a stat sheet. But it does show up when times get tough. It showed up when the Rebels were down nearly 20 on the road at Arkansas. It showed up in close losses to ranked Oklahoma and Utah squads early in the season.
A team that believes in itself and its pieces is a dangerous one.
"We knew what was at stake (against Arkansas). We knew we needed that win," Taylor said. " ... I just truly think we played for each other. When one falls down, the other one helps pick them up, but other ones stepped up as well."
Taylor was only a Rebel for one year — only half-joking, she says she's trying to dig up another year of eligibility — but it seems like she's been there her whole college career. From the moment she came on campus, Taylor was welcomed.
And, quite frankly, she can't imagine life anywhere else.
Taylor and Scott are grateful they got on the train when they did. Because, while they hitched rides at different times, they're going to the same place.
"I came here to write my own story ... the good, the bad, the ugly, the pretty, they have let me write my own story, and I'm continuing to write it," Taylor said. "And so, I'm just thankful for them. Blessed to be here, and there's no other place I would rather be."
MICHAEL KATZ is the Ole Miss athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at michael.katz@djournal.com.
