Talk about winning the news conference.
Minutes after her team stunned No. 1 seed Stanford at Maples Pavilion to advance to the Sweet 16, Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin, affectionately known as “Coach Yo,” went viral in her postgame interview with ESPN.
“This is for the people with a dollar and the dream. I’m a little girl from the Bahamas that was given an opportunity,” McPhee-McCuin said, overcome with emotion. “I wasn’t Ole Miss’ first choice. But I was the right one. And I was naive enough to think that I could do it.”
She explained more in the news conference, saying she called the Rebels’ athletics department in spring 2018 and cut to the chase.
“What are you guys doing?” she recalled saying. “I’m hot and y’all can get me for cheap. And I’m recruiting my butt off with a $20,000 recruiting budget. Give me yours and watch what I do.”
The full story is a little more complex.
McPhee-McCuin, who had three consecutive 20-win seasons at Jacksonville before moving to Oxford, didn’t cold call then-Ole Miss athletics director Ross Bjork. But she did reach out to the search firm.
“They told me that there were people ahead of me and if it got to me, then maybe they will call me back,” McPhee-McCuin said Thursday. Eighth-seeded Ole Miss tips off against fifth-seeded Louisville on Friday at 7 p.m. ET in the Seattle regional.
“I was just at peace at shooting my shot, you know what I’m saying? I just don’t think you can make the shot if you don’t take it.”
Eventually, McPhee-McCuin got the job. And despite not being the first choice — there were at least two candidates the Rebels wanted more initially — McPhee-McCuin’s confidence didn’t wane.
“You spend five minutes with me, you believe you can fly, too,” she said. “I just have a belief in myself. I’m not apologetic about it. I know I’m an acquired taste. You either love me or you hate me, and I’m perfectly fine with that.
“My parents raised me to have confidence in myself and to not look for that from anybody else, for it to be internal. So no one had to give me (confidence because I) wasn’t the first. I’m not ashamed of it, you know?”
Pete Carroll, Bo Schembechler weren’t first choices either
There are dozens of stories across sports about coaching hires not being the first choice, but the right one.
USC hired Pete Carroll in December 2000 after almost a three-week search. Carroll was about the fifth choice. Given his 33-31 NFL record and the fact that he’d been out of college coaching nearly two decades, his hire came with little fanfare. Renowned L.A. Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke said of the hire, “I’m not mad at Pete Carroll. I’m mad at USC for hiring him.”
When Oregon hired Dana Altman in 2010, the Ducks first went after a handful of high-profile coaches including Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and then-Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon. Oregon’s public pursuit helped each of those coaches get significant contract extensions and raises.
Perhaps the most famous second choice of all: Michigan legend Bo Schembechler. Michigan athletics director Don Canham wanted Joe Paterno and offered him the job, but Paterno couldn’t decide fast enough for Canham. Instead, Canham hired Schembechler.
Fans were outraged, according to Michigan football historian and best-selling author John Bacon, with one saying it sounded like Canham had hired “an unemployed German butcher.”
Schembechler went on to win 234 games and 13 Big Ten titles. There’s now a statue of him outside of the Wolverines’ football offices, located in a building also named for the coach.
Dawn Staley said ‘Coach Yo’ could do it
Now, with the advent of the 24-hour news cycle and social media specifically, every step of coaching hires is meticulously tracked.
Sometimes schools don’t try to hide their wish list: When LSU hired three-time national champion and Louisiana native Kim Mulkey away from Baylor in April 2021, it was well known she was the Tigers’ top choice.
McPhee-McCuin might not have been targeted by the Rebels initially but she didn’t doubt herself for a second. And when she finally got her name in the mix, at least one prominent coach told her she’d be the perfect fit.
Two-time national champion Dawn Staley thought the move made sense.
“She said, ‘Yo, it’s a tough job, but if anybody can do that job, it’s you … because you can recruit and you believe in yourself that much and players will play hard for you,” McPhee-McCuin recalled.
McPhee-McCuin, perhaps the most quotable person left in either the men’s or women’s NCAA tournaments, pointed out that second, third and fourth choices happen in other parts of life, too.
“Listen, my husband wasn’t first,” McPhee-McCuin said. “And I almost went in the transfer portal on him a couple times. But we’re happily married and June 8th makes 16 years. So you take it how you get it and you make the most of it.”
Follow sports enterprise reporter Lindsay Schnell on Twitter @Lindsay_Schnell
