Yolett Alessia McPhee-McCuin (born April 30, 1982) is a Bahamian-American basketball coach who is the current head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels women's basketball team. Her team at Jacksonville University won the 2016 ASUN Conference Tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Early life and education

Yolett Alessia McPhee was born April 30, 1982, in

Freeport, Bahamas Freeport is a city, district and free trade zone on the island of Grand Bahama of the northwest Bahamas. In 1955, Wallace Groves, a Virginian financier with lumber interests in Grand Bahama, was granted of pineyard with substantial areas of swa ...

. Her parents both worked at Grand Bahama Catholic High School in Freeport: Her father Gladstone "Moon" McPhee was head boys' basketball coach, and her mother Daisy McPhee was school principal. In the 2001–02 season, McPhee-McCuin earned all-state honors and averaged 9.0 points and 6.9 assists, ranking third nationally in assists per game. She graduated from Miami-Dade with a 4.0 GPA in 2002. From 2002 to 2004, McPhee-McCuin attended the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

and played at point guard for the Rhode Island Rams. She averaged 3.2 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 1.8 assists. In her senior season of 2003–04, McPhee played in 29 games with 15 starts, averaging 2.7 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. She graduated from Rhode Island in 2004 with a B.A. in business management and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 2007 with a master's degree in secondary school physical education.

Coaching career

Early coaching career (2004–2013)

McPhee-McCuin began her basketball coaching career as an assistant at

Frank Phillips College Frank Phillips College is a public community college in Borger, Texas Borger ( ) is the largest city in Hutchinson County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,551 at the 2020 census. Borger is named for businessman Asa Philip "A ...

, a junior college in Borger, Texas, in the 2004–05 season. Her first NCAA Division I coaching job was at

Arkansas–Pine Bluff The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is a public historically black university in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Founded in 1873, it is the second oldest public college or university in the state of Arkansas. UAPB is part of the University of ...

, as an assistant coach from 2005 to 2007. After one year as assistant coach at the

University of Portland , mottoeng = The truth will set you free , established = 1901 , type = Private university , religious_affiliation = Catholic (Congregation of Holy Cross) , endowment = $218 million , president = Robert D. Kelly , students = 3,731 (fall 20 ...

in 2007–08, McPhee-McCuin was an assistant coach at

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

from 2008 to 2010 under

Agnus Berenato Agnus Berenato (born Agnus McGlade on December 9, 1956), is a former basketball coach. She was the head women's basketball coach at Rider from 1982 to 1985, Georgia Tech from 1989 to 2003, Pittsburgh from 2003 to 2013, and Kennesaw State from 2016 ...

. The 2008–09 Pittsburgh Panthers finished the season 25–8 and appeared in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament. From 2010 to 2013, McPhee-McCuin was an assistant coach at Clemson under Itoro Umoh-Coleman.

Jacksonville (2013–2018)

McPhee-McCuin's first head coaching job was at Jacksonville University from 2013 to 2018. Inheriting a team with four straight losing seasons, McPhee-McCuin delivered a winning season by her third year in 2015–16, with a 22–11 record and NCAA Tournament appearance. The next two seasons, Jacksonville appeared in the

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and 2018 WNIT. In five seasons, McPhee-McCuin had a cumulative 94–63 record at Jacksonville.

Ole Miss (2018–present)

After firing

Matt Insell Matthew Ollen Insell (born September 22, 1982) is the current Associate Head Coach of Women's Basketball at Middle Tennessee State University. Insell was the head coach of the Ole Miss women's basketball team from 2013 to 2018 before he was let ...

in March 2018, the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment. ...

hired McPhee-McCuin as head Ole Miss Rebels women's basketball coach on April 4, 2018. This hire followed a 12–19 season in 2017–18, including only one win in

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

games. Ole Miss had just 16 wins in McPhee-McCuin's first two seasons. But after a much improved 2020–21 season that had Ole Miss with a no. 42

NCAA Evaluation Tool The selection process for college basketball's NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments determine which teams (68 men's and 68 women's) will enter the tournaments (the centerpieces of the basketball championship frenzy known as ...

ranking, Ole Miss extended McPhee-McCuin through the 2024–25 season on March 10, 2021. Ole Miss finished the season 15–12 and runners-up in the

2021 Women's National Invitation Tournament The 2021 Women's National Invitation Tournament was a tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2021 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. The tournament committee announced the 32-team field on M ...

. In 2021–22, Ole Miss improved even further with a 23–9 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance, the first such appearance since 2007. Then in

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, Ole Miss made a second straight NCAA Tournament. On March 19, 2023, in the second round, Ole Miss as a no. 8 seed upset no. 1

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

54–49, improving to 25–8 and advancing to the Sweet 16 round for the first time since 2007.

Personal life

McPhee-McCuin is married to Kelly McCuin. They have two children.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Ole Miss Rebels Coaching bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:McPhee-McCuin, Yolett 1982 births Living people Bahamian expatriate basketball people in the United States Bahamian women's basketball players Clemson Tigers women's basketball coaches Jacksonville Dolphins women's basketball coaches Junior college women's basketball coaches in the United States Junior college women's basketball players in the United States Miami Dade College alumni Ole Miss Rebels women's basketball coaches People from Freeport, Bahamas Pittsburgh Panthers women's basketball coaches Point guards Portland Pilots women's basketball coaches Rhode Island Rams women's basketball players Bahamian emigrants to the United States University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff alumni