Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin voiced her complaints earlier this week about the Rebels’ ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll — where they checked in at No. 16 — calling the poll “a joke.”
But Coach Yo should know a poll voted on by media members has no bearing on her team’s seeding in the NCAA Tournament. What matters to the selection committee are quality wins and metrics like NET and WAB (wins above bubble).
And in those areas, Ole Miss is getting it done.
As of Wednesday, Ole Miss is 16th in NET, 20th in WAB, and a combined 5-3 in Quad 1 and 2 games. After losing narrowly to Texas, McPhee-McCuin’s team notched a statement win over Oklahoma and then comfortably beat rival Mississippi State by double figures.
All of this is to say, despite Coach Yo’s complaints with the national rankings, her team is building a resume worthy of consideration for a top 16 seed — something Ole Miss hasn’t captured since 1992 when Van Chancellor led them to the Elite Eight.
The vibes are good right now in Oxford after the Rebels’ football team made an unlikely run to the semifinals of the College Football Playoff. Coach Yo’s team has a chance to keep the party going.
Here’s USA Today’s projection of the top 16 seeds in the women’s NCAA Tournament as of Wednesday, Jan. 14:
1. UConn
2. Texas
3. UCLA
4. South Carolina
5. Michigan
6. LSU
7. Kentucky
8. Vanderbilt
9. TCU
10. Louisville
11. Maryland
12. Michigan State
13. Oklahoma
14. Ole Miss
15. Iowa
16. Texas Tech
In the hunt: Ohio State, Tennessee, Alabama, Duke, West Virginia
The notable absence here in the top 16 from last week’s projections is Iowa State, which is having a rough stretch despite Audi Crooks’ eye-popping scoring totals. The Cyclones have lost three straight games — two of them by double digits against West Virginia and Cincinnati. To add salt to that wound, the Robin to Crooks’ Batman, Addy Brown, is out for the foreseeable future with a lower body injury.
Iowa State is 31st in NET, 39th in WAB and owns just one Quad 1 victory. If coach Bill Fennelly’s team aims to host during the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, they’ll have figure out how to win without Brown.
Bubble Watch
Last Four In:Georgia, Clemson, Arizona State, Richmond
First Four Out: South Dakota State, Virginia, Miami, Seton Hall
Clemson and Richmond were the big winners from last week as both notched Quad 2 victories that boosted their resumes. The Tigers beat N.C. State for the first time since 2011, snapping a 16-game losing streak, while the Spiders took down Davidson in triple-overtime behind an astounding 48 points from Maggie Doogan.
The key for both is winning the games they’re supposed to down the stretch. Clemson shouldn’t have lost to Georgia Tech, but it oddly didn’t damage the Tigers’ metrics all that much, with a NET, WAB, Torvik and Her Hoop Stats Rating all in the 40s still. To solidify its standing, Clemson would do itself a big favor to go no worse than 4-1 over its next five games against Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, SMU and Florida State, before then playing a tough road game at North Carolina.
In a strong A-10, Richmond will have the opportunity to grab a few more signature wins too, playing twice against George Mason and then battling Davidson and Rhode Island again in rematches.
Georgia could have its resume damaged the most in the coming weeks, as four of the Bulldogs next five games are against ranked opponents: Ole Miss, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. The average NET of Georgia’s opponents so far ranks 216th in the nation. The Bulldogs are also currently 0-3 in Quad 1 games.