Top-seeded Stanford falls to Ole Miss, short of Sweet 16

Fifth-year Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said she could feel something different with her group as it prepared to take on three-time national champion and No. 1 seed Stanford in the second round of the women’s NCAA tournament.

After several close losses against top teams this season, including to defending national champion South Carolina, the Rebels were locked in and said they were ready to do what was needed to come through with a win. In fact, McPhee-McCuin had so much faith in her squad that she drafted a tweet before the game recognizing the people who prepared her for this moment.

The eighth-seeded Rebels delivered on that promise and made history in the process, defeating the Cardinal 54-49 on Sunday night at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion. Stanford became the first No. 1 seed since 2009 to fail to reach the Sweet 16 in the women’s NCAA tournament.

The Cardinal had not been eliminated in the second round since 2007; their 14 consecutive appearances in the Sweet 16 represented the third-best mark of all time, behind UConn (28) and Tennessee (27). Winners of the 2021 national title, they had been to two consecutive Final Fours.

Sunday’s victory served as an exclamation point on a remarkable turnaround for the Ole Miss program, as McPhee-McCuin led the Rebels to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007. It already was the program’s first second-round appearance since that campaign.

Just three seasons ago, Ole Miss went winless in SEC play. The Rebels then finished as the runners-up in the 2021 WNIT before returning to the NCAA tournament the following season after a 14-year absence.

“Everyone had a dream coming up,” said McPhee-McCuin, who did end up sending that…