Ole Miss basketball coach blames community and university for lack of attendance at games: 'Women's sports is legit!'

The women's basketball coach at the University of Mississippi blamed her campus and the local community for poor attendance at her team's games, saying that the locals need to "catch up" to the "rest of the world" and support women's sports.

Yolett McPhee-McCuin, women's basketball coach at Ole Miss, made scathing remarks during a recent press conference where she implied her team deserved more fans attending games.

The topic of the program's revenue appeared to be initially brought up by Mississippi sports reporter and author Chase Parham, who noted that both the Ole Miss men's and women's teams produced a deficit in fiscal year 2023.

Parham stated that the university football program took in over $12 million and the baseball program made just $166,126. At the same time, men's basketball lost over $3.6 million, while the women's program was deeper in the red, losing over $8 million.

McPhee-McCuin, whose nickname is Coach Yo, expressed displeasure in her response.

"Someone tried to put out a narrative … as if all we do is we’re a waste," McPhee-McCuin said, according to Outkick. "We’re not a waste. That just pissed me off. And when I walk out and I see my fans, the fans come out, and we can’t get Club Red to come out, that pisses me off. Because why not come out and support us? Why not be a cool school for everybody? Turn on ESPN. There are people out there watching that game. So we’ve gotta catch up, man. We’re behind. It’s disappointing."

The attendance for Ole Miss versus Florida was reportedly 2,450, and Coach Yo soon blamed the local community of Oxford, Mississippi, and the school's campus for the poor attendance.

"If you've been paying attention to the landscape of women's sports, there is no doubt that women's sports is on the uptick. From viewership, to the level of talent, from the investments, from the NIL space to programs ... our time is now," McPhee-McCuin declared. "Women's basketball is a legitimate entity in the sports world."

Coach Yo repeatedly stated that the community needed to "catch up" with the "rest of the world," which has apparently embraced women's sports.

"What I'm trying get the Oxford community to do is to catch up. Because the rest of the world has caught up on the fact that women's sports is legit, and it's real," she continued. "I'm not going to allow people to make it seem like what we do doesn't matter."

The coach then complained that there was no reason that the team shouldn't be averaging 5,000 fans per game.

McPhee-McCuin later took to her X account to state that the narrative around the team's finances "was weak and with absolutely no context."

She also called reporter Parham's story "click bait [sic]."

McPhee-McCuin went on to state that 'you can’t put a dollar amount" on the women's team, while continuously defending her comments about the school's community. She also labeled herself "an advocate for women’s sports."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!