OXFORD - The Ole Miss women's basketball road through the NCAA Tournament passes through one of the most difficult places to play in the entire game.
The Rebels (23-8) earned the No. 7 seed at the Wichita Regional, setting up a first-round matchup against No. 10 seed South Dakota (27-5) on Saturday. The game will be played in Waco, Texas, with No. 2 seed Baylor gearing up for a possible round of 32 matchup that could avenge Ole Miss Football's Sugar Bowl loss against Baylor since January.
It would be a stretch to automatically pencil an Ole Miss vs. boiler matchup onto your bracket. South Dakota are a remarkably efficient team that doesn't pass up opportunities. The Coyotes average the second-lowest turnover per game in the NCAA at 10.9, rank No. 11 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio and rank No. 36 in field-goal percentage, shooting 44% as a team.
South Dakota began the regular season by going to the wire in a two-point loss to Oklahoma and No. 1 South Carolina with 72 points, and ended on a nine-game winning streak. During the winning streak, the Coyotes only allowed 49 points per game.
The Coyotes have lost only once since December, and it was against a South Dakota state team that it defeated twice. Defeating South Dakota will be an uphill task that will require sharp shooting and an active test of Ole Miss's talented defense. Ole Miss coach Yollette McPhee-McQueen compared the matchup to the time the Rebels played Missouri and Belmont, the team Ole Miss split the two meetings against this year.
It will be a formidable challenge to overtake South Dakota. It will be even more difficult to overtake Boiler in the round of 32.
Baylor was in talks to become the No. 1 seed in the Big 12 Championship before losing his first game in 13 tries. The Bears haven't lost a game in Waco since January 13, 2021, and have made it to the Sweet 16 or beyond in every NCAA tournament since 2009. In that period, the Bears have never lost a home NCAA Tournament game.
If Ole manages to overtake Miss Baylor, the Rebels are likely to have games against No. 3 seed Michigan and No. 1 seed Louisville in Wichita on their way to the Final Four. It seems impossible to push it this far, but it is not impossible.
Seven of the 16 teams in the Wichita regional ranks are among the top 33 teams in the nation in defense scoring. Ole Miss is one of them. So is South Dakota. The Rebels win with the defense and form a bracket with a bevy of other defensive teams that can fit in with Ole Miss's style.
Every match will be challenging. The most likely outcome is that Ole Miss plays a game or two in her first NCAA Tournament trip since 2007. But if the Rebels mixed that with their defense-first style and some hot-shooting games, there's no reason the Rebels can't ride their talents to the Sweet 16 berth or beyond.