It's still early in the transfer portal window. Many of the top players around women's college basketball are still available, but some have found their new homes already. That early player movement has led to one conclusion that might stick throughout the process: Ole Miss seems to be among the big winners of this offseason.
The Rebels made the Sweet 16 this past season, where the team lost 76-62 to No. 1 seed UCLA. Ole But much of its production from 2024-25 is being lost through graduation, as well as a number of players who barely saw the floor last season hitting the transfer portal. All in all, 12 players accounting for 63.3 points of production won't be back next season for Ole Miss.
That sounds bad! But head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin has quickly gotten to work, rebuilding on the fly and putting Ole Miss in a great spot to contend in the SEC next season.
Cotie McMahon headlines a strong transfer group for Ole Miss
Ohio State transfer Cotie McMahon was one of the biggest prizes of this year's portal. Coming off her best scoring season (16.4 points per game) but also her least efficient season (43.6% field goal percentage), McMahon chose to leave Columbus this offseason in search of greener pastures.
McMahon took a big leap as a 3-point shooter this season even as her efficiency inside the arc fell. The Rebels really struggled from deep last year, with low attempts and low efficiency leading to the team ranking 326th in the nation in percentage of points that came from beyond the arc. McMahon helps with that issue.
But McMahon isn't the only transfer that the Rebels added. The team also brought in Jayla Murray, Kaitlin Peterson, Latasha Lattimore and Tianna Thompson.
Peterson and Lattimore are especially important parts of the new-look Rebels. Peterson averaged 21.4 points per game for UCF last season, but after two years of putting up big numbers on a bad Golden Knights team, she appears ready to take a scaled-down role on a better roster. That should help unlock the best version we've seen of her at the collegiate level.
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-4 Lattimore should shore up the frontcourt, helping Ole Miss fans forget how much losing Madison Scott to the WNBA will hurt. Lattimore, who will be on her fourth college team, finally broke out at Virginia last year, averaging 14.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. She'll give the team a versatile big on both ends of the floor.
How does Ole Miss stack up with the rest of the SEC next season?
There's still a long way to go between now and the start of the 2025-26 season, with the transfer portal set to really change things still. But at least in the early going, Ole Miss is setting itself up well to challenge in the SEC.
There are four teams in the SEC that feel a cut above the rest. South Carolina added Ta'Niya Latson in the transfer portal, setting the Gamecocks up to repeat once again as SEC champions. Texas returns Madison Booker and Rori Harmon. Oklahoma returns Raegan Beers. LSU suffered some portal losses, but Kim Mulkey's program never seems to take much of a step back.
Beyond those four, though, anything can happen. Tennessee and Kentucky have question marks. Vanderbilt is getting a lot of early hype, but has to replace Iyana Moore after she entered the portal.
This new-look Ole Miss has a shot to be the leader in the battle for fifth place. And while that might not sound like much on paper, the strength of the SEC means that the Rebels would be a borderline top-10 team in that scenario.
The team still needs to shore up its depth, but the high-end talent that Ole Miss added means that it should be a threat to win every game it plays, and in the right circumstances we could even see this Rebels program dethrone LSU for a spot in the top four of the conference.
At the very least, Ole Miss should have its eye on a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament and the chance to host the first weekend in Oxford. The team has not earned a top-four seed since 1992, when the program earned a No. 2 seed.