Months after insisting that Mississippi is not a desirable landing spot for minority college athletes, prominent sports commentator Stephen A. Smith is making a trip to the state’s flagship university.
Smith announced on Wednesday that he will be foregoing a trip to Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks game on Thursday to spend some time at Ole Miss. The ESPN personality and potential 2028 presidential candidate will be in attendance at the Ole Miss women’s basketball game versus LSU in the SJB Pavilion.
“When the [college football season] was going on, and there was some stuff happening with Lane Kiffin and all that stuff. As you know, I talked some mess about Ole Miss — you know, Oxford, Mississippi, and stuff like that,” Smith said. “Those folks dared me to come down there, and I promised them that I would, so I am showing up tomorrow night. I will be in Oxford, Mississippi.”
Back at the height of Lane Kiffin dominating the headlines of practically all major sports outlets with updates about the prospect of a career move, Smith argued on his ESPN show, “First Take,” that the Rebel head coach would be better off finding a job more appealing to Black athletes. Kiffin, at the time, was being courted by Florida and LSU for the same position he had at Ole Miss. He ultimately chose to go to LSU, where Smith said he would have better odds at winning a national championship than with the Rebels.
“The brothers ain’t trying to come to Oxford, for the most part, compared to Gainesville or Baton Rouge. Let’s just call it what it is,” Smith said in November. “He’s got the potential to be another Nick Saban, but it ain’t gonna happen at Ole Miss. Not for years down the road to come … But Gainesville, at the University of Florida? But Baton Rouge, Death Valley, LSU? That’s a different animal.
“I’m not saying that you don’t have Black players and stuff like that on the team. Of course you do. But I’m just talking about from a recruiting standpoint, in terms of longevity, establishing a sustained level of success for many, many years to come when you’re going up against Alabama, when you’re going up against Georgia, when you’re going up against teams like that. Ole Miss? I don’t have that kind of faith that a sustained level of excellence that’s comparable to what those two programs have done.”
It did not take long for one coach on the Ole Miss campus to take exception to this narrative. Women’s basketball frontwoman Yolett McPhee-McCuin, better known as “Coach Yo,” seized the opportunity to give her perspective on the current state of Ole Miss – one that, to her, is full of promise, potential, and even success.
During a mid-January appearance on Smith’s SiriusXM radio show, McPhee-McCuin advocated for Ole Miss, highlighting that her greatest obstacle in recruiting is overcoming a preconceived notion that Mississippi is stuck in a troubled past before a prospective player even arrives on campus. But when a recruit ultimately lands in Oxford, the eighth-year Ole Miss basketball coach says the place sells itself as a vibrant community filled with love and acceptance.
“There is a persona. There are challenges when it comes to recruiting, but I’m telling you, when people come to Oxford, Mississippi, they commit. They fall in love, and they were doing it before NIL,” McPhee-McCuin said during her interview with Smith.
“Black excellence is celebrated here … There’s a perception that we have worked really hard, and we’re continuing to work really hard, to change,” she continued. “We know it’s not sexy, but we also want to say that it can be done here. You can have success at Ole Miss. We’re doing it.”
Ole Miss was once at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement, with the National Guard having to escort James Meredith, the university’s first Black student, onto campus as a white mob protested. The state of Mississippi has a stained past with slavery and Jim Crow laws once being the norm.
But things have changed, at least according to McPhee-McCuin, and she believes someone with a platform and audience reach like Smith’s should look beyond surface-level narratives when opining on a place like Ole Miss.
“I can admit that here we are a bit sensitive when it comes to people that have this connotation about what’s going on now because of what has happened 50, 60 years ago, but that is only a small piece of the narrative, and I’m here living it every day,” McPhee-McCuin added during her appearance on the show. “In Oxford, Mississippi, this place is diverse. This place is full of love and support. My family, we love it here.”
Smith, moved by McPhee-McCuin’s remarks, decided he wanted to see what Ole Miss was about up close and personally and will soon fulfill a vow to visit the school’s campus and attend a women’s basketball game. Tipoff for the top-20 showdown between the No. 17 Lady Rebels (21-6, 8-4 SEC) and the No. 7 Lady Tigers (22-4, 8-4 SEC) is set for Thursday at 8 p.m. CT.
“Coach, ain’t nobody else getting me down to Oxford, Mississippi now. You are pulling something off, here. I’m coming just for you,” Smith told McPhee-McCuin during the interview, with the coach responding, “I’m going to be your tour guide. We’re going to show you around. We’re going to show you how we do in the ‘Sip.'”