Ole Miss Under Fire After Controversial Women’s Basketball Hire Of Quentin Hillsman

On January 25th, Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin sat down after a win over Florida and called out Rebels fans.

Now, just over two months later, McPhee-McCuin may have to apologize to those same fans.

McPhee-McCuin and Ole Miss are catching heat after hiring former Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman as an assistant.

Hillsman resigned from his previous position in 2021 following an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior by the coach.

“It should have been packed up in here,” McPhee-McCuin said in January. “How does a team that goes to the Sweet 16, that only has two (SEC) losses, not have an average of 5,000 people in the stands? How? You know what it is? It’s the lack of value. And it needs to change.”

Well, the Hillsman hire isn’t likely to help that (although Ole Miss did hire Chris Beard).

New Ole Miss Assiatn Quentin Hillsman Has Ugly Past

Chantel Jennings of The Athletic reports “nine women who had played for Hillsman alleged that he often threatened players, sometimes using vulgar language.”

One player alleges that Hillsman told his team “I’ll f— you guys up. I’ll f— you up. It’s gonna be your a– if you f— this up.’”

According to Jennings, “of the nine players who spoke in the initial investigation, three said they experienced suicidal thoughts because of their experiences within the program and a fourth said she had thoughts of self-harm.”

Now those same players are wondering and a number of fans how on earth Ole Miss could offer him another job.

“He is an excellent teacher of the game and also a strong recruiter at both the national and international levels,” McPhee-McCuin said in a press release about the hire.

Noticeably missing is the part about Hillsman being a good person.

But hey, winning fixes everything, right?