The SEC Tournament is officially on, but Oxford is on pins and needles waiting for the final injury report on Ole Miss women's basketball's defensive anchor Sira Thienou.
In a ranking that could have easily been much better, the Rebels ended up being the No. 7 seed in the SEC tournament with a single bye.
Will Sira Thienou's absence affect Ole Miss?
What's worse was the pending injury update on guard Thienou. Still recovering from her bone bruise, Coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin suggested holding her out of the SEC Tournament if she isn't at her 100%.
That would be a worst-case, nightmare-turned-true scenario for the Rebs. Coach Yo also pointed out that the Rebs have been on a 4-game losing streak since Thienou's injury in the Tennessee game. They have lost every single game following that.
"Sira starts our defense," McPhee-McCuin said. "Sira rebounds for us. She was shooting 45% from the field, almost 40% from the 3. She was our lead defender. She averaged five rebounds a game. That's what we're missing."
“When I built this team, she was a big part of it. We just don’t have any margin of error with Sira being out, and it’s definitely showing its head.”
All the chaos led Coach Yo to a grave realization that couldn't have come at a worse time: Ole Miss made a terrible mistake in switching up their defensive identity to that of an offensive team, and now, its coming back to haunt them.
While Thienou's return would make for a seamless transition back to their defensive identity, the Rebs still need to be prepared to navigate through the SEC Tournament without the guard.
“If I don’t feel like she’s all the way ready, I may hold her,” she said on Thienou being back. “Let’s keep the main thing the main thing. The main thing is we’re in the tournament.”
Ole Miss takes on Auburn on March 5 as their first SEC Tournament opponent.