Ole Miss Disrupts Vanderbilt | Women’s Basketball Game Breakdown & Takeaways

Originally recorded on Jan 30th, 2026 | In this episode of The Mid-Majors Podcast, Courtney takes the mic solo to break down the matchup between Ole Miss Rebels Women’s Basketball and Vanderbilt Commodores Women’s Basketball.
With the game moved to a neutral site due to severe weather in Mississippi, both teams had to adjust quickly—and that showed from the opening tip. Courtney dives into how Ole Miss set the tone with aggressive defense, disrupted Vanderbilt’s rhythm, and leaned heavily on Cody as the emotional and on-court heartbeat of the team.

The episode walks through the first-half pacing, Vanderbilt’s slow start, Ole Miss’s struggles in the third quarter, and the in-game adjustments that ultimately defined the outcome. From half-court execution to coaching decisions, this breakdown highlights what went right, what didn’t, and what both teams need moving forward.

If you’re tapped into women’s basketball, game strategy, and real hoop conversations—this one’s for you.

👉 Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more women’s basketball analysis, mid-major conversations, and honest hoops talk.

⏱️ Chapters (YouTube-Formatted)
00:00 Introduction & Game Overview
00:59 First Half Breakdown: Ole Miss vs Vanderbilt
06:26 Second Half Adjustments & Game Flow
11:48 Final Thoughts & Key Takeaways

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey guys, so I'm gonna take over for this single short episode while Takara Takara is at alumni weekend um at her school at Tennessee Tech. So if you've been following our Instagram or TikTok, she's been posting updates on our story. So let's get into this old miss versus Vanderbilt game, okay? So let's get into it. Oh, I forgot one part though. Welcome to the Mid Majors podcast where real who talked ha oh my gosh, how does she say that so well? She says it so well and it just flows. Let's try this again. Welcome to the Mid Majors podcast where real talk who we're this is really hard. Okay. Welcome to the Mid Majors podcast where real hoop talk happens, unfiltered and unapologetic. I think I got it that time. So let's get into it. Okay, so we are gonna talk about the old miss and Vanderbilt game. It came on at three o'clock today, and they played at a neutral location um since all the bad weather um that went through Mississippi. So definitely praying for Mississippi um and all the folks out there that have been um displaced, um, don't have power and all those things right now. So definitely praying for those people in Mississippi. So let's move on. Let's move on. So I try my best to pay attention as best as I could in the first half with my kids running around and everything. It's just like, how come that the game shit couldn't have come on a little earlier when I was working from home and the kids weren't home? And it's just like soon as a game came on, it was like boom, here they are, and it's just like okay, there we go. All right, let me get into it. Let me get into it. All right, so I felt like right off the the rip, I thought Cody brought the belt to the game today. Okay, like she brought the belt to the game today. I thought she was just so aggressive in the first half. Um, I said she literally made anybody that was guarding her look like a ragdoll. That's how aggressive she was, and that's how easy she was getting to the basket. Um, just her strength alone. It's just like once she gets to the paint, I mean, it's just like what else can you do? You know what I mean? Either you're gonna give her the layup or you're gonna foul or it's gonna be an and one. So I I loved her aggressiveness. Um, I will say, like, um, I know this is a new position for her um at Ole Miss, and I I actually like it. And it's kind of sad that we didn't get to see more of that in Ohio State. Um, but it's okay. She's here now, and I'm sure we'll see it in the WNBA. Um, what else did I put down here? Um I said you could clearly see that she is the leader of the team, she is the clear heartbeat of the team. It's like as she goes, they go. Um, and you really noticed that like in the second half because I really felt like Cody took the third quarter off. Um, I'm not really sure how many shots she took in the third quarter, but I want to say she only took two or three um in that third quarter, and I just don't think that's acceptable for this team and their success. Like Cody's foot needs to be on the gas the entire time. Um, because again, she is the heartbeat of that team, so that aggressiveness that she shows and she plays with her team follows suit. Um, and I felt like she did take her foot off the gas in the third quarter, and um the rest of the team did too. Um, I think they got outscored in the third quarter. Um, I want to say it was man, I had it up here somewhere. All of these notes, y'all. So they got outscored um 26 to 16 in the third quarter. Right? So, um, but yeah, I thought they had a a a great first half. Um, let me see, what else I got up here? I said I thought they attacked the basket well. Um I thought they played really great in transition. And I'm still talking about Ole Miss, so yeah. So I I thought they played great in transition. Um, I thought they attacked the basket well. Um, I thought when they were driving to the basket, when they were aggressive, they were looking for their shot, looking to score, not necessarily looking for a foul or looking to pass, um, which I thought they did more of in the second half. Um, they were a lot more aggressive in the in the first half. Um, I did see them, you know, run some plays, um some offensive sets in the half court. Um I think I I think that the plays lacked execution. I think they lacked execution. And what I mean by that is just, you know, I feel like they just were going through the motions on offense and not running the play to get a specific shot or get a specific person the ball. Um, so it's like though they ran the plays, I just thought the execution could have been better. Um and you could also really tell in the second half, right? Because the game got closer and um Vandy was able to slow the game down. So that that half-court play played a huge factor, and I just didn't think they handled it well. So let's see. Um, as far as Vandy, like in that first half, um, I I thought they looked a little slow to me. Um I just thought they didn't have that same rhythm um that we're used to seeing them have. They just looked a little like just flustered in a sense. I don't know. It just wasn't the flow that we're used to seeing. Um I, you know, Michaela's gonna do Michaela. I'm not, you know what I mean? Like Michaela's gonna, Michaela Kobe Blake's is gonna be Michaela Kobe Blakes. Um, I said I think Omis disrupted their flow um because I don't think Vandy really found it um in that first half. I mean, they were down 19 at half, so clearly they did not find it. Um, what else do we have here? So it's halftime, and Vandy is down 19. Um, Ole Miss scored 15 points off of their 12 turnovers, off of Vandy's 12 turnovers, and they also had 28 points in the paint in the first half, Ole Miss did. So that just shows you the type of aggressiveness that Ole Miss played with in that first half. Um, I said Michaela did what she could do in the first half. She was six for 13 from the field. She did have five turnovers. Um, but that doesn't surprise me because in that second quarter, um, they needed a bucket. They needed some buckets, and Michaela needed to be aggressive. Um, so did she probably force some things? Absolutely. So that that doesn't surprise me. Um, I thought the first half, this was like best case scenario for Omis um to have the other players beat them and not just Michaela. Um, although I think she might have had like 11 or 13 points at half, but that might have been Cody. Um, I want to say Michaela maybe had like 11 or 12 at half. But I might be wrong. So I might be wrong, and y'all can correct me on that. Um, but again, I thought this was best case scenario, right? Like, we're gonna make these other other girls beat us. You know, we're gonna try to contain Michaela as much as we can. And I thought they did. They contained Michaela as best as they could um and forced the other girls to make shots and step up, and they didn't that first half. Let's see. Had to text my mom back. Okay. So now we are starting at the second half of the game, and I thought Ole Miss started on some BS early, right out the gate. And what I mean by that, they just start slow, right? They're just starting slow. Um, I thought Ole Miss gave up easy shots to Vandy. Um, I thought they picked up some crucial uh player fouls, put some of them in in potential foul trouble. Um, and they they simply gave Vandy hope. And that is not the type of team that you want to give hope to, right? Like you had them down 19. Your foot needs to stay on that gas with the with a team like Vanderbilt. Um I thought Ole Miss just looks looked out of sorts in the third quarter. Um, and something that if I'm going back to the first half when I spoke about Ole Miss's aggressive aggressiveness, um, I thought that aggressiveness played in their favor. But, you know, for me personally, aggressiveness can either be like a good thing and it can be a bad thing. It can be used to it can be good, but then it also could be bad. Um, and what I mean by that is that that aggressiveness and that playing fast and and that type of play, you know, sometimes like people can't, other team can't keep up with that, you know what I mean? Or they're not strong enough to deal with that type of pressure, um, whatever the case may be, or just speeding them up is something that works out in your favor, right? Um being aggressive towards the basket and and getting the other team in foul trouble, that works in your favor, right? Um, but it also can be, you know, used against you in a sense. And I felt like Vanderbilt did that more in the second half. So what I mean by that is that um on defense, old miss is aggressive. They're known to be aggressive. Um, so that on ball defense, it's it's on you, it's pressure. And I know for me, we were always taught, you know, if somebody's gonna be all up in your shit, garden you like that, you just need to go around them. That's it. You need to go around them. You know what I mean? Like just so they respect you and they back the fuck up. You need to go around them, right? And that's simply what old, not old miss, but that's simply what Vanderbilt did, right? Like they basically were taking that pressure, driving to the basket. Um, people weren't in help side, they were doing a lot of watching, um, and they they used that aggressiveness in in their favor, um, and it worked out. Um I said old miss then woke Kobe up because Mikayla started hooping. She was already hooping, but she she had like went into another gear, man. She like went right into another gear. Um, what else did I say up here? I said Cody has gone stagnant. Um, I said I think she's only taken two shots in the third quarter. Um I said I thought Ole Miss was inconsistent on offense. You know, it's like one minute they're like just standing around watching somebody dribble, you know, the whole shop clock out and then try to beat somebody off the dribble and then throw some bullshit ass shop shot up. It just was, you know, didn't really know what was going on. Um, and then it's like, you know, in another sense, it's like now they're running their half-court offense, right? But again, it's not well executed, right? So again, you're still getting a BS shot. And I I there were moments when I was looking and I'm just like, okay, like what are y'all doing? What's going on? Like, what's what are we doing? What what are we doing? It I just didn't really know what I was looking at. Um, and I think for me, in in those moments, I I feel like I was waiting for Coach Yo to make some adjustments. Um and what type of adjustments, I don't know, but I just felt like the girls looked a little lost, you know what I mean? Um that's just that's kind of how I felt about it. Um and I guess I can go back to the adjustment because I didn't mention this either. Um, I think the only thing, like I said, I don't know what adjustments, but it was just like, what am I looking at? Um, and being that Cody has slowed down um in her production and um just her aggressiveness, like I said, I felt like the team just followed suit. Um, because she is the leader in the heartbeat of that team. And I obviously I spoke about that earlier as well. But um it's just like, okay, adjustments, like, okay, what what can we do to get Cody going? You know what I mean? What what is it that I need to do to get Cody more shots to get her open so I can get her going so that my team can get going. And I think that's what I was looking for. Um, so again, I said the start of the fourth. I thought Ole Miss looked like blah. Like no adjustments have been made. Nobody looks like they want the ball. Um, nobody looked like they wanted to score. Um, I honestly felt like they were playing timid, like playing not to lose instead of like finishing the game. Um there are a lot of times where I felt like they could have just put this game away and yet they just kept letting Bandy back in the game. Um what else did I say? Hmm. As the Cara would say, there was no game plans, just vibes. That's that's what they were on to me. Um, third quarter and starting the fourth. Um again in the half court set, you know, just it's the execution is what's lacking. It's not it's not the play itself um or the the girls, it's the execution of it. Um it's like the the little details of it, you know, like setting the screen, like I said earlier, running off your cuts, setting your man up, right? Getting the screening angle, like that, that type of stuff, like to get to get a shot because old miss needed a shot. They needed a bucket and they needed a good shot with the bucket. That's what they needed. Um we're fast forward, and Vandy took the lead with about five minutes left in the fourth, and I feel like that's when Cody started turning it up, right? Um and because of that, her team turned it up, right? Like now they were more aggressive. Now they were hitting shots all because she turned it on, right? Um, but it's like, why couldn't we just stay like that third quarter? And though I know after half, you know, uh it's a game of runs and people start off slow. I understand, but hey, turn it on. Again, like the words of Takara. Don't don't let your foot up off the gas, okay? We need a speeding ticket. We need the speeding ticket, okay? Um, so yeah, I mean, I'm happy she turned it on because it was almost too late. It was it was almost too late. Um, but overall, I thought this was a great game. I thought it was a great game. It was a good win for old miss. I think um, I think if I could call out anything for Vanity, I think we talked about last week. It was like, you know, was the South Carolina loss like a wake-up call type of loss? And I said no. You know what I mean? Like that's it's more of like, where are we? Um, and then this old miss loss, I think the old miss, I think this loss is a like reality check loss, and that's no um shade to old miss. It's more so I feel like they kind of got exposed again. That's what I'm saying. You know what I mean? Like, okay, like this is really what we need to be working on now because I feel like it's it's loud now. So for me, in the South Carolina game, I felt like they just couldn't deal with like pressure, the aggressiveness, the the strength, like that. I don't think they handled that well. I don't think Bandy handled that well or handles it well. Um, even if you go back to when they played LSU, um, I thought there were moments when LSU was aggressive on defense, they really disturbed uh their flow and rhythm of the game, right? Um, just like South Carolina did. They disturbed the flow and the rhythm of their game. So today, I feel like Ole Miss being the aggressive type of team that they are, strength-wise, athleticism, um, all those things, um, it disturbed their rhythm and their flow, right? And it slowed them down. And I think that's something that is um key to pick up on. Maybe not everybody might not agree with that, but um, if I had to pick anything. But I thought it was a great game, you know. Um I thought the girls, the girls, the girls, the girls was hooping today. Let's see. Let's see, let's see what everybody ended up with. So Galvin had 18 points, um, two rebounds, four assists, two turnovers. I thought she had a good game. I thought she played hard. Um she gotta work on that left hand, though. She gotta work on that left hand, but she played great. I like Galvin. I can't I can't I really can't wait to see where she is when she's a senior. Um, obviously, Michaela played great, 29 points, 10 for 24. Um, she did have seven turnovers, but to me, that's it's not to be expected, but there were moments in that game where Vandy needed a bucket. Um, so uh does it surprise me? No. And then we go to Ole Miss, and they had a great game too. Um, Cody had 27, Lattimore had 12, uhwalla had 18, um, 18 and 14 rebounds, double double. Okay, like I thought they looked good in the paint, too. Um, and I also think for Ole Miss, they they missed a lot of easy shots, like easy shots, like right by the basket. So I think if I'm if I'm Ole Miss, it's just like this is a great win, right? Obviously, I think we need to work on obviously keeping our foot on the gas, right? We gotta keep our foot on the gas. Um, I thought they did a great job uh hitting her free throws today. Um and for me, I think it's just the execution, the execution of their half-court sets to get better looks and better shots, right? But also better looks and better shots for Cody because I need for Cody to be in rhythm the entire game because I know my team follows her rhythm. Um, so I mean that's it. So you guys tell me what you think um about the game. Again, we have our live on Sunday. We'll be covering Texas and OU. Um, tell us who you got in the comments. We'll be doing a pre show at 2 45. Um, and make sure to like, subscribe, all that good stuff. And um, we'll see you next time.

unknown 20:49

Bye.