As it turned out, it was the SEC and Big 12 that weren’t ready for the Coyotes. 
 
That wasn’t how Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin may have initially figured her team’s first round matchup would play out with the Summit League champion. Leading up to last Thursday’s matchup between the No. 7 Rebels and No. 10 Coyotes, McPhee-McCuin was quoted by 247sports.com as highlighting one disadvantage USD may have in facing Ole Miss: unfamiliarity. 
 
“That's not their conference. People like us don't play them in the non-conference. I don't know that is they have that kind of experience. One thing I'm excited about, I don't know how they replicate it to prepare for us. That'll be something they'll have to adjust to. We've seen their style," McPhee-McCuin said.
 
Adjust they did. 
 
The Coyotes are Sweet 16 bound for the first time in program history after back-to-back 14-point wins, first against the No. 7 Rebels and then No. 2 Baylor. The magical weekend in Waco, Texas was chock full of historical layers, both for USD and the Summit League itself, not the least of which is the way the Coyotes punched their ticket to Wichita and the tournament’s second weekend. On Friday, USD outshot a tremendous defense while on Sunday, the Coyotes clamped down on one of the country’s best offenses.
 
McPhee-McCuin was not wrong to tout her team’s ability to keep points off the board. The fourth-year coach has led an impressive turnaround in Oxford, breaking a 15-year NCAA Tournament drought with one of the best defensive teams in the country. The Coyotes, however, ran right through a defense that helped propel the Rebels to a fourth-place finish in the SEC. 
 
As would become a theme for the weekend, it started with a Hannah Sjerven three. The redshirt senior center hit a three on the first possession of the game, giving USD a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the afternoon. McPhee-McCuin mentioned that moment specifically after the game.
 
“Once [Sjerven] hit that three, it gave them that momentum and kind of felt like it did in the past when we didn’t win a game,” the Ole Miss coach said in the post-game press conference. “Where we couldn’t get our offense going and all of a sudden let it dictate what we did on the defensive end.” 
 
The shots didn’t stop falling after that Sjerven triple. The Coyotes shot 55.8 percent from the field, drastically flipping the script on a Rebels defense that had only allowed Division I opponents to shoot 39.1 percent on the season, one of the best marks in the country. The same held true for turnovers. The Rebels came in forcing 18.3 miscues per game, but USD coughed it up only 10 times as they advanced to a second round date with Baylor. 
 
The veteran Coyotes remained just as poised against the Lady Bears. 
 
Offense may have been the headliner in the first round win, but the Coyotes’ hallmark defense frustrated Baylor into its first loss on its home floor to a non-Big 12 opponent since 2014 on Sunday. Sjerven began the game with another three that would yet again give the Coyotes a lead they’d never lose, in large part because their defense put the clamps on Baylor. 
 
The nation’s seventh-best field goal percentage offense per HerHoopStats.com went into a Coyotes-induced rut, shooting a season-low 31.5 percent from the field, a significant drop from their season average (45.8%). USD’s help-centric, amoeba-like defense also forced 19 turnovers and held the Lady Bears to just 5-26 from distance. 
 
After an 11-0 start, Baylor was never truly able to make a run. 
 
“It looked like we were in slow motion to start the game,” first-year Lady Bears coach Nicki Collen said after the game. “They’re physical, they’re really physical and we’re pretty finesse, that’s our team. A lot of times it came down to late possessions where they put their head down and made plays.” 
 
The Coyotes methodical offense from the Ole Miss game showed up on Sunday as well. It had its well-timed, momentum-killing moments, like a key three from Macy Guebert midway through the third quarter, or Liv Korngable dribbling down the clock before hitting a runner right at the end of the third quarter. 
 
Caitlin Bickle talked about the challenge the Coyotes defense threw at her team after the game. 
 
“When you get down 11 you’re playing from behind the entire time…trying to come back the entire game, we just couldn’t get it done,” the Baylor senior forward said. “They were very much in help, and they did it very well, knowing when to come to the post, when we caught it, surrounding them and we honestly hadn’t seen that a lot in Big 12 this year.” 
 
That relentless attack on the post helped keep Big 12 Player of the Year NaLyssa Smith to under half her season scoring average (10 points, 4-11 FG), while still not allowing the Lady Bears to exploit USD from beyond the arc.In the end, it was Dawn Plitzuweit’s team that was left celebrating on the Ferrell Center floor. 
 
In dropping an emerging SEC program and Big 12 – and national – powerhouse in consecutive games, USD made good on one of Korngable’s early season wishes. 
 
“I remember Liv talking to me at the beginning of the year,” Plitzuweit said after the Baylor win. “You meet with your team and talk to individual players about what you want to see, and Liv said ‘I just don’t want to play against good teams in non-conference, I want to go get some wins.’” 
 
Fueled by both sides of the ball, USD did just that in Waco, and will have a chance to pick off yet another good team on Saturday in Wichita.