University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Introduces Missy Bilderback as Fifth Women’s Basketball Head Coach
3/27/2025 6:11:00 PM | Women's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The University of Southern Mississippi and Southern Miss Athletics today introduced Missy Bilderback as the fifth head coach of Southern Miss women's basketball.
Bilderback, a Hattiesburg native and newest leader of the Lady Eagles, was joined by University President Dr. Joe Paul and Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain for remarks in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Trent Lott Center.
Here is what Dr. Paul, McClain and Bilderback said at the dais…
Dr. Joe Paul, 11th President of The University of Southern Mississippi
"What a crowd, what a crowd. Welcome one and all and thank you for your abiding love and support of all things Southern Miss, and especially Southern Miss Athletics and especially today, Lady Eagle basketball. I want to begin by paying homage to joy now Lee McNellis, a legendary coach who we honor and cherish today, and we'll hold high throughout time. There's so much positive momentum at Southern Miss. People are excited about football coming in the fall and about baseball right now, and now we've got yet another thing to be excited about as we continue this tremendous positive momentum. Enrollment is up. Private giving is up. Funded research is up. Everything is headed to the top, and that's where Lady Eagle basketball is about to go. So I'm going to bring up our athletic director. But I just am so excited today that we get to contradict the novelist Thomas Wolfe, who said, you can't go home again, right? And yeah, we get to sort of affirm the idea that it's good to be home."
Jeremy McClain, Southern Miss Director of Athletics
"I just want to say this is a fantastic crowd. We really appreciate everyone being here. It's a great day to be a Golden Eagle, or in this case, a Lady Eagle. So, thank you guys so much for being here again. Dr Paul, thank you for your leadership and commitment to Southern Miss. We're all better because you're here leading this university. I also want to take just a minute to acknowledge a very special guest coach, Kay, thank you. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for everything you've done for this program. I also want to recognize Joye Lee McNelis; as you know, our thoughts and prayers continue to be with her as she continues to fight her battle with cancer. I just can't express how incredibly thankful I am for her as well and what she's done for this program over the last 20 years. Today, we stand up here excited and looking forward, but we stand on your shoulders, Coach James and Coach McNelis. So, thank you guys so much. I want to say thank you to Sonya Varnell and Sean Jones for their help during this process. These searches are always challenging. You get down in the trenches, and you have to make difficult decisions, but both of them were fantastic, so thank you guys so very much. As we look forward to the future, we're committed to focusing on finding someone who can engage the community at a very high level, someone who could help build genuine relationships with student-athletes and help them grow as people, and someone who could put a great basketball product on the floor and give us the opportunity to compete for championships. There's a great deal of interest in our opening. We were very thankful we had a very strong candidate pool. But as we worked through the process, it became very evident to all of us who were involved that Missy builder back check all the boxes that we were looking for. She has experience in the Pine Belt at a time when Women's Basketball was maybe as popular as it's ever been. She is someone who can help us get back to packing Reed Green Coliseum. She's built real relationships with players. I think that's evident in the fact that along her stops, those players have tried to come back and move and transfer and play for her every opportunity that they got, and that certainly wouldn't be lost was not lost on us as we went through this process. So she's been able to build those types of relationships, and she's certainly won at a high level every place she's been. And so, I love that confidence in the future of our program with Missy leading the way; ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming your next head coach, Missy Bilderback."
Missy Bilderback, Fifth Head Coach of Southern Miss Women's Basketball
On what's next for the program…
"So, what's next for Southern Miss basketball? That's what's really exciting. I want to assure you that we're going always to have a staff that is proud to be a Golden Eagle. We're going always to have a staff that pushes and loves our players. I think Coach Pittman is already on board with me, and she fits that, you know, I don't know where Coach Pitt went, but she fits that to the team. We're going to have a staff that pushes our players to be the very best that they can be while still loving them through that."
On Recruiting…
"We know this area. We know our region. I recruited this area for 10 plus years now, you know we're going to go out and work and get the best high school players, go to the best club programs and do a great job of recruiting junior college is really hard, and building the best program that we can here at Southern Miss."
On the style of play she plans to bring to the Lady Eagles…
"We'll play a fun style of basketball. It's fast, it's fun, a little bit free playing offensively, where we let our kids make reads and, you know, make decisions, and we like to shoot the three. So, if you like three-pointers, to come out and come out and watch us play. We love to shoot the three. Our kids will play extremely hard. They'll play for each other; they'll play for our staff. I think the best thing, if you watch our teams play, the best thing about our teams is they always compete with a lot of joy, and they have a lot of fun doing it. They have a great spirit about them, and they love to compete, and they play the game the right way. You're going to love our players, their personalities, their characters. You know that they represent our program with class and everywhere they go."
On the experience provided to her players…
"We hope to provide a great experience for our players, not only on the court but also to make sure our student-athletes have a tremendous experience off the court as well. That's something we'll really strive to do. Again, I'm just honored and grateful to be your head coach. I can't wait to represent Southern Miss and the Hattiesburg community with excellent class as we or NCAA Tournaments, maybe a championship. Thank you for supporting us. Let's, hey, let's keep the momentum going. Let's pack Reed Green! We got a few more kids to sign, but I can't wait to get started and start this journey with this team."
Bilderback, a Hattiesburg native and newest leader of the Lady Eagles, was joined by University President Dr. Joe Paul and Director of Athletics Jeremy McClain for remarks in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Trent Lott Center.
Here is what Dr. Paul, McClain and Bilderback said at the dais…
Dr. Joe Paul, 11th President of The University of Southern Mississippi
"What a crowd, what a crowd. Welcome one and all and thank you for your abiding love and support of all things Southern Miss, and especially Southern Miss Athletics and especially today, Lady Eagle basketball. I want to begin by paying homage to joy now Lee McNellis, a legendary coach who we honor and cherish today, and we'll hold high throughout time. There's so much positive momentum at Southern Miss. People are excited about football coming in the fall and about baseball right now, and now we've got yet another thing to be excited about as we continue this tremendous positive momentum. Enrollment is up. Private giving is up. Funded research is up. Everything is headed to the top, and that's where Lady Eagle basketball is about to go. So I'm going to bring up our athletic director. But I just am so excited today that we get to contradict the novelist Thomas Wolfe, who said, you can't go home again, right? And yeah, we get to sort of affirm the idea that it's good to be home."
Jeremy McClain, Southern Miss Director of Athletics
"I just want to say this is a fantastic crowd. We really appreciate everyone being here. It's a great day to be a Golden Eagle, or in this case, a Lady Eagle. So, thank you guys so much for being here again. Dr Paul, thank you for your leadership and commitment to Southern Miss. We're all better because you're here leading this university. I also want to take just a minute to acknowledge a very special guest coach, Kay, thank you. Thank you so much for being here and thank you for everything you've done for this program. I also want to recognize Joye Lee McNelis; as you know, our thoughts and prayers continue to be with her as she continues to fight her battle with cancer. I just can't express how incredibly thankful I am for her as well and what she's done for this program over the last 20 years. Today, we stand up here excited and looking forward, but we stand on your shoulders, Coach James and Coach McNelis. So, thank you guys so much. I want to say thank you to Sonya Varnell and Sean Jones for their help during this process. These searches are always challenging. You get down in the trenches, and you have to make difficult decisions, but both of them were fantastic, so thank you guys so very much. As we look forward to the future, we're committed to focusing on finding someone who can engage the community at a very high level, someone who could help build genuine relationships with student-athletes and help them grow as people, and someone who could put a great basketball product on the floor and give us the opportunity to compete for championships. There's a great deal of interest in our opening. We were very thankful we had a very strong candidate pool. But as we worked through the process, it became very evident to all of us who were involved that Missy builder back check all the boxes that we were looking for. She has experience in the Pine Belt at a time when Women's Basketball was maybe as popular as it's ever been. She is someone who can help us get back to packing Reed Green Coliseum. She's built real relationships with players. I think that's evident in the fact that along her stops, those players have tried to come back and move and transfer and play for her every opportunity that they got, and that certainly wouldn't be lost was not lost on us as we went through this process. So she's been able to build those types of relationships, and she's certainly won at a high level every place she's been. And so, I love that confidence in the future of our program with Missy leading the way; ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming your next head coach, Missy Bilderback."
Missy Bilderback, Fifth Head Coach of Southern Miss Women's Basketball
On what's next for the program…
"So, what's next for Southern Miss basketball? That's what's really exciting. I want to assure you that we're going always to have a staff that is proud to be a Golden Eagle. We're going always to have a staff that pushes and loves our players. I think Coach Pittman is already on board with me, and she fits that, you know, I don't know where Coach Pitt went, but she fits that to the team. We're going to have a staff that pushes our players to be the very best that they can be while still loving them through that."
On Recruiting…
"We know this area. We know our region. I recruited this area for 10 plus years now, you know we're going to go out and work and get the best high school players, go to the best club programs and do a great job of recruiting junior college is really hard, and building the best program that we can here at Southern Miss."
On the style of play she plans to bring to the Lady Eagles…
"We'll play a fun style of basketball. It's fast, it's fun, a little bit free playing offensively, where we let our kids make reads and, you know, make decisions, and we like to shoot the three. So, if you like three-pointers, to come out and come out and watch us play. We love to shoot the three. Our kids will play extremely hard. They'll play for each other; they'll play for our staff. I think the best thing, if you watch our teams play, the best thing about our teams is they always compete with a lot of joy, and they have a lot of fun doing it. They have a great spirit about them, and they love to compete, and they play the game the right way. You're going to love our players, their personalities, their characters. You know that they represent our program with class and everywhere they go."
On the experience provided to her players…
"We hope to provide a great experience for our players, not only on the court but also to make sure our student-athletes have a tremendous experience off the court as well. That's something we'll really strive to do. Again, I'm just honored and grateful to be your head coach. I can't wait to represent Southern Miss and the Hattiesburg community with excellent class as we or NCAA Tournaments, maybe a championship. Thank you for supporting us. Let's, hey, let's keep the momentum going. Let's pack Reed Green! We got a few more kids to sign, but I can't wait to get started and start this journey with this team."
– #SMTTT –
Women's Basketball Postgame Press Conference - Jan. 22 vs. Marshall
Friday, January 23
Women's Basketball Condensed Game - 1/1/2026 vs. Troy
Saturday, January 03
Women's Basketball Postgame Press Conference - Jan. 3 vs. Troy
Saturday, January 03
Game Highlights - Southern Miss vs. UAB
Monday, December 08