Less than a month ago, Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Carol Ross came to Vicksburg to honor her former coach Van Chancellor.

On Tuesday night, she spent time in Vicksburg touting her own team.

Ross, who came here on April 1 for Chancellor’s induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, returned as the featured guest of the River City Rebel Alumni Club at the Southern Cultural Heritage Center.

Ole Miss football administrative assistant Hugh Freeze and former Ole Miss athletic director Warner Alford also attended the annual spring meeting. Ole Miss Chancellor Dr. Robert Khayat was unable to attend the Vicksburg meeting after becoming ill at an event in Jackson.

“I’ve had some good reasons to come to Vicksburg,” Ross said during the reception. “Being able to come here and honor Coach Van meant a lot to both of us.”

Ross was congratulated by the Vicksburg alumni for leading the Lady Rebels to their second straight NCAA Tournament.

“It was a great season for us to make it back to the NCAA Tournament. That makes us 2-for-2 which is an accomplishment, considering the youth of our program,” said Ross who has compiled a 283-146 record in 14 seasons. Her first 12 years came at the University of Florida, where she took the Lady Gators to nine NCAA Tournaments.

Ole Miss came close to winning its first tournament game since 1994, but lost late to George Washington, 60-57, at Chapel Hill, N.C.

“We made a run and they made a run late to take it away from us,” Ross said. The Lady Rebels finished the season with a 19-11 record.

Ross will lose four seniors off the team, including senior post Amber Watts of Hinds AHS, who averaged 11.6 points and 6.3 rebounds for the season.

“Amber meant a lot to us. We had two years to work with her and she gave us high energy and a great spirit,” Ross said. “Besides Amber, we also lost our starting backcourt in Elizabeth Cansdale and Carletta Brown along with another post in Amber Terrell.”

Lady Rebel fans will have little to fret, though, with the return of All-SEC swing player Armintie Price and a good recruiting class.

“Recruiting has gone great and our new class was rated the 14th best in the country,” Ross said.

One of those recruits is Callaway’s Juanita Ward, who helped lead the Mississippi All-Stars to a win over Alabama earlier this month. The team was coached by Ross’ long-time friend, Warren Central’s Donny Fuller.

“Donny did a good job with her and the Mississippi team,” she said. “Donny and I went to school together. He was the manager for the men’s team while I was playing at Ole Miss.”

Freeze was a new face for the Vicksburg alumni. He was hired by new Rebel football coach Ed Orgeron to be his right-hand man.

“My job is to do whatever Ed needs me to do to make it easier for him to win football games,” Freeze said. He comes to Ole Miss after 13 years with Briarcrest Christian School in Memphis. While at Briarcrest, Freeze won two Tennessee Athletic Association football championships and four state titles in girls basketball.

Freeze will handle in-house recruiting for the Rebels and will also act as the program’s compliance officer with the NCAA.

“Whatever preconceived perceptions there are with Ole Miss and the NCAA, our slate’s a brand new one. Coach Orgeron plans to do things the right way and with passion,” he said.

Freeze will not have an on-the-field coaching role, but he said Rebel fans will like what they see come fall.

“The biggest thing are players learned over the spring was the pace Ed brings to practice,” Freeze said. “And they are going to have to do that every day. Not some days, but every day.”

One big change alignment wise Freeze indicated, will come on defense as the Rebels look to employ a four-man front.

“Ed’s a 4-3 guy. That’s what they played during two runs at the national championship at USC and that’s what we’ll run at Ole Miss,” Freeze said. “Ed is one of the best defensive minds I’ve been around and we’re going to run plenty of attacking type schemes on defense.”