The 2025–26 Southern Miss Lady Eagles basketball team represented the University of Southern Mississippi during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Lady Eagles, led by first-year head coach Missy Bilderback, played their home games at the Reed Green Coliseum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi as members of the Sun Belt Conference.
Previous season The Lady Eagles finished the 2024–25 season 10–21, 5–13 in Sun Belt play, to finish in 13th place. They were defeated by Georgia Southern in the first round of the Sun Belt tournament.
During the season, on February 21, 2025, head coach Joye Lee-McNelis announced that she would be retiring at the end of the season, ending her 21-year tenure with the team. On March 25, 2025, the school announced that they would be hiring Louisiana–Monroe head coach and Southern Miss alum Missy Bilderback as the team's new head coach.
Preseason On October 20, 2025, the Sun Belt Conference released their preseason poll. Southern Miss was picked to finish fifth in the conference.
Preseason rankings +Sun Belt Preseason Poll Place Team Votes 1 189 (9) 2 174 (3) 3 171 (1) 4 151 (1) 5 Southern Miss 125 6 104 7 102 8 100 9 94 10 73 11 67 12 55 13 36 14 29
Source:
Preseason All-Sun Belt Teams Preseason All-Sun Belt TeamsTeamPlayerYearPositionFirstJakayla JohnsonGraduate StudentGuardThirdMeloney Thames Source:
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Regular season
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Sources:
References