Chris Beard provides updates on Moussa Cisse, Brandon Murray as waiver decision looms

While Ole Miss awaits waiver decisions on two of their premier transfers, Brandon Murray and Moussa Cisse, head coach Chris Beard says the guys have handled the situation with the correct mindset.

When asked about those two having to play the waiting game with the NCAA over eligibility, Beard credited both for working through it.

“Yeah both guys, mostly Brandon, have attacked this situation, I think, with a lot of professionalism, a lot of maturity,” explained Beard. “We talk about it. We have a truth-telling program. We don’t spend a lot of time in our organization trying to play mind games. We just put it out there. So, there’s obviously a lot of unknowns right now, especially as the season approaches quickly.”

Rather than simply not address the issue, Chris Beard and the players are dealing with it head-on but not making the saga a primary focus of the team as a whole.

“On one hand, we talk about it, keep everything in the open air. Then, on the other hand, guys are doing a great job controlling what they can control — and that’s just approaching each day, whether it’s practice or individual workouts or the academic piece of being a student athlete. So kind of two-fold. We’re definitely not ignoring what’s going on with them, but also, we’re just attacking each day, controlling what we can control.”

For now, all Beard, Cisse and Murray can control is whether they make the most of the practice time that they do have while waiting on the waiver

Cisse is a former five-star prospect with previous college stops at Memphis and Oklahoma State. He was the nation’s No. 17 player in his recruiting class, as well as the No. 2 center nationally and the No. 2 player in Tennessee. He averaged 6.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game for Oklahoma State last season as an All-Defensive player in the Big 12. He’s actually a two-time member of the All-Defense team and won the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award in 2022.

Meanwhile, Murray comes by way of LSU and then Georgetown. He averaged an even 10.0 points as a freshman with the Tigers and then starred for the Hoyas last season, averaging 13.3 points per game before deciding to move another time. With his versatility and the Rebels’ lack of an established true point guard, there was a possibility Murray started as the lead ball-handler to begin the year.