Chris Beard shares what Ole Miss can learn from NBA Finals

Many college coaches use NBA film to show their players how high-level players go about playing the game on a professional level. This is no different for Chris Beard and his Ole Miss program, fresh off its second ever run to the Sweet Sixteen last season.

Beard, who is a known NBA junkie, discussed how he will be using this year’s NBA Finals matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers in his team’s film sessions.

“We’re watching as many clips from this year’s Finals right now with our team than anything else,” Beard said. “I think the Oklahoma City defense, from opening night to game seven, was much talked about and deservingly so. A lot of position less stuff. Their ability to switch and switch back. The pressure they put on the ball. They’re just really aggressive. What I would say is as the season started going on, the Pacers were in the same category. Their defense was just outstanding in the playoffs with individual players making plays and the help and rotation.”

“We’ve always studied the NBA Finals team because it coincides with summer starting. We study USA Basketball when they’re playing in the Olympics or whatever… that’s always been a part of our summer journey. But this year as much as ever. I think we’ve got enough video to work until the last day of the summer.”

In 10 seasons of coaching at the Division I level, Beard boasts a 215-97 record with a Sweet 16 appearance (Ole Miss in 2024), an Elite 8 appearance (Texas Tech in 2018) and a National Championship runner-up in 2019 (Texas Tech). Because of this success, he was asked about potentially jumping to the NBA at some point in his career. He didn’t quite shoot it down.

“In terms of me, I’ve got practice here in a couple of hours and I don’t think much ahead of that,” Beard said. “But what I would say is I’ve been asked that a few times over the years. I don’t shy away from that. One thing about me is I love coaching the best players and I love being in the most stressful moments in terms of competition. That’s what kind of fires me up.”

The Rebels brought in a strong transfer portal class (ranked No. 19 in On3’s rankings) to go along with returning forward Malik Dia. Dia is Ole Miss‘ lone returner from last year’s Sweet Sixteen team that averaged more than 2.0 points per game (10.8).