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Bracket Watch: Ole Miss already trending towards a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance

11by: Jake Thompson05/20/25JakeThompsonOn3
NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament South Regional-Mississippi at Michigan State
Mar 28, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Chris Beard in the first half of a South Regional semifinal of the 2025 NCAA tournament against the Michigan State Spartans at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The calendar says May and the 2024-25 basketball season is less than two months old but the Ole Miss men’s team is already earning projections to make next year’s Field of 68 and a second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

Entering year three of the Chris Beard era in Oxford the goal is simply to not make the NCAA Tournament. Not anymore, at least. A second Sweet 16 appearance in program history has throttled the postseason expectations into overdrive.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi agrees, to an extent.

Once again Lunardi is rolling out monthly ‘Bracketology’ updates through October during the offseason with the first one released on Tuesday. They will fluctuate as teams fill out rosters ahead of the 2025-26 season beginning.

Ole Miss is in Lunardi’s first projected Field of 68 for the 2026 NCAA Tournament, but not as comfortably in as the Rebels were this past March. Currently, Lunardi has the Rebels as the first team of the Last Four In group. North Carolina State, Marquette and SMU roun out the group.

He has Ole Miss as an 11 Seed, facing the Mustangs (also 11 Seed) in Dayton for the First Four. The winner projected to the East Region (Washington, D.C.) and playing 6 Seed Gonzaga for a first round matchup in Oklahoma City. A potential Round of 32 rematch with Iowa State is in the projections with the Cyclones the 3 Seed playing 14 Seed South Dakota State.

Though in the transfer portal era and ever-changing rosters the expectations are to be tempered. Beard and his staff is hard at work rebuilding the Rebels roster.

“Our roster is always going to be a work in progress up until the time we can take the court with these guys this summer and with the ever-changing landscape of college basketball,” Beard said last week during a one-on-one sit-down with the Ole Miss Spirit. “Kind of expect the unexpected in a lot of ways.”

Beard has already landed six commitments out of the portal in the last month. The latest two coming out of the Commonwealth State with Louisville power forward James Scott and Kentucky guard Travis Perry.

LSU transfer Corey Chest and Kansas guard AJ Storr are two others highlighted in the transfer class along with Butler forward Augusto Cassia and another Cardinal transfer in guard Koren Johnson.

Ole Miss currently sits at 13 in On3’s team transfer portal rankings.

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