Chris Beard: Ole Miss still waiting on NCAA regarding waivers for Moussa Cisse and Brandon Murray
The Ole Miss men’s basketball team unveiled its roster for the 2023-24 season earlier this month but there are two players who are still waiting to know their eligibility fate.
Transfers Moussa Cisse and Brandon Murray have not been cleared by the NCAA, paving the way for them to be eligible players for first-year Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard’s roster.
Beard has 16 players but is currently facing the possibility of having only 14 of them at his disposal and that is before he opts to potentially redshirt any three of his true freshman.
On Tuesday Beard met with the local media for the first time in an official press conference capacity since being named the new head coach at Ole Miss five months ago.
The first question to Beard was regarding the status of Cisse and Murray with the answer being it all still in the process of getting worked out by the NCAA.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s no different than any other day or any other week or any other season,” Beard said in trying to prepare for this year. “There’s challenges everywhere. Putting together a team similar to some years. ‘Do we redshirt this player? Is he going to play? How’s this guy going to respond coming off an injury?’ Things like that. It’s not uncharted waters. We’ve kind of been there before.”
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Murray transferred in from Georgetown while Cisse transferred in from Oklahoma State. Both will be key additions to the Ole Miss roster with Cisse providing beard with his second player over seven feet tall this season, joining 7-foot-5 Jamarion Sharp. Murray would join in the mix of guards that include Matthew Murrell, TJ Caldwell, Robert Cowherd and Auburn transfer Allen Flanigan.
The calendar flips to September on Friday, putting the regular season only a couple months from getting started. Ole Miss will enter preseason mode with a training camp in October. With time starting to not be on Beard and his staff’s side there has not be any definite news from the NCAA regarding decisions being handed down.
“The NCAA has come out with a couple generic things in terms of potential time frames and things like that but as we sit here today I don’t have any details.”
