WATCH: Ole Miss is last undefeated team in league (SEC) Beard believes could be CBB’s best
The Ole Miss basketball Rebels are the last undefeated team standing from the vaunted SEC.
The same conference they managed to win a combined seven games playing in over the previous two seasons.
Suffice to say, the turnaround under first-year head coach Chris Beard has been remarkable, specifically in the early-season production from an overhauled roster. Twelve of the Rebels’ 16 players are new.
However, Beard, on Thursday, was far more, if not exclusively, focused on the Rebels’ second true road trip of the season. They’re set to take on UCF in Orlando on Sunday at 3 p.m. CT.
The Rebels “didn’t play our best basketball,” according to Beard, at Temple — one of three wins in their first six games by three points or less.
He’s hoping for better in Mickey Mouse’s backyard and against a UCF team sitting at 6-2 in its first season as a member of the Big 12. Ball State transfer guard Jaylin Sellers leads the Golden Knights in scoring (20.6 points per game).
“It gives us a chance to kind of see where we’re at against a team that we’ve got a lot of respect for,” Beard said.
And further prepare Ole Miss for its SEC slate in less than a month.
“Haven’t competed in the (SEC) yet, but my familiarity starts with the teams we’ve competed against before,” Beard said. “I understand what (Tennessee head coach) Rick Barnes is all about and has been about his whole career. Have a lot of respect for coach. He’s actually one of my mentors; that’s accurate to say.
“Lot of coaches in this league that I’ve followed their teams, not only where they’re coaching now, but before.”
Beard has Ole Miss off to its first 8-0 start since the 2007-08 season.
He’s trying to make the Rebels the fourth separate team he’s led to the NCAA Tournament since 2016. His Texas Tech Red Raiders reached the title game in 2019.
“Obviously in recruiting, the SEC’s got great players,” Beard continued. “It’s more NBA players from SEC schools on rosters. All that’s real. You look at every SEC team, there’s NBA players (and) NBA prospects. There’s young, NBA talent.
“I’ve been really impressed. I haven’t started traveling to these venues and stuff, but I just think from my eyes and what I’ve seen, and I think I’ve seen everybody in the league play two or three times, I think our league has a chance to be one of, if not the best, league in college basketball. All that will be determined. These rankings, they don’t mean anything until you get to mid-December, late-December and then you come up for air and conference play’s what college basketball’s all about.”
Beard was joined at the Pavilion podium by star transfer center Moussa Cisse.
The pair was meeting with local media on Thursday to preview the upcoming game, as well as touch on pressing Rebel basketball topics. Among them, Cisse’s grueling NCAA waiver process.
Here’s everything they had to say.
