Bruce Pearl praises job Chris Beard has done building Ole Miss' culture

Chris Beard is the newest coach in the Southeastern Conference after taking over Ole Miss this offseason. Still, even though he is just 22 games into his tenure in Oxford, Bruce Pearl can already see the effect that he has had on their program.

Pearl, who is now 2-0 over Beard this season, spoke about his impact on the Rebels following a 91-77 comeback win for Auburn this weekend. He started by giving some due flowers to Beard and his staff for what they’re currently doing on the sideline.

“First of all, Chris Beard is a great coach. He has got a great staff,” said Pearl.

However, in Pearl’s opinion, the evidence is more so in the culture and the clear excitement from Ole Miss’ fans. He could feel that energy around their college town the night before the matchup, which is even more impressive considering how fast they’ve done it with them accomplishing all of this in less than a year.

“It’s hard to develop culture in six months,” said Pearl. “I told him before the game. I said, ‘What you’ve done in six months took me three years to do at Auburn’, you know?”

“The crowd, this environment? The town last night? I went out to the grocery store for dinner – whatever it is. Man, just? It’s nice,” Pearl said. “It’s big time. Fans were out but they were all really respectful.”

After five seasons under Kermit Davis with a record of 74-79 (.484), Ole Miss elected to hire Beard at the start of last March. It was a somewhat controversial choice for some considering some matters off the floor in the year prior. Still, when looking through the lens of solely on-court success, there was no denying his work from his three previous stops at Little Rock, Texas Tech, and Texas.

Now, almost a year later, he has the Rebels at 18-4, including a 13-0 start to non-conference play. That mark has taken a bit of a hit with a 5-4 record through the first half of conference play but the team is still very much in the mix for their first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years.

Pearl had a ton of respect for Beard and Ole Miss based on what they’ve already achieved thus far. That’s why he’s even more glad that his Tigers were able to battle back and pull out a victory on the road against them on Saturday.

“He’s got a good thing here,” Pearl said. “It was a big weekend. Sold-out crowd. This was as hard of an environment that we’ll play against.”

“Our guys responded – didn’t quit, didn’t panic. So it’s a big win for us,” said Pearl.