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Ole Miss coach Chris Beard on NC State, Will Wade: ‘We know they’ll be an NCAA Tournament team this year’

image_6483441 (3)by:Noah Fleischman•06/25/25•

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Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

NC State coach Will Wade and his staff approached their first offseason with one goal in mind: to build a roster that could compete at the highest levels of the ACC to make the NCAA Tournament comfortably. 

And so far, the Wolfpack has appeared to have done just that with the No. 3 transfer portal class, according to EvanMiya. Texas Tech transfer forward Darrion Williams headlined the haul, while Houston wing Terrance Arceneaux and Michigan State point guard Tre Holloman were other key additions in its nine-man portal class. 

Now that the Wolfpack has its full roster put together, its schedule is of the next priority. As Wade looks to challenge his team to prepare for league play, the non-conference slate appears to be one of the team’s most difficult in recent seasons. 

NC State will host the likes of Kansas, Liberty, UAB and VCU, while going to Auburn for the ACC-SEC Challenge and the Maui Invitational over Thanksgiving. Its latest addition to the slate was a two-year neutral-site agreement with Ole Miss, which is set to begin in Greensboro on Dec. 21. 

So why did Ole Miss coach Chris Beard agree to schedule NC State in Wade’s first season at the helm? It was a part of the Rebels’ “quest to try to play the best teams in the country,” the third-year coach said Tuesday. 

“A lot of respect for Will, what he’s done along the way in his coaching spots, most recently with McNeese,” Beard told local reporters. “A chance to play a [power conference] opponent with a coaching staff that we have a lot of respect for how they play the game. We know they’ll be an NCAA Tournament team this year, in my opinion. [It’s] kind of like the way I felt about Louisville last year.”

Louisville, as Beard alluded to, burst onto the scene with a 19-win improvement under first-year coach Pat Kelsey last season. The Cardinals finished second in the ACC regular season, making it to the league tournament championship game before they earned a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

For NC State, meanwhile, the battle with Ole Miss is an opportunity for the Wolfpack to build a postseason resume well before ACC play opens. The Pack is 1-1 all-time against the Rebels, including a 72-52 road loss during the first-ever ACC-SEC Challenge in 2023. 

While this year’s meeting will be played at First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro, a setting well-known to the Wolfpack faithful, next season’s tilt will be held at a neutral site in Mississippi. 

Although many would like to see this series as a home-and-home on campuses, including Beard, the neutral locations were an intentional piece of trying to boost both team’s postseason stock early in the season. 

“The home-and-home in today’s college basketball is very challenging in today’s scheduling format,” Beard said. “The criteria that you look at all year to get to the NCAA Tournament, there’s higher value placed on neutral site games. That’s why you see that a lot in college. In my opinion, something’s got to be done with that. There’s got to be something where programs are rewarded for the old-school home-and-home.”

But for now, the Rebels and Wolfpack are eager to battle on the hardwood in each of the next two seasons in what will be meetings of likely NCAA Tournament teams looking to improve their postseason seeding for March.

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