Beard: Ole Miss will need its ’best 40 minutes’ in early-season showdown of postseason hopefuls

Ole Miss basketball stayed perfect (6-0) with a 72-52 blowout of NC State in Oxford on Tuesday — easily the Rebels’ most impressive win of the season so far. 

As a result, Andy Katz of NCAA.com, in his way-too-early bracketology released this week, included the Rebels as one his nine SEC teams (and No. 44 overall) in his current, projected field of 68. Katz has Ole Miss as a play-in 11-seed with Iowa State and matched against No. 6-seed Creighton in the South region.

Katz has Memphis (5-1) dancing, too, but as a five-seed. The Tigers already have notable wins over Michigan, Missouri and then-No. 20 Arkansas. The Razorbacks have a win over No. 7 Duke on their resume. 

However, a lopsided loss to Villanova kept Memphis out of the Top 25 for the third straight week. Ole Miss, too, but that’s less surprising. The Rebels are in their first season under new head coach Chris Beard and won just seven combined SEC games the previous two seasons. 

They are receiving votes. But ranked or not, Saturday — when the Rebels and Tigers tip off in the SJB Pavilion at 1 p.m. CT on ESPN2 — is certainly setting up as an early-season, potential postseason preview The game is close to, if not already, a sellout.

“Lot of respect for (Memphis head coach) Penny (Hardaway),” Beard said Thursday, in addressing the media for his weekly press conference. “Obviously one of the best players to ever play college basketball and in the NBA. Also, really good coach. I have a lot of respect for him.

“Our teams have played against each other before. I’ve seen him several times on the recruiting trail. Obviously, what he did as a player speaks for itself, but I would say, in my opinion, he’s one of the best coaches in our game right now, too. His teams have identities. He’s obviously a great recruiter, and he’s shown the ability, each year, Memphis, players change, but identify kind of stays the same. 

“This year’s team’s no different.”

Memphis is 9-1 against Power 5 programs the last two seasons and 6-1 against the SEC.

The Tigers are led by David Jones, a transfer previously of DePaul and St. John’s, who’s averaging a career-best 17.8 points per game.

Memphis is No. 19 in the country in blocks. Malcolm Dandridge, one of two Tigers who’ve played in the Ole Miss series before, leads the team (1.83 per game).

“When they’re playing the way they want to play, when they’re playing well, I think they’re as good as anybody in college basketball,” Beard said. “I think that’s been proven this early-season. Can’t speak for (Hardaway), but I’m sure their team’s kind of a work in progress like ours is, too, but he definitely has the pieces in terms of guard play, interior play. They have a defensive identity, and on offense they’re just really hard to guard. Some of the best one-on-one players in college basketball and real speed at their point guard position. 

“When I lived in Little Rock, we’d spend some time in Memphis from time to time. A lot of respect for that program and the coaches that came before Penny and what they’re doing now. I guess it’s a rival with Ole Miss because of the locations of the two cities. Lot of respect for their program.”

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Star blue-chip freshman Mikey Williams, the prize of the 2023 recruiting class, has yet to appear for Memphis this season.

Williams, on Friday, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making criminal threats in an incident at his home in March. Shots were fired.

He’s been away from the team as the legal process plays out, and while he will avoid jail time and could finally join Memphis in the future, he won’t play against the Rebels. Saturday will be the 45th all-time meeting between Ole Miss and Memphis, in a series dating back to 1922-23. The Tigers hold a 29-15 advantage.

Memphis knocked off Ole Miss, 68-57, last season. However, the Tigers have dropped the last three in Oxford.  

“I told our team this morning, we’ll have to play our best 40 minutes of the season to this point to have some success in this game,” Beard said. “It should be a great college basketball game. Two good teams, in my opinion.”

Here’s everything Beard had to say Thursday.