Chris Beard and his staff 'feel good' about Ole Miss' schedule but did not check off every box

There is a lot of moving parts that go into setting up the next season, including schedule making, but for the Ole Miss men’s basketball program that got even more complicated with a coaching change.

With less than a month remaining in the 2022-23 season Kermit Davis stepped down as the head coach and Chris Beard was hired in March. Due to the late-season shuffling, which is not uncommon with coaching firings and hirings, it caused the creation of the 2023-24 schedule to take a little longer.

The full schedule was released earlier this month when the Southeastern Conference office announced conference opponents for its 14 teams. Prior to that Ole Miss released its non-conference slate in late August.

When it came to formulating a non-conference schedule Beard took a certain approach and strategy. During his press conference on Monday ahead of the first day of preseason practice he noted not every goal was achieved in forming the schedule but was pleased with where it landed.

“Maybe not every box, but we feel okay about it,” Beard said. “We feel good. A lot of work went into it. All our coaches contributed to it in some way. Brian Burg, certainly, did a lot. Stacey (Hollowell), who was here with Kermit (and) who’s at Texas Southern now, really worked on that for us for a couple weeks before he took his next opportunity.”

On Thursday Ole Miss announced the tip off times and television designations for three more of its non-conference games. The December 2 game against Memphis will air on ESPN 2 and tip off at 1 p.m. CT. The December 16 Hall of Fame Series game against California in San Antonio will air on the SEC Network and tip off at 6:30 p.m. CT. Then the final tune up prior to the start of SEC play against Bryant on December 31 will air on the SEC Network and tip off at 3 p.m. CT.

“Simply stated, we’re playing a lot of good teams,” Beard said. “We have three championship teams on our (schedule) this year. Three teams that won their conference. We have six or seven 20-win teams. We have a lot of postseason teams. We’re playing in true road environments, we’re playing neutral site kind of NCAA Tournament-type environments. We worked really hard to have some home games highlighted by a Memphis or a N.C. State.”

Related: Ole Miss working to get Matthew Murrell into ‘elite shape’ for senior season

Ole Miss also announced tip off times and TV designations for its entire SEC schedule.

The SEC schedule will start for Ole Miss on January 6 with a game at Tennessee, tipping off at 5 p.m. CT and airing on the SEC Network. The Rebels will return home on January 10 to take on Florida for its first SEC game in the SJB Pavilion, starting at 8 p.m. CT and also on the SEC Network.

In total Ole Miss has 12 conference games that will air on the SEC Network, one game that will air on ESPN (at Kentucky) and two more that will air on ESPN 2 or ESPNU.

The Rebels will close out the regular season on March 9 against Texas A&M in its lone CBS game that starts at 1 p.m. CT.

“We’re going to some pretty cool places for our guys,” Beard said. “Whether its Orlando, Philadelphia or San Antonio. A lot of challenges in our schedule. A lot of different styles and coaching in our schedule, which will ultimately the biggest objective is to get ready for SEC play. There’s some things I think we’d like to do with our future schedules but I think this year with the time allotted and the situation we found ourselves in I think we put together a very competitive schedule.”

Below is the full 2023-24 Ole Miss men’s basketball schedule

• Nov. 6 — Alabama State (TBA / SEC Network+)
• Nov. 10 — Eastern Washington (TBA / SEC Network+)
• Nov. 14 — Detroit Mercy (TBA / SEC Network+)
• Nov. 17 — Sam Houston State *Tad Pad Game* (8 p.m. / TBA)
• Nov. 22 — at Temple (TBA)
• Nov. 28 — North Carolina State (8 p.m. / ESPN2)
• Dec. 2 — Memphis (1 p.m. / ESPN2)
• Dec. 5 — Mount St. Mary’s (TBA / SEC Network+)
• Dec. 10 — at Central Florida (TBA)
• Dec. 16 — California *at San Antonio* (6:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Dec. 19 — Troy (TBA / SEC Network+)
• Dec. 23 — Southern Mississippi *at Biloxi* (TBA)
• Dec. 31 — Bryant (3 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Jan. 6 — at Tennessee (5 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Jan. 10 — Florida (8 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Jan. 13 — Vanderbilt (Noon / SEC Network)
• Jan. 17 — at LSU (6 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Jan. 20 — at Auburn (7:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Jan. 24 — Arkansas (8 p.m. / ESPN2 or ESPNU)
• Jan. 27 — at Texas A&M (7:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Jan. 30 — Mississippi State (7:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Feb. 3 — Auburn (5 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Feb. 6 — at South Carolina (5:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Feb. 13 — at Kentucky (8 p.m. / ESPN)
• Feb. 17 — Missouri (7:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Feb. 21 — at Mississippi State (8 p.m. / ESPN or ESPN2)
• Feb. 24 — South Carolina (2:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• Feb. 28 — Alabama (8 p.m. / ESPN2)
• March 2 — at Missouri (7:30 p.m. / SEC Network)
• March 5 — at Georgia (6 p.m. / SEC Network)
• March 9 — Texas A&M (1 p.m. / CBS)