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Chris Beard named Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year after Ole Miss' run to second Sweet 16

11by:Jake Thompson•03/31/25•

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NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament South Regional-Mississippi at Michigan State
Mar 28, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Chris Beard in the second half of a South Regional semifinal of the 2025 NCAA tournament against the Michigan State Spartans at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The college basketball season wrapped up this past weekend in Atlanta for the Ole Miss men’s basketball team with a historic run and head coach Chris Beard has been honored for this year’s success.

In his second season with the Rebels Beard was named the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year by CollegeInsider.com on Monday.

For only the second time Ole Miss reached the Sweet 16, tying the most successful season in program history. Michigan State kept Beard and the Rebels from reaching their first Elite 8 with a 73-70 defeat at State Farm Arena on Friday.

Beard also guided the Rebels to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2019 and racked up wins over North Carolina and Iowa State to reach the second weekend of the tournament for the first time in 24 years.

Ole Miss finished with a 24-12 overall record, tying for the third-most wins in program history.

“Every season ends for every team except for one, with the feelings we have right now. It’s a little bit different for me this year,” Beard said after the loss on Friday. “You dread that walk back to the locker room to talk to your guys, but this year just felt different. I’m just so thankful. I’ve never been this kind of emotion when a season ends, but I’m just thankful for these guys. To be in the Sweet 16 our second year at Ole Miss, it’s the players, especially these two guys to my left that endured the coaching change and stuck with us and decided to come back their last year and play for us.”

The Jim Phelan Award is named in honor of the head coach who is best known for his 49-year career at Mount Saint Mary’s, where he accumulated over 800 wins and was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

Introduced in 2003, previous winners of the award include Tubby Smith, Tony Bennett, John Calipari, Bob Huggins, and Mark Adams

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