Ole Miss men's basketball begins 'Culture Week' with N.C. State in ACC/SEC Challenge

Ole Miss men’s basketball head coach Chris Beard should have a very good idea what kind of team he has for the rest of his first season in Oxford come Saturday night.

That is due to the fact the Rebels open up a three-game home stand on Tuesday with North Carolina State (4-1) followed up by Memphis (5-1) on Saturday. The toughest two-game stretch Ole Miss (5-0) has faced in the early season.

Coming off their first road win at Temple last Wednesday Beard has watched his team win its last three games by a combined five points. Tuesday’s game in the first ever ACC/SEC Challenge Ole Miss is a 2.5-point favorite over the Wolfpack and ESPN’s FPI predicts the Rebels with a 55.7 percent chance to win.

Beard has dubbed this week ‘Culture Week’ for the program with two nationally televised games on deck.

One area Ole Miss will look to carry over from its trip to Philadelphia last week is its perimeter shooting. The Rebels shot 55.6 percent from three-point range against the Owls, its highest percentage from that distance all season.

“It’s such (an) early season the sample size is small and probably not accurate,” Beard said following the Temple game. “I think we’ll end up being a good three-point shooting team and I think it’ll be a part of our offensive identity.”

Here are some other notes ahead of Ole Miss – North Carolina State.

SCOUTING THE WOLFPACK

NC State has begun the 2023-24 season with a 4-1 record, picking up wins over The Citadel (72-59), Abilene Christian (84-64), and Charleston Southern (87-53), before taking down Vanderbilt (84-78) at the Vegas Showdown. The Wolfpack most recently fell to BYU 95-86 in the second round of the Vegas Showdown. NC State won 23 games a season ago, earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament where they lost to Creighton in the opening round.

The team has four players averaging double-figures in scoring to begin the year, led by Casey Morsell at 15.0 per game. He is joined by fellow starters Jayden Taylor (14.8 per game), D.J. Burns Jr. (14.6 per game), and DJ Horne (12.4 per game).

Similar to Ole Miss, NC State has been one of the best in the nation at taking care of the ball, owning an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.70 (No. 19 in NCAA). They rank in the top-10 in turnover margin (No. 7, 7.8) and fastbreak points (No. 9, 19.8) nationally as well.

A NEW OLE MISS ERA BEGINS

With the hiring of Chris Beard last March, the Ole Miss men’s basketball program is prepared to take the next step forward, bringing in one of the most successful coaches of the last decade.

Compiling a record of 241-98 as an NCAA head coach since 2012, Beard holds one of the highest win percentages in the nation, ranking 11th among active head coaches with 10 or more years of experience at 71.2%.

The 2019 AP National Coach of the Year has led three different programs to the NCAA Tournament over the previous eight years, and is undefeated in the opening round at 5-0. His all-time record in the NCAA Tournament is 11-5 (.688).

SKEE-LO’S HERO

Transfer forward Jamarion Sharp stands as the tallest student-athlete in NCAA Division I men’s basketball this season at 7’5″, a title he has held for three-straight seasons now, and is even listed as one of the tallest living humans on Wikipedia. After spending his first two college years at John A. Logan College, Sharp played two years at Western Kentucky from 2021 to 2023. In 64 games played, he averaged 7.8 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game, and became just the fifth person ever to lead the NCAA in blocks twice. His margin of 4.25 blocks per game during his career is currently the 11th-best average in college basketball history.