Skip to main content
ole-miss logo

What He Said: Beard has Ole Miss in the Sweet 16 for the second time ever

Ben Garrettby:Ben Garrett•03/24/25•

SpiritBen

USATSI_25751410 copy
Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard (Photo credit: USA Today Images)

Ole Miss basketball, at long last, has finally matched the program’s all-time greatest accomplishment. 

The Rebels on Sunday whipped Iowa State, 91-78, to punch their second-ever ticket to the Sweet 16. Ole Miss, the 6-seed, improved to 24-11 and next gets 2-seed Michigan State (29-6) Friday in Atlanta at 6 p.m. CT on CBS.

The Spartans, who defeated 10-seed New Mexico, opened as 3.5-point favorites.

“I played Chris Beard before,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said. Izzo and Beard faced off in the 2019 Final Four. “I know his team is going to come at you tooth and nail.”

The 3-seed Cyclones ended their season at 25-10. Ole Miss’ only other Sweet 16 berth was 2001. The Rebels lost to Arizona, 66-56.

Sean Pedulla scored 20 points as one of five Rebels in double figures. Fourth-year Rebel and SEC Sixth Man of the Year candidate Jaemyn Brakefield had 19.

The Rebels led by as many as 26 and at one point went on a 20-2 run. They shot 58.2 percent from the floor, including 11 for 9 from 3-point range.

RELATED: Matthew Murrell and Jaemyn Brakefield came back to get Ole Miss to this NCAA Tournament run

Ole Miss is one of a record seven SEC schools stills standing.

Ole Miss is the fourth separate program Beard, in his second season at Ole Miss, has led to the NCAA Tournament. He’s shooting for his second Final Four. He also took Texas Tech. The Red Raiders made the title game under Beard in 2019.

This is the first time in Ole Miss history both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have advanced to the Sweet 16 in the same season.

Here’s everything Beard said afterwards.

OPENING STATEMENT 

BEARD: Just congratulations to Iowa State on a really good season. Obviously both teams were a little bit outmanned. We’re missing Mikeal Brown, and they’re missing one of their best players.

Really happy for everybody in our program, organization to get to this stage here, year two. It’s all about the players. Matt and Brake and Ju coming back, all the guys like Barnes to my right. They trusted us with a vision.

It hasn’t been done recently, but telling these guys what we thought we could do at Ole Miss, they trusted us enough to come. Excited about the players. All my thoughts are on those guys.

We came here to win a four-team tournament. So two down. It takes six to win the whole thing. Told the guys to enjoy this for half a day and we will get back to work tomorrow. We’re excited about our next opportunity in the Sweet 16.

The basketball game, it was important to us to take care of the ball. Iowa State is one of the best in the country on forcing turnovers, 16, 17 a game on average. Our thing is to try to take care of the ball. It was a scary start for us. We had three turnovers in the first four minutes, but then to play the rest of the game with only five turnovers, that was the game, from our perspective.

Proud of everybody in our organization, and looking forward to competing next weekend.

ON THE ‘SCARY’ OPENING MINUTES

BEARD: Yeah, we just kind of had a disappointing start because we spent a day and a half talking about some offensive spacing and objectives, and we just kind of did quite the opposite, early.

But give the guys credit, we got a poised group. They allow me to be me, especially JuJu, he always calms me down. I thought we did a great job of executing the game plan for 35 of the 40 minutes, and the big part of the game plan was trying to take care of the basketball.

ON THE WIN FOR THE SEC AS A FORMER BIG 12 COACH

BEARD: It’s really not about me. It’s just about these players. I mean, we got guys that have played four and five years of college basketball and given everything they could have possibly given and just haven’t played in the NCAA Tournament yet.

And we felt that pressure. We were kind of a, you know, win-or-bust team. We set the objective really high. We want to go in the tournament, we want to have a good seed. We want to be one of those teams that has a chance to win the tournament.

And Ole Miss winning the tournament, probable? No. Possible? Absolutely.

Right now with our team, we’re watching the Coach Valvano special. And we’re not done yet. Players are like, When are we going to finish? I’m like, We’re going to finish on Sunday night right before the Monday game.

So it’s not arrogance, it’s absolute belief. If I didn’t believe this team was capable of continuing to win games in this tournament, then I shouldn’t be the coach at Ole Miss.

But this is all about the players. These guys have bought in, they’ve been an unselfish group since the first day of summer. And to see their hard work pay off is really rewarding.

ON THE TEAM ADOPTING HIS PERSONALITY

BEARD: I think, above all, I’m very competitive. And I think, above all, I don’t try to think of words. I don’t really care about people’s feelings that I have a relationship with.

So with the players, kind of a direct teaching. So, yeah, these players have allowed me to do that, just like as a coaching staff we have tried to reach the guys in the best way we can reach them. Some of these guys need that. They need the hard, direct message. Some of these guys need poise and confidence in moments.

But I would say it’s an accurate statement. These guys have allowed our coaching staff to coach them, and I think they have allowed each guy in our program to be the best version of themselves as individuals as well.

ON COACHING MALIK DIA HARD ALL YEAR

BEARD: I thought Dia played well tonight. Just a handful of possessions that if he flips those, he plays elite. I give him a grade of great, not good. He came to play, did a lot of good things. But there is such a high ceiling to his game.

And our Ole Miss team right now, continuing to play in this tournament we need Dia’s A+ game. He is a talented player. We have a relationship. I appreciate him letting me coach him in the best way I know how. Proud of him. He’s put a lot of work into this. And to see the work pay off now in his third year of college basketball, I’m really happy for Dia.

ON SEAN PEDULLA’S SWAGGER

BEARD: A key to the game tonight was we get five guys in double-figure scoring. We take care of the basketball, and we were committed to the defensive end for most of the game.

You mentioned Sean Pedulla. We have several players on our team that are fearless guys. They all have the courage to take that shot, make that play on defense.

One of our challenges this year has been, when this journey started, making sure that each individual player could be the best version of themselves, but also let’s work this as a too many.

So we spent time this summer watching the USA Basketball documentary trying to demonstrate how their team was a bunch of talented guys that came together with one purpose. Our team is a bunch of talented guys that come together with one purpose. Certainly not saying that we are USA Basketball talented, but there are a lot of parallels.

I think that’s one of the stories of our team, is all these guys, they check their egos at the door when they arrived at Oxford, and they’re playing for each other.

ON DIA SAYING BEARD SOLD WINNING IN RECRUITING BETTER THAN ANY COACH

BEARD: Makes me feel great because those are the stories that will come later in life when we’re having a reunion, hanging out, seeing each other as life goes on. We will remember the bold statements that were made by players and coaches, and to see some of those things come to reality is cool, but I didn’t shed my words with this team. The very first meeting we had we were talking about winning at the highest level.

Not trying to make the tournament but being one of those teams that has a pathway to a tournament. My thing about winning is if there is a scoreboard — what is it? If there is a scoreboard on, you gotta try to win. Everything we do is competitive, and that’s one thing I try to get across, especially — portal recruiting is like speed dating. You got five minutes on the first phone call, ten minutes on the first Zoom, 30 minutes in the first meeting. And you try and make an impression on that player. So we talk a lot about come to Ole Miss and help us win.

We define winning. Winning off the court, winning in the classroom, and certainly winning in the NCAA Tournament. It’s rewarding to see some of the things we talked about come to reality.

You may also like