Dominant Win Over Illinois Proof of Rebels’ Improvement Under Beard

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss enters a second season under Chris Beard and should contend for their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2019. The Rebels were one of the hottest teams in college basketball last season with 18-3 start and an appearance in the AP Top 25.

Momentum stalled once the calendar flipped to February as Beard’s team won two of its final 11 games to close the season. Much can be made of dominant wins during preseason exhibition games, especially those over quality competition and No. 24 Ole Miss’ 91-74 victory was no different.

While teamwork and unselfish play was seen from the Rebels’ 25 assists, not all was happy go lucky for Beard Sunday night. The SEC is a physical league so having the will to rebound is of much importance but Ole Miss lacked in that area Sunday evening.

“Giving up double-digit offensive rebounds is just unacceptable. It’s a problem,” Beard said. “We’ll have to have some unselfishness, and we obviously did today with 25 assists.”

“Not a lot of basketball games like that, so that shows you where our guys were mentally and where their hearts are sharing the ball. I saw a lot of players turn down an average shot for the hopes of a better shot, so 25 assists is a big part of this game.”

On the offensive end, Ole Miss produced a shooting barrage that Illinois had no answer for. The Rebels shot 49% from the floor and drained 52% from three which would have ranked in the top-10 of any performance last season.

Beard has built one of the oldest rosters in the country with 10 players who classify as upperclassmen. The experience from his veteran squad were only turned over a total of eight times but forced Illinois into 22.

With five players transferring in it takes time for a team to mold together once on the floor playing real opponents. Beard’s group seems to have built chemistry easily this summer and appear ready for the SEC in comparison to last season.

“We had a low turnover game,” Beard said. “I counted eight or nine turnovers out there was all. Some of those are just mistakes that we can clean up, and then we forced a lot of turnovers, so I think there were several games within the game, and one of those was the turnover game.”

Underwood’s Reaction

Illinois coach Brad Underwood might have been a bit tongue in cheek about his defensive situation at Big Ten Media Days earlier this month about his defense. As it appeared on Sunday, his young group still has a bit of work to do before the Illini are considered worthy of a NCAA Tournament bid.

“Defensively right now, a seventh grade middle school team would might hang 100 on us. We stink,” Underwood said at Big Ten Media Days.

Whether folks want to overreact or hold their applause, just know this Ole Miss team might be ready for the bright lights this season after all. Beard has won at every place he’s worked very quickly. This could be the true start of elevating the Rebels’ basketball program into a consistent player at the national level.