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Unpacking a busy offseason for Ole Miss basketball: What can Chris Beard achieve in Year Two?

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Unpacking a busy offseason for Ole Miss basketball: What can Chris Beard achieve in Year Two?

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OXFORD ― Ole Miss basketball coach Chris Beard’s quest to transform the Rebels’ program has now generated a pair of offseason roster transformations.

The second of which has seen Ole Miss bring six transfers out of the portal, compiling a class that sits 14th nationally according to the 247Sports rankings.

What do the additions mean for the Rebels? And what kind of team can Ole Miss expect to be in Beard’s second season?

Ole Miss has trio of proven scorers at the power conference level

When Matthew Murrell announced his return last week, the Rebels kept a player who has posted at least 12 points per game in each of the last three seasons. In 2023-24, he shot a career-high 46.4% from the field on his way to averaging 16.2 points per game.

In Seton Hall’s Dre Davis (15 points per game) and Virginia Tech’s Sean Pedulla (16.4 points per game), Ole Miss has a trio of players who averaged 15 points or more at the power conference level last season.

Logic dictates that might be a hard feat to replicate while Murrell, Pedulla and Davis are each wearing the same uniform – there’s only one ball, after all.

But opposing defenses are going to be given painful choices to make.

Evaluating Ole Miss basketball’s options at center

Jamarion Sharp graduated, and Moussa Cisse entered the transfer portal, later opting to return to Memphis ‒ where he started his collegiate career.

That’s two 7-footers gone. So what now?

Beard didn’t replace their profile in the transfer portal, which leaves some ambiguity as to what his plans for that position are next season. Malik Dia played mostly as a center down the stretch for Belmont last season, according to KenPom positional data. At 6-9, 240 pounds, he’s bringing a different build to Oxford than the 7-foot Cisse or 7-5 Sharp. Dia has a different skill set, too. He averaged 16.9 points in just 23.1 minutes per game.

A more like-for-like replacement could be coming from the high school ranks in 7-1 John Bol ― a McDonald’s All-American and the No. 55 overall prospect in the country.

How many minutes is Ole Miss planning to entrust to Bol early? If he needs time, how does Dia’s presence change things for the Rebels without a lengthy rim protector on the floor?

Ole Miss basketball set to be uber-experienced in 2024-25

The Rebels’ actions in the transfer portal signal a win-now approach.

Five of their six additions are seniors or graduate students, with Dia ‒ set to be a junior ‒ the lone exception. Forward Mikeal Brown-Jones, who scored 18.9 points and added 7.5 rebounds a game for UNC Greensboro last season, is one of the other noteworthy additions within that group.

Plug in the returners and this is a team that should be one of the most experienced in college basketball. Murrell and Jaemyn Brakefield will be fifth-year players, and Jaylen Murray will make it eight seniors among the scholarship players on the roster.

Experience helps ‒ but it doesn’t guarantee anything. Ole Miss found that out last season, when it ranked 23rd in KenPom’s experience metric and missed the NCAA Tournament. The two most experienced teams in the country, St. Bonaventure and Washington, both spent March at home, too.

But there are success stories. NC State rode a senior-laden group to the Final Four. South Carolina used a group of veterans to turn its program around. Experience helped lead Clemson to the Elite Eight.

What will it do for the Rebels?

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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