Southern Miss and Ole Miss will face off in Biloxi for rare basketball showdown

Chris Beard put an end to the suspense.

The long-rumored Biloxi showdown between Southern Miss and Ole Miss hasn’t been announced by either school, but the new Rebel basketball coach made it official at Ground Zero Blues Club Thursday.

Beard told Ole Miss fans who gathered at the Morgan Freeman-owned venue for the Rebel Tour the in-state schools would meet at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum on Dec. 23.

“It’s going to be a great opponent and a great day of basketball,” Beard told the crowd.

The game was first reported by WXXV in May.

Beard has ties to Biloxi, his parents lived in town for two years when his father was in the Air Force. Beard said their annual family vacation would include a day spent in South Mississippi and he’s since made return trips.

“I have made a few financial donations to the casinos here,” Beard said.

Beard also has a connection to USM basketball, having met the Golden Eagles on the hardwood while coaching at Texas Tech in 2019. The then-nationally ranked Red Raiders edged USM coach Jay Ladner’s club, 71-65, on national TV.

December’s matchup will represent the first since 2011, when the Eagles defeated Ole Miss in Hattiesburg. It’ll be the sixth meeting between the teams, the first five all coming in 2007-2011.

The two met once in Biloxi in 2008, a 78-59 USM win.

“This is the right thing to do for basketball in the state of Mississippi,” Beard said. “Southern Miss was really good last year, Jay (Ladner) is a friend of mine. I think this is the right thing to do .... I hope that we play in front of a home crowd.”

Beard is entering his first year at Ole Miss after leading all of his previous stops, Little Rock, Texas Tech and Texas, to the NCAA Tournament. He was the AP National Coach of the Year in 2019 after guiding the Red Raiders to the national championship game.

Southern Miss is coming off its best season under Ladner as Sun Belt Conference regular season champs in its first season in the league.

SEC wants involvement from Congress

Joining Beard on the Rebel Tour was vice chancellor for intercollegiate athletics Keith Carter and fourth-year football coach Lane Kiffin.

As the three took questions from the crowd, the conversation naturally arrived to the topic of NIL and its ever-evolving landscape.

“College athletics used to be a lot of things and now NIL has just taken over every conversation we have,” Carter said. “We spent yesterday in Washington D.C. We went up with the folks from Mississippi State, really all of the SEC and their respective delegations... It’s not sustainable where we’re going right now, with every state having their own laws. Whatever state law gets passed, the next state trying to one-up that law to make it more convenient for them.

“We do need a national standard, there’s no question. I’m not sure at this point the NCAA can fix it. I don’t think the states can fix it, I don’t think the courts can fix it. I think Congress is going to have to step up and help us.”

Among those who made the trip to D.C. was Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who has been vocal about his desire for federal guidelines around NIL.

Saban made headlines a year ago when he claimed Texas A&M “bought every player on its team.”

At this year’s SEC spring meetings in Destin, Kiffin said “I don’t know anybody who has that answer of what to do,” in regards to NIL.