So far this season, Ole Miss basketball has been the definition of the depth in the SEC. The Rebels have been ranked in the top 25 for a lot of the season and have collected their fair share of big wins, but they have never been talked about with the elite teams at the top of the conference.
On Wednesday night, Chris Beard and the Rebels got another one of those big-time wins. Despite some blunders late in the game, Ole Miss knocked off No. 4 Tennessee 78-76 in front of its home crowd on senior night, making this the first season in school history with multiple wins over top five opponents.
After the game, the Ole Miss students rushed the court even as the public address announcer urged them to stay in the stands, and Beard took a moment to take in the scene over arguably his biggest result of the year.
Chris Beard just stood on top of the sideline chairs and watched the crowd storm the court, right after beating another Top 5 team.
Ole Miss is a basketball school.
Soaking it all in. The Chris Beard era. pic.twitter.com/SphuhK1HNr
— Everything Ole Miss (@EverythingRebs) March 6, 2025
Ole Miss was protecting a four-point lead late in this game, but a four-point play by Tennessee big man Igor Milicic tied things up at 76. After a miss on the other end, Jaemyn Brakefield was there to clean it up with a putback that won the game for the Rebels.
This game was massive for Ole Miss’ seeding in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. The Rebels are stuck in the middle of the pack of at-large candidates right now and would ideally like to get up to a No. 5 or 6 seed in order to give them the best shot at making a run to the second weekend.
Ole Miss is now 21-9 and sits at 10-7 in the best conference in the country, so its chances of rising above a No. 7 seed are strong at the moment. With wins over BYU, Louisville, Alabama, Kentucky and now Tennessee, the Rebels also now have a better collection of wins than many teams in that range as well.
With Chris Beard’s experience of making it to a National Championship Game while at Texas Tech, nobody will want to see a hot Ole Miss basketball team in the Big Dance. After this win, the Rebels will be playing with a ton of confidence heading into the postseason.
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