OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss men’s basketball head coach Chris Beard visited with The Rebel Walk Monday afternoon and talked about his team’s returnees, recent transfer portal commits, incoming freshmen, and the upcoming 2024 season.
With the portal additions of Sean Pedulla, Davon Barnes, Dre Davis, Malik Dia and Mikeal Brown-Jones, Ole Miss adds experience and depth in year two under Coach Beard. The Rebels’ head coach seemed to have a specific type of player in mind when going into the recent portal window, adding much-needed size and length to the roster.
We asked Beard what he liked about the 2024 portal class thus far. Coach Beard on his incoming portal players
Here’s what Coach Beard has to say about each of the new transfers in:
Sean Pedulla: “Pedulla, we believe, is one of the best guards in college basketball. He’s got a proven track record as an all-conference player in ACC. His intangibles, his ability to run a team and also score were very viable to us.”
Davon Barnes: “Davon Barnes from Sam Houston. Just a winner man. Made the last two NCCA tournaments, one in Texas Southern and one in Sam Houston. He has positional size and is a high-character guy.”
Dre Davis: “Dre Davis has done a lot of great individual stuff, plus a lot of team stuff at Seton Hall. He just won the NIT championship a couple of weeks ago. So, another guy can do a lot of things. He has competitiveness and is really important to us.”
Mikeal Brown-Jones: “Mikeal Brown-Jones comes from Greensboro and just graduated a couple of days ago. He comes in as an experienced player. He played for a really good coach and a really good program. He has some versatility and can-do things around the basket on both ends. So, another winner.”
Malik Dia: “Malik has a lot of skill, he’s around 6’10 240-250 and really dominant in the paint but also established himself as a shooter last season. Defensively, he would give us some physicality that we really have been looking for.”
Returnees
Ole Miss lost seven of the ten players who played significant minutes for Beard in 2023; four entered the transfer portal and the other three ran out of eligibility. However, Beard returns TJ Caldwell, Jaylen “JuJu” Murray, Jaemyn Brakefield and Robert Cowherd for another season.
The Rebel head coach commented on what those guys will mean to the 2024 team.
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