13. Ole Miss Rebels
2024-25 Record: 24-12 (10-8 SEC)
Ole Miss shocked most people last season with its Sweet Sixteen run. Before the season, I wasn’t too excited about the roster, but Chris Beard turned it into a pretty darn good basketball team.
The Rebels were one of many college basketball teams to overhaul their roster, which once again leaves me unsure of what to expect from Beards’ crew as we enter the season. The only returning production for Ole Miss is Malik Dia (10.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg), which gives the Rebels a solid piece to build around, but with how many seniors were on the team last season, Beard had a ton of experience to replace this offseason.
This is where I’m out on the Rebels. I understand that Chris Beard is a really good college coach, but his transfer portal haul leaves much to be desired. He added five players from Power Conference teams, but none of them played huge roles at their previous stops. AJ Storr (6.1 ppg) is easily the biggest name in the Ole Miss transfer class, but even he had a disappointing previous season at Kansas. James Scott (7.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg) had a solid season at Louisville, but wasn’t a huge part of the offense - though he does provide Beard’s team with some actual size on the interior. Scott’s teammate Koren Johnson only played two games last year, so what he brings to the table is unknown. Travis Perry played sparingly at Kentucky, and Corey Chest (6.1 ppg, 6.6 rpg) put up decent numbers for a bad LSU team.
On paper, I don’t see how this team scores many points. There isn’t really a go-to playmaker that jumps off the page. The roster does have a little more size than it did a year ago, but as I look at the roster, it doesn’t force me to think of much of a postseason for this team. I could be wrong, Chris Beard is a great coach, but there are simply too many questions across the board for me to buy into the Rebels this season.