Chris Beard faces old team as No. 23 Ole Miss meets Texas

There's no lack of storylines when No. 23 Ole Miss faces dangerous but unranked Texas on Wednesday in a Southeastern Conference contest in Oxford, Miss. The Rebels (15-5, 4-3 SEC) are looking to right the ship after three straight league losses while the Longhorns (14-6, 3-4) are attempting to build on two consecutive victories over ranked teams. This will be the first time Ole Miss coach Chris Beard will direct a team against the Longhorns since he was fired by Texas in January 2023. Ole Miss heads home after an 83-75 loss at then-No. 22 Missouri on Saturday. Malik Dia led the Rebels with 17 points while Sean Pedulla had 15, Jaemyn Brakefield scored 14 in his first start of the season and Matthew Murrell had 12 points. Two of the Rebels' last three losses were on the road after beginning the SEC gauntlet with four wins. The three-game swoon has seen Ole Miss drop seven spots in the Top 25. "We just stay the course," Beard said. "This is the SEC. A two-game winning streak and it's free breakfast burritos in the morning and people want to throw you a parade. A two-game losing streak you feel like the sun won't come up tomorrow. It's a short-term memory. "Right now we're in a little slide. We played three of the best teams in the country, so it's understandable in this league. We've just got to keep working." The Longhorns hit the road after last week's home wins over Missouri and No. 13 Texas A&M. Texas clawed back from 22 points down with 17 minutes to play and passed the Aggies on the wire when Tramon Mark culminated the comeback with the winning layup with 3.7 seconds to play for a 70-69 win. Freshman phenom Tre Johnson was huge in the comeback, scoring 24 of his career-high 30 points in the second half. Johnson was named SEC Freshman of the Week on Monday after averaging 21 points in Texas's two outings last week. Mark added 11 points, none bigger than the final bucket as the Longhorns beat Texas A&M at home for the 11th straight time and for the first time with both as members of the SEC. Texas lost to the Aggies by 20 points in College Station in the teams' Jan. 4 league opener. Since then, the Longhorns have played better, outside of a 24-point loss at No. 5 Florida. "We have a group that hasn't been assembled together very long," said Texas coach Rodney Terry, who was an assistant for Beard when he was fired and took over as the interim coach, leading Texas to the Elite Eight. "We have five new starters. It takes some time in terms of learning how to win and what it takes to win at winning time. "We've had to work through that. We'll continue to get better and continue to work through those games. We talk about it all the time, ‘You have to play the game.' You got to play it to the bone in this league till the horn goes off." --Field Level Media