Photo: Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard, March 11, 2026, at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.
Ole Miss spent its football bye week on basketball, and the roster waiting for Chris Beard is almost entirely new. The Rebels won 15 games last season and open this one with 15 scholarship players and no walk-ons. An exhibition against Alabama in Birmingham comes Oct. 15, UAB at the Pavilion on Oct. 27, and Alcorn State on Nov. 2.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis argued the roster has finally taken the shape Beard described when he was hired. With Ilias Kamardine at point guard and Patton Pinkins on the wing, Willis said, the lineup runs 6-4, 6-5, 6-6, 6-6 and two bigs. His open question was what sits behind it. On a night Kamardine is off, Willis said, he cannot yet name the second option.
The show’s guest, an Ole Miss letterman who played from 1978 through 1982 and won the 1981 SEC tournament, said this will be the best rebounding team of Beard’s tenure, then conceded the bar was low. His case sat in the frontcourt: a 7-foot-1 center in from Florida who finishes without needing to score, Santiago Trouet at 6-11 from Arizona State, and Roman Siulepa, the 6-7 forward in from Pitt.
Ben Henshall, the 6-6 Australian cleared by the NCAA after years in a club professional league, will take starting minutes from players ahead of him, the guest argued. He also pushed a dark horse who averaged 18 points at Florida International, and said eight players could start early.
Maui settles the rest. Ole Miss opens there against Clemson in a field with Arizona, BYU, Washington and Stanford, three games that will date this roster inside a week. The Tad Pad, where the guest practiced and played for four years, is gone. The Pavilion gets the first answer on Nov. 2.
Adapted from the October 2, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.