Ole Miss opened its men’s basketball season with wins over Alcorn State and Central Arkansas, averaging 95 points a game. Southeastern Louisiana is next, Nicholls follows a week later, and Clemson waits in the Maui Invitational. Chris Beard has been starting Roman Siulepa and Ilias Kamardine, with Santiago Trouet coming off the bench.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis said this group is playing with an edge worth seeing after last season, and that Trouet is the player who has his attention. Willis said Trouet finishes at the rim, hustles, and gives the Rebels an inside presence they have not had in recent years.
Tim Thomas, who played on Ole Miss’s 1981 championship team, argued Trouet should already be starting. Thomas said his own starting five would be Budd Clark, Ben Henshall, Patton Pinkins, Trouet and Corey Stephenson. He said Siulepa, at 6-foot-7, has struggled to finish inside against taller defenders and has not hit from outside, and that Kamardine has been sound defensively while scoring little.
Thomas credited Beard’s defensive emphasis and said Clark runs the team, a leader who wants to be the SEC’s defensive player of the year. He said Ole Miss has won the rebounding battle in both games. He also described a stretch against Central Arkansas, with the Rebels comfortably ahead, when the ball stuck and players chased their own numbers, until Beard called a timeout and said so on the floor.
Thomas said Ole Miss was picked 13th in the league and that Clemson in Maui is the first real measure of this offense against a Power Four defense. Willis said the nearer task is perimeter defense against a Southeastern Louisiana team built on the three, and a rebounding edge Ole Miss ought to win by 15 to 20.
Photo: Chris Beard and Ilias Kamardine, March 12, 2026, at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the November 10, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.