Ole Miss coaching candidates: Could Chris Beard or Dusty May replace Kermit Davis?

June 09, 2024

It’s worth remembering a time when you could win a good amount of basketball games at Ole Miss. Twenty wins, at least, in 10 of 13 seasons. And the footage to prove it doesn’t require a certain humidity level to preserve: This was the late aughts through the 2010s, before a fairly significant sea change in SEC competitiveness but not the time before all time.

It’s also worth remembering that Ole Miss has won, but generally not so much that you’d notice. Zero Sweet 16s in that aforementioned span, for example, and only one in the entire history of the program. As Kermit Davis exits after five similarly unexciting seasons, fired on Friday, the program exists in the state it more or less always has.

No major steps back. No major steps forward. Ole Miss men’s basketball is just … there.

But, lo, the athletic director, Keith Carter, happened to play on a couple of Ole Miss teams that won division championships in the late 1990s. He’s lived actual success within the Rebels men’s basketball program and presumably has a thirst for recreating it on his own watch. A former program star, out to identify a new coach to give the operation a jolt? Well, that’s something interesting, at least.

Job evaluation

Who’s up for what’s currently one of the worst jobs in the SEC?

But a job that is nevertheless a job in the SEC, which is a nice place to be in the shifting landscape of college athletics?

A brief canvass about the Ole Miss gig, relative to its in-conference peers, puts it ahead of only Mississippi State and Vanderbilt in observers’ eyes. That makes it a hard job. A mere five NCAA Tournament appearances this century only backs up the assessment. Still, there’s enough variance in the SEC to make consistent winning a plausible goal; it’s not as if the league is oppressively good, top to bottom, every season. And nobody should underestimate the power of simply being in one of the two conferences (the Big Ten being the other) positioned to shape what college hoops looks like in the next decade. It’s an athletic safe space.

Commitment will be crucial, as it is everywhere. Ole Miss has a new-ish arena and practice facility, checking off the bare-minimum boxes any program needs to compete. There are always upgrades to be made, but the department’s spending on men’s hoops appears to be commensurate with the idea of on-floor success; Ole Miss spent effectively the same amount on basketball as Alabama did in 2020-21 and only about $1.5 million less than Tennessee, per U.S. Department of Education data. And those are two of the only three ranked teams in the conference at the moment. (No. 25 Texas A&M spent about $2 million more than Ole Miss.)

Playing the NIL game, and playing it well, inevitably will be a differentiator, one way or another. Maybe that’s too sour a pill for some coaches to swallow, but it’s the reality of Ole Miss’ predicament. There’s no larger priority than finding better players. This requires hiring a staff that will hustle to do so while establishing a collective or NIL framework to offset the draw of more established winners.

Chris Beard’s court case has been resolved but questions remain about his fitness for a head coaching position. (Brad Penner / USA Today)

Call list

(in alphabetical order)

Casey Alexander, Belmont head coach. It’s seven straight winning seasons as a head coach for the 50-year-old, spanning stops at Lipscomb and now Belmont. He’s won 61.1 percent of his games as a head coach and a step up to the Missouri Valley Conference hasn’t resulted in a stumble for the Bruins. Probably the most qualified mid-major option in the immediate neighborhood.

Chris Beard, former Texas head coach. It may very well be too soon following the events that precipitated Beard’s dismissal at Texas. Your mileage will vary on whether Beard deserves another shot. Carter very well may not want to touch the third rail, period. But this is college athletics, and this is a tough league, and Beard has won a lot of games. He’s probably going to be a college basketball coach again. If not here, somewhere else, at some point.

Brad Brownell, Clemson head coach. Escape Hatch Guy No. 1 on this list. If Brownell has stuck around Clemson for 13 seasons, it doesn’t entirely compute that he’d leave after one of his best years yet … but maybe it’s a response to the hot-seat chatter he’s endured, not to mention a jump to a league with a more solidified future.

Chris Holtmann, Ohio State head coach. Escape Hatch Guy No. 2. Maybe not an ideal culture fit for the 51-year-old, but the results in Columbus went south in a hurry this season and the Buckeyes haven’t reached the Sweet 16 in his tenure. Could be a preemptive move for a fresh start while giving Ole Miss a name hire.

Dusty May, Florida Atlantic head coach. He would come highly recommended by his good friend and former boss Mike White, who played with Carter at Ole Miss. The Owls are top 25-worthy this season but have improved each year in conference play, so it’s not a flash-in-the-pan effort.

Jordan Mincy, Jacksonville head coach. He’d also get the Mike White recommendation as one of White’s former Florida assistants. Might be a somewhat risky play after just two seasons in the big chair at Jacksonville, particularly with the Dolphins scuffling in 2022-23. But he’d know the league well from Day 1.

Bob Richey, Furman head coach. The 39-year-old has coached the Paladins for six full seasons and posted winning records in each of them, never losing more than 12 games. The program also has amassed double-digit wins in the Southern Conference each year. That consistency is not easily achieved at that level. Unless he’s deeply in love with Greenville, S.C. – and we couldn’t blame him if he was – the time seems ripe to take a swing at a bigger gig.

Takayo Siddle, UNC-Wilmington head coach. The Seahawks made a plus-20 jump in wins from Year 1 to Year 2 under Siddle, which earned the 36-year-old coach of the year honors in the CAA last season. That’s been followed up by a 22-win (and counting) season in 2022-23. Siddle has been on a power-conference staff at NC State, so he has a general blueprint for working a big job.

Rodney Terry, acting Texas head coach. Maybe Carter doesn’t want to wait until Texas’ season plays out and the administration in Austin makes its final evaluation of the coach who has helped the Longhorns linger as a top-10 team. But if Terry doesn’t get the permanent job, it’s not the worst idea for Ole Miss to bring in an experienced, defense-first guy who’s a dogged recruiter and who’s certainly on a roll.

And the hire is…

Dusty May, by all accounts, is one of those guys who is actually happy where he’s at and a job such as Ole Miss might not be enough to budge him. But he should be the primary target. And if Carter is seriously committed to being competitive in men’s basketball, he’ll come up with an offer May can’t refuse. Alexander and Richey would be more than viable Plan Bs.

(Top photo of Dusty May: Rich Storry / USA Today)

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