OXFORD — Ole Miss and North Carolina State will face North Carolina State in a neutral-site two-year series.

The Rebels and Wolfpack will meet on Dec. 21 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and then sometime in the 2026-27 season at a neutral site in Mississippi.

The news was first reported by CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein. The series, Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said, is “our quest to try to play the best teams in the country. And then a lot of respect for (NC State coach) Will (Wade), what he's done along the way in his coaching spots. …We know there'll be an NCAA Tournament team this year, in my opinion, like the way I felt about Louisville last year.”

Beard said he would rather have games like these played on-campus, but he said getting those games done “is very challenging in today's scheduling format.”

Beard said the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, via NET ratings and strength of schedule, places a higher value on neutral site games.

“In my opinion, something needs to be done for that,” Beard said. “It’s gotta be something where programs are rewarded for the old school home and home because you want your season ticket holders and your students to enjoy that part of college basketball.”

Beard mentioned Jackson, Southaven and Tupelo as options for the return game but added nothing was set.

Learning from Pacers-Thunder: Oklahoma City won the NBA title on Sunday night, beating Indiana in Game 7 of The Finals. Beard said he has used clips from that series to show his team during summer practices.

“I think first the Oklahoma City defense, from really opening night until Game 7, it was much talked-about and deservingly so. A lot of positional type stuff, their ability to switch and switch back, the pressure they put on the ball, they’re very aggressive.

“What I would say is, and I think some people shared this opinion is as the season started going on, the Pacers were in the same category. The Pacers’ defense was just outstanding in the playoffs.”

Beard said he’s studied both the Pacers and Thunder’s help and rotation on defense.

“That's always been a part of our summer journey,” Beard said. “But this year as much as ever I think we've got enough video to work it all the way to the last day of the summer too. We're on Game 6 and 7 right now and we'll end up getting back to Game 1-5 with our team.

“(There are) lots of parallels to what we try to do. Also, lots of things that we're considering adding to our defense, based on what we saw this year's NBA season.”

NBA future for Beard: Beard was asked if he ever foresaw a day where he would coach at the next level.

“I've got practice here in a couple hours,” Beard said. “I don't think much ahead of that. But what I would say is I've been asked that a few times over the years. I don't shy away from that. One thing about me is I love coaching the best players, and I love being in the most stressful moments in terms of competition. That's what kind of fires me up.

“I think if ever given the opportunity to coach the best players I would never be one of these coaches that just said, ‘No way.’ I try to just answer questions on based on how I really feel today and not project what's gonna happen in the future. But I've always loved the NBA too.

“You got some college guys that don't watch it at all. Some guys that are obsessed with it. I'm probably farther on the end of the obsession because again, to me it's the best players, it's the best coaches, it's the best competition. And so to not take a look at that closely, often, I think it's just foolish.

“Some of the things in the game don't translate, but many of the things do. It's really hard to find something that doesn't translate. What happens in the NBA normally permeates down to college, in my opinion. I’ve seen it in my lifetime. We used to all throw the ball into the post, then we started setting ball screens. Now we're playing with space. We value a lane being open on defense. The NBA was switching long before college was switching. So I think we've always been ahead of the curve a little bit in terms of that. And a lot of the the ideas and the things that we've done that we've gotten some praise for over the years.”