OXFORD — Ole Miss won’t know until late Tuesday who it will face Friday in the NCAA Tournament.

The Rebels (22-11) will face the winner of Tuesday’s game between North Carolina (22-13) and San Diego State (21-9) on Friday at 3:05 p.m. in Milwaukee.

The Tar Heels and Aztecs meet at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio. The game will be televised on TruTv. Ole Miss coach Chris Beard will be watching.

“I’ve never been in this situation before,” Beard said. “So I spent some time (Sunday) night digesting it and thinking about and also talking to some coaches around the country that have been through similar situations, playing the winner of the play-in game.

“At the end of the day, we’ll know who we’re playing on Tuesday night and we don’t play until Friday, so we’ll have a quick session Tuesday night and then two days of prep Wednesday and Thursday. It’s not much different than past NCAA Tournaments where you get the Thursday draw.”

Beard, who has directed Little Rock, Texas Tech and Texas to the NCAA Tournament previously in his career, pointed out that teams only get one day between the semifinals and the national championship game, something he experienced first-hand when he led Texas Tech to the final Monday night versus Virginia in 2019.

“It’s about matchups, no doubt about it,” Beard said. “Scouting is always going to be a part of this high-level basketball, but above all, it’s about you. Can you bring your identity?”

Beard said he scheduled with different preparation times in the preseason just to prepare his team for different scenarios in March. That applies to both preparing for an opponent and being ready for a different environment in Milwaukee.

Speaking of Milwaukee, the last time Beard coached in the Bucks’ home arena, he was leading Texas versus Virginia Tech in the NCAA Tournament. The Longhorns won, 81-73, overcoming a 19-point effort from Sean Pedulla.

Pedulla, of course, now plays for Beard at Ole Miss.

“It gives me and Sean a chance to go back and forth a little bit this week,” Beard said. “He had a great individual game but we won the game but I consider that a victory for us, me.

“I remember Milwaukee being a nice downtown. The year we played the weather was a little bit better. Someone mentioned this morning the weather is a little bit colder now. It’s a great city for basketball."