Less than half an hour after his Ole Miss squad downed Arkansas 83-80 to advance in the SEC Tournament, Rebels Head Coach Chris Beard had to play some defense of his own.

Taking down a Hall of Famer in John Calipari and set to square off against SEC Coach of the Year Bruce Pearl, Beard was asked in his postgame press conference what it meant for “someone like you” to play against and find ways to beat those elite coaches of the sport.

“I’m not sure what you mean by somebody like me,” Beard responded. “We won at Fort Scott, Seminole, McMurray, South Carolina, Angelo State, Little Rock, we won at Texas Tech, we won at Texas. This is year two, and we’re winning at Ole Miss. I don’t say that as a self-promotion way at all. I’m going to take up for our staff and players. The way you worded that… This isn’t my first rodeo.”

Beard continued with his emboldened response while also trying to earnestly answer the question.

“I might look young because I got a haircut last night. I have this trendy beard that my daughters like,” he said, drawing a laugh from those in attendance. “I’ve been doing this for a minute. Anytime you have a chance to coach against a Hall of Fame coach, absolutely. We all understand that. To say anything different would not be truthful. In this league it’s almost every single night. Coach Cal and tomorrow Bruce Pearl. Yeah, we’ll see where we stack up. But this is not our first rodeo.”

It’s hardly shocking Beard responded the way he did to the question as, while his road to Ole Miss was rather unorthodox with off-the-court issues, he has had success at the highest level of the sport and won everywhere he’s gone.

As he touched on, his first head coaching job was at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas, and it was there that he led the Greyhounds to their first winning season in almost a decade.

He was then quickly hired at Seminole State College in Oklahoma where, in just one season, he went 25-6.

After leaving Oklahoma, Beard left head coaching to study under the legendary head coach Bob Knight, a Hall of Famer who was at Texas Tech after winning three national championships at Indiana.

Beard then briefly coached an ABA team in South Carolina (only losing two games) before getting the head gig at McMurry and then NCAA Division-II Angelo State.

In just two seasons with Angelo State, Beard went 47-15, after which he finally received the call he’d been waiting for: an NCAA Division-I opportunity.

“I’ve worked my whole life for this,” Beard said back in 2015 after accepting the job at Arkansas-Little Rock. “The only thing I’m excited about more than being here is getting started. I’m looking forward to a day in the near future when we’re all back together, on a Sunday, watching the NCAA Selection Show and seeing where we’re headed to play in the tournament.”

True to his winning word, Beard only coached one season with the Trojans, but in it he led them to a 30-5 record, sweeping the Sun Belt regular season and tournament championships to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the school’s first trip in five years.

In that dance, Beard led his Trojans to an upset in the first round, earning UALR its second ever NCAA Tournament round of 32 appearance and first since 1986, 30 years prior.

Beard was quickly snagged by a Texas Tech school that needed a turnaround, never quite finding its rhythm after Knight and going through four coaches with just one NCAA Tournament appearance.

Staying at Texas Tech for five seasons, Beard made the NCAA Tournament — or would have — in four, only projecting out of the field in his first year in Lubbock.

His magnum opus, however, was a national championship appearance in 2019 in the, to date, best run in school history, also featuring the only Final Four for the program.

Beard then made the controversial move to Texas, a rival of TTU, but quickly found success, going a combined 29-13 and being 7-1 early in his second season with Final Four ambitions before allegations of domestic violence ended his tenure in Austin.

With the charge being dismissed with no prosecution, Beard was hired by Ole Miss, a program that has never made it further than the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, and only even did that once (2001).

Now, after just narrowly missing the tournament in his first season, Beard has the Rebs in great shape, being firmly in the NCAA Tournament and currently projecting as a No. 5 seed (CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm).

In fact, despite losing to No. 1 Auburn twice, including in blowout fashion the second time, an Ole Miss upset would not be an overly shocking result, especially over a Tigers team that has locked up a No. 1 seed in the big dance and lost its last two straight to end the regular season.

Beard, for his part, expressed confidence in the idea of stunning the SEC regular season champions.

“Yeah, opportunity. One of if not the best team in college basketball. It’s a 40-minute game, so… It’s not going to be the better team, it’s going to be the better team that played those 40 minutes,” he said. “I think we would all agree that Auburn is one of the best teams in the country. I think we’d all agree it’s a great challenge for us. But it’s a 40-minute game. That’s what makes March special. We don’t have to be better than Auburn, we just got to be better than Auburn for 40 minutes.”

Beard’s confidence was reflected by his players, with Rebels Sean Pedulla and Malik Dia saying they were “super excited” (Dia) and calling the game a “good opportunity” (Pedulla).

Chris Beard is a winner wherever he goes. He’s found success at all levels of the sport and it’s for that reason that he remains near the top of the list for coaches rumored to fill open high-major jobs around the country.

It’s also entirely possible Beard stays committed to Ole Miss for at least another season, particularly depending on how fruitful March Madness turns out to be.

But, regardless of what he does in the offseason, Beard made one thing abundantly clear after his win over Arkansas: This is NOT his first rodeo, and he doesn’t seem to have any intentions of hanging up his boots any time soon.