OXFORD – Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard wants a certain toughness to permeate through his teams.
He’s more than certain Adam “Budd” Clark will provide the 2026-27 Rebels with exactly that. Clark considers himself “just a dog.”
Clark is one of the centerpieces of a transfer portal class that ranks 30th nationally in 247Sports’ rankings. The 5-foot-10, 165-pounder was the No. 60 overall player in the portal after his strong 2025-26 season at Seton Hall, where he averaged a team-high 12.7 points, 4.9 assists and 2 steals per game and garnered second-team All-Big East honors. He played his first two seasons at Merrimack, where he averaged 16.6 points per game.
The Philadelphia native has had to prove people wrong for a while now.
“When you say ‘city point guard,’ that means something. No disrespect to some of the other point guards I’ve coached that weren’t in a city. But Budd’s from Philly, and it’s real,” Beard said. “It’s important to him, and it certainly is important to me, too. Budd can tell his own story over time, but … (he is) a tough guy. It’s a guy that most people probably thought, ‘You can’t play at that level.’ Not only is he playing at this level, he’s one of the best players in college basketball.”
After advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2025 – just the second occurrence in Ole Miss history – the Rebels stumbled to a 15-20 mark in 2025-26, Beard’s first losing record at any stop in his career. Ole Miss won three straight games in the SEC Tournament to advance to the semifinals before falling to eventual champion Arkansas in overtime, ending the Rebels’ hopes of an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Both leading scorers from last season, guard/forward AJ Storr and forward Malik Dia, are gone after averaging 15.5 and 14.5 points per game, respectively. Also departed are guards Eduardo Klafke and Travis Perry, forwards Corey Chest, James Scott and Tylis Jordan, among others.
Key Rebel returners include guards Ilias Kamardine and Patton Pinkins. Kamardine averaged 11.3 points per game and had 21 double-figure scoring games. Pinkins averaged 9.3 points per game as a true freshman and shot 42.2% from 3-point range.
Beard mentioned former guards Sean Pedulla and Jaylen Murray – two key ball-handlers on the Sweet 16 squad – when envisioning how Kamardine and Clark might play together.
“I feel like I’m going to fit in very well. We’re going to play off each other a lot. Ilias is a really, really, really talented player. He can do everything,” Clark said. “So, I feel like we’re just going to feed off each other.”
Getting a feel for players in the transfer portal era isn’t easy, Beard said, comparing it to speed dating. The type of toughness Clark exhibits is part of an evaluation process, too. Clark was a zero-star recruit on 247Sports as a high-school prospect and has twice blossomed into a four-star transfer portal prospect.
“You start with your naked eye. You watch every game, you watch every possession, you watch the action between possessions. You try to understand kind of what’s going on in the season that you’re watching. (I’m) not a big fan of just highlights and stuff,” Beard said. “I want to know, hey, his team lost two or three straight games. Show me that next game. His team was up 20 at half, how’d he respond? His team was down 18 at half. You try to find those moments.
“ … There’s the physical part of toughness, too. Some guys shy away from contact. Some guys seek it. Some guys go to the basket hoping for a call, and some guys demand the call. Everybody gets tired in this game. Anybody tells you you’re not tired, that’s not truthful. But some guys, they’re so mentally tough that they don’t look tired.”
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