OXFORD – The goal for the next month, Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said Tuesday, isn’t for his team to be anything it hasn’t already been. The mission is to be the best version of the team it’s already proven it can be.

Ole Miss, on the verge of making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2018-19 season, is currently projected to be a No. 7 seed in the upcoming tournament, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. First up, though, is this week’s SEC Tournament. The No. 8 seed Rebels (21-10, 10-8 SEC) start play Thursday against No. 9 seed Arkansas (20-12, 8-10) at noon. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.

Ole Miss defeated the Razorbacks by seven in their regular-season matchup in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

When the final brackets are revealed Sunday, Ole Miss will have made its 10th NCAA appearance in program history. Beard, who will have led four teams into the Division I NCAA Tournament and took Texas Tech to the national title game in 2019, knows what his team is capable of. The Rebels have two wins over AP top-five teams and are ranked No. 27 in the NET ratings. The key to a successful run in March is to remember what got you to this point, he said. That all starts in Nashville in the conference tournament.

“It’s two words. It’s ‘be us.’ When you have the kind of season that we’ve had, we’ve earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. We’ve been more than competitive, we have some great wins. We beat a lot of teams that will be in the tournament,” Beard said. “ … Don’t forget what got us here. Be us. Now, for us, we need to be the best version of us. … What you don’t want to do is have guys try to do things they haven’t tried all year or have the team play in a way, a different way, than we have all year.

“ … I believe, if we bring our best game, Ole Miss’ best game, on offense and defense that we’ve seen throughout the season, then we’ll have a chance to be really competitive this month.”

Even though Ole Miss has already locked up a bid to the NCAA Tournament, Beard doesn’t expect any complacency from his team during the SEC Tournament. The Rebels have an edge to them, he said, because they feel they’ve been “disrespected” to an extent. Beard noted that, despite beating No. 4 Tennessee and then losing at No. 5 Florida to wrap up the regular season, the Rebels didn’t gain any traction in the AP Poll.

“I think in a lot of ways the guys in our locker room feel like we’ve been disrespected,” Beard said. “It took us a long time to get into the top 25, then we get in there and we’re one of those teams with one loss (and) we’re out, one win we’re back in. I know there’s other teams that are worthy, so we’re certainly not comparing ourselves to anybody else. But I would compare our résumé to anybody in the country.

“ … We’re not certainly focused on a poll, but we’re absolutely focused on getting some respect. And like I tell the players: if you want respect, go get it. … We have a motivated locker room. We have a lot of guys that still have a chip on our shoulder.”