Chris Beard was named the 2025 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year, an honor awarded annually to the top head coach in Division I basketball, on Monday.
Introduced in 2003, the award is named after legendary Saint Mary’s coach Jim Phelan, who spent 49 years with the Gaels, amassed 800 wins and earned a spot in the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. Beard will be honored in San Antonio at the Alamodome — the home of the men’s NCAA Championship Game which takes place on April 7.
The list of previous winners is vast and filled with legendary coaches including John Calapari, Tubby Smith, Tony Bennett, Bob Huggins and Mark Adams. Beard won the award over the likes of Bruce Pearl, Tom Izzo, Penny Hardaway, Rick Pitino and John Schyer.
Beard winning this award in his second year with the Rebels indicates the strength of the program he is building in Mississippi. Beard led the Rebels to 24 wins on the season, which is tied for third-most in program history.
This past season, he became one of seven active coaches to take four different programs to the NCAA Tournament in March, joining Rick Barnes, Calapari, Fran McCaffrey, Pitino and Kelvin Sampson. Ole Miss is coming off their second Sweet 16 appearance ever, where they lost to Michigan State. The Rebels beat North Carolina and Iowa State to advance to the Sweet 16.
The Rebels’ two best wins this season were against Tennessee and Alabama, both of whom made the Elite Eight.
