In this era of NIL and transfer portal, there is really no excuse for a top tier coach not making the tournament, even in year 1.
Beard was hired March 13. That gave him the entire transfer portal to build a team - and the entire offseason to coach it up. And he wasn't coaching in March, so he could immediately get to recruiting those transfers. This season is ending up as a mild failure IMO.
If Coach K, Bill Self or Roy Williams took over Ole Miss in this era, everyone would expect them to be ultra competitive immediately. And top-tier players would have been transferring there from day 1. Beard signed the #12, #78, #106, #108, #132, #137 portal players. That is good, but not great.
He had a lot of advantages at Texas, but I also think the staff he put together was a great group of recruiters - including Rodney Terry. We'll see what year two looks like, but I'm not ready to declare that he is going to own us in the SEC.