Before his final year of college, Allen Flanigan came to Alabama one more time. He sat in a red jersey, an SEC graduate logo on his jersey and a script Ole Miss written across his chest. Things change quickly in college basketball these days, and it’s why the now-graduate student guard came without the Auburn “power stripe” running down his shorts.

So when Flanigan was asked why he left after four years of a productive career at Auburn — a key player with two years of double-figure per game scoring — the implication was the decision must have been difficult.

It wasn’t.

“It wasn’t as difficult as you would think,” Flanigan said Wednesday at SEC Basketball Tipoff just outside Birmingham. “At Ole Miss, I’m closer to home. It’s two hours to the house in Little Rock. At Auburn, it was 8 hours. So I was farther away from a lot of people that I miss and love dearly in my family back home. I’m even closer.”

Flanigan also said the timing was right having earned his degree from Auburn. But the most important decision came down to family, literally.

Ole Miss hired Chris Beard to be its new head coach after he was fired from Texas in February stemming from his arrest on a domestic violence charge. The charges were later dropped by a Texas District Attorney.

Beard hired Flanigan’s father, Wes, as an assistant coach. Wes Flanigan had been an assistant coach at Auburn from 2018-2023. Wes and Allen Flanigan are both Auburn alumni now. As a player at Auburn in the 1990s, Wes Flanigan scored more than 1,000 points.

But while Auburn is his alma mater, Wes Flanigan had spent significant time at Arkansas Little Rock as a Chris Beard assistant.

“Wes Flanigan is a huge, huge addition to our staff,” Beard said during his press conference Wednesday. “Before I start talking about basketball, he’s one of my best friends in life. What we built together and experienced at Little Rock was special. Our friendship, pulling for him in Auburn with Coach Pearl, Wes has been a dear friend.”

Allen Flanigan didn’t have to follow his father. But it was important to him, he said. Not many players get to play this long with their father. Flanigan will not experience playing college basketball without his father. He said he’s grown closer to his father because he’s been able to play for so long with him.

While Ole Miss pursued Flanigan in the transfer portal, Flanigan said it was not a situation where his father pressured him.

“My dad lets me make my own decisions in life,” Flanigan said. “I’m a grown man. Just him making his move and me sitting back, taking the time out to watch and see things.”

Though the final decision, Flanigan said, was his familiarity with Beard. Flanigan said he was around 10 years old when he had his first memory with Beard. As he grew up, Beard said he remembers Flanigan coming to his basketball camps and always hanging around his father’s practices in Little Rock and shooting before and after the team was on the floor.

Beard watched him and his father work together at Auburn as Allen Flanigan continued to develop as a player.

In the same manner, that helped Flanigan feel confident going to play for a coach he already knew.

“Just knowing Beard, knowing the man that he is seeing him come in and come to Little Rock, come to my hometown and change that college team around year one was amazing,” Flanigan said. “Just watching that ride and being a part of that was great. So just talking to him and getting back in touch and then him getting the job at Ole Miss within the SEC where I wanted to stay. I feel like the SEC is one of the best conferences in the country and I wanted to stay in it. He got a job here and it brought me home.”

Ole Miss and Auburn play twice this year. Flanigan will make his return to Neville Arena on Jan. 20, 2024. He said he hasn’t put much thought into that game yet. He doesn’t know if that’s going to make him emotional, or if it will matter to him at all. He wants to win the basketball game. He said he didn’t want to go somewhere and lose for a year just to play with his father one more time.

Flanigan also believes there aren’t hard feelings between him and Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl, though they haven’t spoken since he left. He said the meeting with Pearl when he decided to transfer “went okay.”

“At the 3 spot, losing Allen Flanigan, that’s a big loss, especially the way Allen was playing at the end of his senior year for us in the tournament, postseason, late in the year,” Pearl said in a preseason press conference. “Big, strong, physical — Al was playing his best basketball. It was probably the toughest position that we had as far as finding the right fit and the right prospect.”

Pearl has said he brought in transfer Chad Baker-Mazara to fill Flanigan’s spot.

With so much familiarity, it hasn’t taken Flanigan long to gain Beard’s trust, the new Ole Miss head coach said. It’s why Beard brought him to the media day event.

The only thing unfamiliar to Flanigan is the name on the front of his jersey.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]