Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard discusses the Rebels’ victory over Florida
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss men’s basketball coach Chris Beard met with the media after the Rebels defeated the Florida Gators, 103-85, in the SEC home opener on Wednesday night.
“Very appreciative of the crowd today,” Beard said. “Especially with classes not starting yet, the students have not come back to Oxford but the students who came back just for the game– super appreciative of those back for the intersession classes.”
Ole Miss moves to 14-1 and 1-1 in the SEC after the victory.
“Like I told the guys, life is not easy and we are all going to have to be in situations where we have to respond,” Beard said Wednesday night.
“One of our core values is responding. We didn’t play our best the other day at Tennessee; give them all the credit. We did a lot of soul searching early in the season. Can’t get too high or too low. We gotta speak the truth and had to come out tonight and make a stand.“
Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard
“Florida is a good team,” Beard said. “We did some things tonight offensively and had some special contributions.”
Ole Miss got out on top over Florida in the first half and the Gators cut the lead down to four, 44-40, at halftime. Beard talked about the message to the squad at the break.
“Stay the course,” Beard said.
“The game within the game was rebounding. I thought we did a good job rebounding, early second half as we were separating. We let it get away from us late. To me, it’s always a 40-minute game. So I don’t like the way we finished the last seven or eight minutes, too much fouling. The rebounds became an issue late. Give our guys a lot of credit. I thought in the first 30-minutes we responded and did a better job on the backboards.”
Chris Beard
Beard added that his squad accomplished that against a good rebounding team in Florida.
“Florida is one of the best rebounding teams. We will see how it shapes up as the 18-round fight continues,” Beard said.
“They are a great rebounding team and their coaching staff does a great job with that. It was a challenge for us tonight, and I thought for the first 30-minutes we responded. And then late, too many missed assignments the last seven or eight minutes of the game.”
Chris Beard
Ole Miss’ Jaemyn Brakefield scored a career-high 28 points while Matthew Murrell added 23 points.
“Proud of these guys for so many reasons — and most not on the stat sheet and not a part of the basketball game. Just their leadership and I really appreciate where their hearts and minds are in terms of the game.”
Chris Beard on Brakefield and Murrell
Beard added that Brakefield was aggressive from the onset against Florida and Matt had a great week of practice after the game at Tennessee.
The 14-1 Rebels remain home for their next conference game, as they are set to take on Vanderbilt in the SJB Pavilion on Saturday, January 13 at noon on the SEC Network.
Adam Brown
Adam Brown joins The Rebel Walk as the Managing Editor after being on the Ole Miss beat as a Sports Editor for over 11 years. He is a lifelong Oxford resident. Brown graduated from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
Prior to The Rebel Walk, Brown was the sports editor of HottyToddy.com covering every Ole Miss sport and local high school sports in the community.
