TRANSCRIPT: Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard talks about the 77-51 win over Arkansas: ‘I believe in these players’

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss men’s basketball defeated Arkansas in convincing fashion Wednesday night in the SJB Pavilion, defeating the Razorbacks, 77-51.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard met with media. Here’s a transcript of what Coach Beard had to say about his team and the victory.

Media: Coach, TJ (Caldwell) went down (with injury) and had to leave midway through that first half. Is there an evaluation of how he is?

Coach Beard: No. I’m on my way to the training room after this. So tough break, man. TJ practiced really well this week and I thought he was dialed in. He was ready to play tonight. It started in practice, and in today’s shootaround he had a kind of a different look in his eye. So it’s a tough break for us….TJ will put in that time in the training room, hopefully be back sooner than later.

Media: What have you seen in the three games here at home that maybe you’re not seeing or isn’t translating in those three away games so far in conference play?

Coach Beard: Yeah, that’s a good question. Just better basketball. You know, I think…better basketball. We’ve played better defense. Offensive execution has been better. You know, we have a game plan each game, most of it is what we want to do. A portion of it is who are we playing? And in the home games I think we’ve executed the game plan better than the road games.

Media: You talked about the energy of the fans and the student section, all that stuff. Is there a way as a team to create that sort of energy for you guys on the road?

Coach Beard: Well, one thing I think is when we get this thing rolling, and I’m not talking about year two, I’m talking about when we get this thing rolling, having Ole Miss people travel to road games. We see that certainly in football and baseball. So that’ll be a next step with our fan base, encouraging them to get that schedule early and kind of pencil in some dates. But we’d love to have more support on the road in the SEC. So that’s one thing we could do.

Other than that, it’s just about the players creating their own energy. And, I explained to the guys, you know, a lot of our guys haven’t played in the NCAA tournament. But we talk about it a lot, if that’s the goal and vision and let’s talk about it. And, as you guys know, a lot of times in the NCAA tournament, you have a great season. You’re one of those 68 teams that gets to keep playing and the NCAA tournament game sometime isn’t what you’re used to playing. It’s more of a neutral game. You know, you’ve got some fans, the opponents have got some fans. But then especially in the first and second round, it’s kind of filled with fans from the other six teams in that region. And, a lot of people just buy the ticket and kind of cheer for the underdog.

So my point is, I’ve been telling the guys all the way since the summer, there’s going to be some games where you have to manufacture your own energy, and certainly on the road that’s a part of playing on the road, is making sure you can control what you can control.

Media: What was different about the way your team defended tonight as opposed to the last week in that road trip?

Coach Beard: Well, to me, it started with a willingness and a desire to defend. And JuJu (Murray) said it best — we walked in the facility, I think yesterday or two days ago for practice, and, several of the players were kind of meeting among themselves, talking about defense. So as a coach, that’s not only good to see, that’s the only way to win. There’s no other way.

And so for the guys to take some accountability in this deal was a great sign. And our coaching staff too. We take accountability as well. So I would say tonight’s game started with a focus. It was a one word game plan: “defend.”

And not so much about the opponent but about us. Let’s get back to guarding the ball with some more pride. When we do get beat, let’s have some some rim protection and let’s rotate, and so defense is all about rotating. It’s all about helping. And I thought tonight we did that. Late in the game, we got away from it a little bit. But I thought for the first 30 minutes of the game, our guys were trying to defend at a high, high-effort level.

Media: Do you think that this team has the pieces and the capability to defend, like some of your teams in the past have, who have been really elite?

Coach Beard: Yes, absolutely. I think that this team has the talent, the character to win every game on the schedule. I don’t think there’s anybody in college basketball that we can’t play with and beat in a 40-minute game, and our margin for error might be smaller than others, but when the ball goes up, yes.  I believe in these players.

We’re a work in progress. It’s not a coaching speech cliche. It’s true. We’re playing against a lot of teams that have been together for a long time. You know, some of these teams have had guys playing their fifth year together. We’re sitting here month 9 or 10. But yeah, I have a lot of confidence with these guys. You know, my expectations is to win every game, and I think the players are starting to understand that.

Media: Chris, your team won the rebounding battle by a significant margin tonight, and that really hasn’t been the case all season. What went into that?

Coach Beard: It’s a player’s game and you got individual performances every night. And you know we had two guys Moussa (Cisse) and Books (Jamarion Sharp) have four offensive rebounds apiece. That’s elite.

You know, in college basketball when a guy plays rotational minutes, you know, call it 25, 20, 25, 26, 30 minutes, that three offensive rebounds a game is elite. That’s what ends up leading the SEC and puts you in the top ten nationally.

So, our crashers are always chasing that kind of individual goal of can you get three offensive rebounds tonight. And then we also have what we call a Penders tip from time to time. If you can’t get the ball and tip it back, it’s not a part of the college stat sheet now, but it’s absolutely a part of NBA stats and analytics. So I thought it starts right there. And how do we outrebound the opponent? We had two guys get eight offensive rebounds between them. So that was good to see.

Next Up: 

The Rebels hit the road for their next conference game, traveling to Texas A&M on Saturday, January 27 at 7:30 p.m. on SEC Network. They will return home early next week to host in-state rival Mississippi State on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.

Evelyn Van Pelt

Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn’s love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.