TRANSCRIPT: Ole Miss men’s basketball head coach Chris Beard talks after Rebels fall at LSU, 89-80

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss fell in Baton Rouge to LSU Wednesday night, 89-80. After the game, head coach Chris Beard met with media.

Here is a transcript of what Coach Beard had to say.

Question: Coach, y’all didn’t shoot that great tonight, but you still had a chance and then y’all fought to the end. Just talk about not giving up and really making a run at the end.

Coach Beard: Yeah. On a night where there weren’t many positives for us, I did think we gave ourselves a chance late. And, you know, I think we cut it to a two-possession game with under two minutes left where we didn’t have to foul. That was a big possession for us. If we get a stop there, I think we put a little bit of pressure on LSU to make a couple plays to beat us, but we didn’t didn’t get the stop there — like a missed switch and we gave up a three.

But I did think we had a little bit of fight in us, which is good to see. It’s a long season. You’re going to be in games like this where you don’t play your best and the objective is to give yourself a chance and we did that on a night where we didn’t do a lot of other things well. I did think the guys kept fighting and didn’t quit.

Question: Coach, obviously your first year here in the SEC; how would you maybe assess just kind of where the program is three or four games in, just just what you’re seeing from your team as a whole from from conference play?

Coach Beard: I think we’re like every other team in the country. We’re still kind of a work in progress. This is mid-January. It’s the fourth round of the 18-round fight tonight. And so, I think we’ve had some good moments this season.

I believe that we can play with any team in the country, but we are really striving for consistency. And tonight you kind of saw that. In the first half, way too many turnovers. Give LSU credit. They have a pressure defense. They lead this league in steals for a reason. But we just didn’t take care of the ball. (In the) second half, we corrected that. I think we played a one-turnover half the last 20 minutes of the game. But while we’re doing that, our defense didn’t help our offense. So, you know, I think in the first half, our offense really didn’t help our defense. In the second half, when we got the offense going a little bit our defense, we just couldn’t get stops when we needed them.

And I give LSU all the credit. It’s a good team, talented players, veteran team, coach is doing a great job here in year two.

Question: Coach Beard, would you credit LSU’s defense for the reason why it got kind of muddy there for you guys, not ever really getting into a flow?

Coach Beard: Absolutely. I’m not one of these guys that sits up here and acts like everything was on us, good or bad. So yeah, he played a well coached team tonight with good experienced players. I think they have a defensive identity in my opinion. They try to get you to turn the ball over, and we fell for it early. Even in the first four minutes of the game, we had three casual turnovers. So I absolutely give LSU credit for that.

Next Up

The Rebels will remain on the road and face the other Tigers of the SEC, as they travel to Alabama to take on No. 11 Auburn on Saturday, January 20 at 7:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.