TRANSCRIPT: Everything Ole Miss Coach Chris Beard said after the Rebels’ 83-71 loss to Mississippi State

STARKVILLE — Ole Miss held a four-point lead over Mississippi State at halftime, but the Bulldogs surged back to defeat the Rebels, 83-71, Wednesday night in Starkville at Humphrey Coliseum.

Here’s everything Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard had to say after the game.

Question: What do you think’s kind of been the difference between trying to get that consistent effort playing defense on the road?

Coach Beard: So tonight was an interesting game. First of all I’ve been coaching for 30 something years, so nobody likes a crybaby and that’s not me… So first let me be really clear here. Congratulations to Mississippi State. I thought the more physical team won the game. Obviously this game was really important to them to protect their home court, the second round in our series this year. So I thought they played well. Obviously 40-something points off the bench, their best players produced. Smith had a kind of a career-type game on both ends. So, they deserve to win the game.

I think the next step of it though, is that it’s amazing to me that Smith and Bell, the two five men here, they have zero fouls in the game. So I mean, I’m just reading what’s on the stat sheet, you know? I won’t let my personal opinion be known because that’s not how college basketball works, but two physical players in an SEC game, late in February. They play 40 minutes in their five spot and have zero fouls in the game. So, to me, if this was a North Carolina/Duke or a Kansas/Baylor game, this this would get some national attention and some basketball people might take a look at the film, not just the box score, not just the coach’s comments, but actually look at the game. And so, zero fouls on two guys that are really physical players. On the other end, we have multiple players foul out of the game. And again, give Mississippi State credit. A lot of these possessions were where the most aggressive person won the possession. But in all my years of coaching, I have not been involved in a game like that.

Question: Chris, last time you two squared off, your team protected the ball really well. That wasn’t the case tonight. What did Mississippi State do to kind of just force your team to cough it up a lot?

Coach Beard: First, very clear — again give credit to the opponent. (Head coach Chris) Jans had these guys ready to play tonight. (They had) kind of a different look with some ball pressure than in game one. So definitely, our our high-turnover game was definitely impacted by their performance. Also, just some misfortune. You know I think we slipped on the floor 5 or 6 times. Some of our best players just had some low level moments, so I think it was a combination of two things. We had some self-inflicted things that led to that high turnover game. But again, I would give Mississippi State credit, their defense, for several of those turnovers.

Question: Chris, was there anything specific about State defensively? You talked about some of the self-inflicted stuff, but what about their kind of defense really stuck out to you?

Coach Beard: Yeah, it was a very physical game. I can’t speak for (Coach) Jans, but definitely in the second half they set the tone. Again, when you can play 40 minutes in an SEC game in the paint and have two physical players that get zero fouls in the game. Those guys did a great job of not fouling. So from where I was standing, there were some plays that were frustrating from our standpoint. But, we’re a no-excuse program. But certainly to try to explain this to our players, we’ll watch this film and we’ll see what hopefully some other people will take a look at too.

Question: Chris, you’ve been part of some hostile environments in the past. What did you think of the crowd here today?

Coach Beard: I thought it was a good SEC crowd. I know Coach Jans has worked hard to build this in year two for him here and I thought I thought it was a great college basketball atmosphere. I know it’s a rivalry. This game means a lot to both fan bases. Certainly we did not put the kind of performance out there that we wanted to tonight for our fan base, but I give Mississippi State a lot of credit. They were the physical team. They played great defense without fouling.

Question: Chris, you mentioned Tolu. He obviously didn’t have the best of games in Oxford a couple of weeks ago, but him coming off the bench and did that change anything in terms of just the look of him compared to a couple of weeks ago?

Coach Beard: Well, it’s the same two teams playing, same two coaches, and and the first game you know Smith got a couple fouls. We had the same type of game plan tonight. We just didn’t get the calls. But certainly when a player as talented as him gets to play as many minutes as his coach or his conditioning or his performance allows, that’s a real challenge. So it’s a physical game. A part of everybody’s game plan in the SEC is to get to the free throw line. You see the free throw discrepancy. So it’s just a very unique game.

Question: You got a surge at the end of the first half to take that lead and carry it into halftime, but in the second half kind of just fell flat. What led into that in the second half?

Coach Beard: I don’t think we fell flat. I think we were playing against a team that was in kind of desperation mode tonight. The importance of them protecting their home court. The game was equally important to us. We really wanted to try to win this game, but again, give Mississippi State a lot of credit. I think when you say we fell flat, it almost kind of takes away from what they were doing. They were the aggressor, especially at the start of the second half and had some key plays during the game that shifted momentum — no different than any college basketball game. But they had some great runs. They capitalized on some of our mistakes in those runs. And so again, congratulate them on a great home win here in late February in the SEC.

Question: KeyShawn Murphy is a guy for State that’s been trying to earn some minutes. And he comes out today and he gets 12 points and some crucial ones there in the second half. What kind of makes him a tough guy to defend?

Coach Beard: Talented player. Jans has always liked guys that can do multiple things on both ends of the floor. I thought he had a great performance tonight. You know, obviously their bench production was the difference in the box score. That and the foul discrepancy and free throws. I don’t know how many free throws they shot. It felt like about 40. And again, I know some basketball people will look at this. Our defense over the years has been a defense that tries to keep people off the free throw line. And so again, just a very unique game for us tonight. Not a typical box score in the way we like to play. But again I’ll give Mississippi State a lot of credit. You know they deserve to win the game tonight. And they did.

Next Up

Ole Miss returns home for their next game, hosting No. 20 South Carolina for a big Saturday afternoon matchup in the SJB Pavilion at 2:30 p.m. on the SEC Network.

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.