TRANSCRIPT: Everything Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard, Matthew Murrell said after win over Missouri

A second-half comeback attempt by Missouri was denied as the Ole Miss men’s basketball team picked up their 20th win of the season in an 84-78 road victory on Saturday night in Mizzou Arena.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard and Matthew Murrell talked with media. Here’s what they had to say.

Coach Beard’s opening statement

“Proud of our players. It’s our 20th win of the season. Had a lot of objectives this first year in Oxford and that was one of them. And we’re playing relevant games in the month of March, two left in the regular season. It was a team win. A lot of adversity tonight. You know, Al Flanagan, one of our best players, had a little hamstring situation, so he couldn’t play in the second half. So obviously we had some guys step up and have some individual performances, so I’m proud of the team. and this guy to my left especially (Matthew Murrell). Any questions for Matthew Murrell from Memphis?

Question: Matt, from your opinion, what were kind of the biggest differences between the first and the second half?

Matt Murrell: “For me, our intensity, I feel like our intensity dropped in the second half and that allowed them to get back in the game, you know? And then of course, home crowd, get the crowd on your side and you get the momentum. You know, we just tried our best to try to silence the crowd each time coming down the court.”

Question: Matt, in the in the game as a whole, five of your 11 field goals came from three. Like what was kind of the specific part that was helping you get more points from beyond the arc?

Matt Murrell: “We knew they were switching. And, we scouted that so, you know, slips, pop backs, just reading the defense, I was able to read the defense on some plays and get open shots, and I was able to knock them down.”

Question: Coach, what was the reason for Alan Flanagan only playing nine minutes tonight.

Coach Beard: He got hurt in the first half, hamstring.

Question: Coach, what do you feel like were some of the things that Mizzou was doing well that allowed them to come back a little bit? And then how were you guys able to hold up at the end to hold them off?

Coach Beard: “Yeah. Mizzou’s well-coached, period. A reflection of what kind of organization you have is obviously how you handle success. You see a lot of kind of one-hit wonders in this business. And that’s certainly not Missouri. And unfortunately, we all go through kind of seasons like Missouri is having right now. And you absolutely see a team’s kind of character under tough times. And I’ve watched every game they’ve played and there’s zero quit in this team. So a lot of respect for the coaching staff here. 

“I mean, look, (Sean) East is one of the best players in college basketball. He’s very, very efficient. Like there’s a lot of guys that can have a 30-point game. But I mean, he does it on 12 shots and he’s just got a poise about him. So he’s definitely one of the best players in college basketball. And believe it or not, we had some game-plan focuses around him. It didn’t look like it. But give him all the credit. He’s a dynamic player. 

“So, I think above all, that’s a team that has zero quit. There’s a lot of character in that team, and I’m not in that locker room every day. Uh, Coach and I don’t know each other that well. We don’t swap Christmas cards or anything, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know when a team has a culture. And, there will be brighter days ahead in terms of the win loss record here at Missouri, no doubt about it and this team’s got a lot of fight. I mean, they’ve been in every game. You guys have seen it. And, um, you know, free throw line was good to us tonight. We hit just just enough to kind of get get by. It was kind of the tale of two halves. We played really well in the first half. I agree with Matt. In the second half, I thought Missouri was aggressive and caused us a lot of problems.”

Question: Coach, what was the what were some of the specifics of the preparation for Shawn East building up to this game? Defensively.

Coach Beard: “He’s just a dynamic player. He’s not a one-level scorer. He can score at three levels. He’s not just a scorer. He can play make as well and he doesn’t rest on defense. Sure, there are some possessions from time to time, but he obviously has a heavy load on his shoulders offensively. But I think he’s very competitive defensively too. So his ability to play with his back to the basket, I think translates to pro basketball for him. And I don’t I don’t know what year he is. What year is he?

Media: He’s a graduate senior.

Coach Beard: “Thank God for us. No, he’s a really good player. You know, you start talking about first-team all conference in this league. If there’s five guys better than him, I haven’t coached against them. He’s a dynamic player. Their coaching staff does a great job setting him up to have space and empower him to make big plays. He’s a really, really good player.”

Next Up

Up next for the Rebels is their final regular season road game, as they take a quick turnaround and travel to Athens to face Georgia on Tuesday, March 5 at 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.