TRANSCRIPT: Everything Chris Beard said after Ole Miss’ 81-84 OT loss to Mississippi State

STARKVILLE — The 271st meeting between No. 21 Ole Miss (15-3, 4-1 SEC) and No. 15 Mississippi State (15-3, 3-2 SEC) was an instant classic as the Rebels fought back in the second half to force overtime but would ultimately fall 84-81 on Saturday in Humphrey Coliseum. Ole Miss climbed back after an eight-point halftime deficit but was unable to convert the game-tying three point attempt as time expired in overtime.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard met with media to talk about the game. Here’s everything Coach Beard said. 

Chris Beard: It was a good college basketball game. Congratulate Coach Jans and those guys for protecting their home court. You know, to me, three things: the start of the game for us was just unacceptable. You can’t dig a hole like that. The first eight minutes of the game, the first two four-minute periods in the 40-minute game. But give them credit. I think they fed off the crowd. They were the more physical, aggressive team the first eight minutes of the game. So now we’re playing from behind. Give them the credit. We understood what we were walking into today, just didn’t get it done early. Then in the basketball game, you know, really, it was a difference in rebounds and free throws. They make more free throws than we shoot. But I have no major complaints on the officiating. Hard game to officiate. I thought they were the more aggressive team, and they did a good job drawing those fouls. But the free throw differential was big. To overcome that, you’ve got to do something special in the game. And then finally, third most important is just the rebounding. We had one offensive rebound at halftime. We’re out rebounded 15 or 20 at half. So for our point of view it is the rebounding, the free throw differential and the start of the game. Other than that, there’s some positives. We fought back to get this game into overtime. I think that speaks a lot to our team and what we could be. When you get down too late in the game-winning time, it’s going to be the team that makes the fewest mistakes. We missed a couple block outs, and then our shot selection wasn’t where it needed to be late. But give Mississippi State the credit. They were the more aggressive team. They played great today at home. That was a good college basketball game.

Question: I guess what was the most difficult part about the match up with Cameron Matthews and Keyshawn Murphy down low?

Chris Beard: Yeah, two physical guys. They really put their bodies on the line. Coach Jans does a good job getting them to their spots. Obviously, as the game went on, they were posting us up with our size mismatch. But you know, you’re looking at time and score there. So you make a commitment to really try to stop the three. And we just made some critical mistakes. What we all should have seen is a couple of post moves in those moments, but they were still getting to their gameplan of inside-out threes even after we tried to adjust. So I think they were disciplined today. I wasn’t in their huddle, but pretty obvious to me that they were doing what they were trying to get done. And we just had too many critical mistakes in big moments.

Question: Coach, obviously a hard-fought game, wire to wire pretty much after the second half. Coaches always talk about these types of games is really when they find out more about their team, they learn more about their team. They learn from these games so that they can win other games. So what would you say that you’ve learned about your team tonight?

Chris Beard: It’s just a reminder for our team. This is round five in the SEC. So this wasn’t the first time we’ve had some adversity or played against a really good team. But I think, I hope what the reminder is for our players and what will certainly emphasize our next practice is we’ve got to do what we say we’re going to do. Also known as discipline. You’re not going to make every shot in the game. You’re not going to get every call. But you got to do at some point what you say you’re going to do. So on a couple of our post defensive mistakes, we just we didn’t do what we set up to do. And so it’s been a strength of our team with our veteran players to be able to help the guys’ adjustments, whatever you want to call it. But tonight we just made some mistakes that we just couldn’t overcome.

Question: Coach, on Matthew Murrell. Obviously he was not 100% playing in and out of the game with a heating pad on the bench, but then also stepping up in the biggest moment of the game, knocking down a three over State’s arguably biggest and best defender. What do you say? What do you see about the toughness about him today?

Chris Beard: A lot of courage today. This game’s important to him. Matt’s been in Mississippi for five years now, and so he understands this game as much as anybody. I thought he played the game with a lot of courage today. You know, a big play in the game was the breakaway layup. And the Matt Murrell I know goes and dunks that ball. Did that decision have something to do with his with his health? I don’t know. I don’t want to speak for Matt, but that was a big play in the game. But Matt played really hard today. He played with some courage. He’s overcome a little bit of adversity, as are most players in college basketball right now. You know, it’s January. There’s not a lot of guys out there feeling 100% healthy right now.

Question: With Malik Dia having 19 boards against Alabama and then two today…. how do you kind of explain that that fluctuation?

Chris Beard: Yeah, I think the first 8 to 10 minutes of the game was really disappointing to me, just in our competitiveness, not just Dia’s, it’s a team sport. Many of his teammates…so I’ll leave it at that. We need Dia to play. We need him to play. Well, should have he played more today? Maybe. Probably. Those are the decisions coaches have to make. What we were doing was obviously working. We got back in the game. We had a chance to win the game. The game went to overtime. Uh, but certainly Dia is one of our best players. He needs to be on the court for.

Question: You mentioned the crowd earlier in your opening statement. I mean, did the loudness and intensity of this place kind of disrupt what y’all were doing early?

Chris Beard: Me personally, no. I’ve been doing this a long time. It’s a great college basketball crowd, and everybody in the SEC has a home court advantage. For our players, fair question. And, you know, we got some older, veteran guys with a lot of pride, And that was what I was kind of asking them at halftime. So, you know, you say somebody’s not ready to play. You say somebody looks soft out there. You’re lacking the physical. Um, guys don’t want to hear that because we don’t have soft players. But it’s possible the toughest of competitors can still, you know, have some bad possessions. So, it’d be great question for our players because I didn’t think we came out with the physicality that was necessary to take their first punch.

Question: Yeah. Chris, do you think bad matchups for Dia or just bad game?

Chris Beard: I don’t like to comment on that kind of stuff till we watch the film. Um, you know, Dia is a talented guy. We needed a paint presence today. We needed some rebounds today, and we didn’t need another guy out there shooting jump shots or fadeaways. But this isn’t on Dia. This is a team sport. He’s one of our best players. You know, we’ll study this film, we’ll get better. And hopefully he can respond as I can respond. And all of us need to respond.

Next Up

Ole Miss returns home and will face Texas A&M (13-4, 2-2 SEC) Wednesday, January 22 in the SJB Pavilion. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2.