TRANSCRIPT: Everything Chris Beard said after Ole Miss’ road loss to Missouri

COLUMBIA Mo. — No. 16 Ole Miss men’s basketball (15-5, 4-3 SEC) dropped its Saturday afternoon road contest at No. 22 Missouri (16-4, 5-2 SEC) by a score of 83-75. The Rebels kept it a close game in a hostile environment despite starter Dre Davis missing the game due to injury.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard met with media to discuss his team’s performance. Here’s everything Coach Beard had to say.

Coach Beard: They took almost more than twice as many free throws as us, so we’ll have to look at that from a coaching standpoint, a playing standpoint, but really hard to win in the SEC when the opponent shoots more than twice as many free throws as you. Second thing in the game is, you know, they had two special performances. I’m not great with names, but, Bates and Grill had special games. You know, I think if those guys go nine for 15 from the three point line between them, I don’t think they’ll lose many games in the SEC. So those are two of the best players in the league. They had A-plus performances tonight, and it’s just a little bit too much for us to overcome. So the free-throw differential and two special performances by Missouri on the offensive end were really kind of the difference in the game from our point of view.

Question: Coach, Mizzou has been very proficient in driving and kicking out for threes, especially off of offensive rebounds. Was that something you guys looked into on the defensive side of the game? And how do you think you guys handled that today?

Coach Beard: Yeah, I agree. We were aware of that. Missouri did a great job putting pressure on the defense tonight. The free throw line was their best friend. And again, they had two special performances. If those two guys shoot the ball like that, as the opponent you’re going to have to have something special go on in the game. You know, I thought our guys fought, basically played even in the second half. We did a pretty good job late, just kind of playing it to the bone, giving us a chance. Won a few games like that over the years. We just kind of hang around. Had to use our timeouts in the second half to kind of stop the bleeding, so we didn’t have any late. But again, just congratulate Missouri. They got to the free throw line tonight, had two special performances from two of the best players in the league. We didn’t get to the free throw line. And without Dre Davis tonight and without Matt Murrell being full speed, it was just too much to overcome.

Question: Coach, I think it’s Mark Byington who said when they played here, Missouri made some shots that were just kind of unguardable when Grill gets going like he was. I mean, is there is there something you can do differently defensively lr is that just a guy getting hot?

Coach Beard: Well, first, give the two players credit, really good players. I think from our point of view, we did make some mistakes. We had a couple hand-down, man-down shots. You’ve got to at least contest the shot. That’s going to lower their percentages at least a little bit. So I would hesitate from saying that it was all our mistakes. You know, I’m one of these guys that’s not going to sit up here and tell you about why we didn’t win the game. You know, we didn’t win the day because Missouri was the better team. They outrebounded us. They got to the free throw line significantly more than us, which is an indication that they were the more aggressive team. And again, two special performances by two of the best players in the league. If those two guys have those games on the same night together,  Dennis will have some great evenings after games around here.

Question: Coach, what kind of changed for you guys when Dre Davis isn’t available?

Coach Beard: He’s just one of our best players. He’s a lot like y’all’s best players are for you guys here. He’s somebody we really depend on, on the defensive end and on the offensive end. So he did everything he could this week to give himself a chance to play, all the way down to trying to go through pregame warm ups. He’s just banged up right now. Certainly not an excuse. Every team in the country is not full speed. But for us tonight, it’s going to be a lot to overcome when, again, they get to the free throw line like they did and they have two special performances on offense. You know, there was too much to overcome for us tonight. I thought our guys did a good job hanging in there, though, on a night where I don’t think Missouri ever really separated on us till the end. We kept hanging around. There were some pivotal plays in the game. I think we got it down to four at one point, and then they went on a four or five-0 run. And I thought our guys did a good job playing it all the way to the, play to the bone is how we call it, played all the way to the buzzer or horn or whatever it is. So, again, congratulate Missouri. I don’t think there’s a lot of teams in the league that will beat them on a night where they accomplished about four things on that stat sheet that were too hard for us to overcome.

Question: Coach, how do you get back on track after three straight conference losses?

Coach Beard: Yeah, we just stay the course. This is the SEC, a two-game winning streak and it’s free breakfast burritos in the morning, and people want to throw you a parade. You know, a two game losing streak, you feel like the sun won’t come up tomorrow. So it’s short term memory. It’s just staying the course, the same thing we do after wins. We just get back to work. Right now we’re in a little slide. We’ve played three of the best teams in the country, and so it’s understandable in this league. We just got to keep working. It’s a long season. It’s an 18-round fight. We’ve got to play better and most importantly, we just got to stay the course.

Question: Coach, you mentioned a few times now special performances. But when you’ve got two guys that have got the hot hand, what does that do to you defensively? What happens to your team while two guys are going like they did?

Coach Beard: It puts a lot of pressure on us defensively because the other three guys on the floor are good players, you know? So it’s not one of these deals where we can just talk about those two guys. So, look, Missouri has real SEC talent. They’ve got depth, and it appears to me they’ve got a good chemistry. I know they’ve got a great coach, the guys got a good home court advantage here. And so, when two of your best players go ten points over their scoring average or more, and the three point shot is like shooting on a Nerf goal when I was a kid on the back of my bedroom door, you know, it’s going to be hard. So what do you got to do on these nights? We’ve got to overcome it with something. We need to have a special performance. We need to get to the free throw line. We need to outrebound our opponent. We need to turn our opponent over 20, 22 times. I mean, something’s got to happen in the game to overcome how well Missouri played tonight.

Question: On the rebounding front, just what makes this Missouri team effective on the boards.

Coach Beard: I think you’ve got some guards that are strong, physical offensive rebounders. I think it’s set up nice with strategy. I think guys kind of know what shot is going up, a little bit of advantage for the offensive rebounder. I think they kind of do it by committee. If I’m not mistaken, they don’t have a player averaging 12 rebounds a game, but they’ve got a lot of guys right around that over-four rebounds. So they put a lot of pressure on you. They can play different ways. You know, you’re basically playing a power forward at the five spot. He’s a special player. And then you’ve got two seven footers that can come in the game. And so it’s a good team. We’ll see how it plays out. You know I was interviewed a few times this week. I think this is one of the best teams in the country and that’s not coaching speak. It’s not. It’s what I believe. We all knew about this team last year and all the adversity they had, and they just kept fighting and scrapping. So, you know, the DNA’s here. Now, he’s healthy, he’s got depth, he’s got some good players. There’s a reason they beat Kansas at home, and there’s a reason they’re off to a great start in the SEC. So, again, congratulations to Coach Gates and Missouri. They played really well tonight. I thought our guys scrapped and fought. It was a two-possession game late for a lot of the second half. We just we needed that burst and we never got it.