TRANSCRIPT: Everything Coach Chris Beard and Malik Dia Said After Ole Miss’ 74-64 Road Win over No. 4 Alabama

TUSCALOOSA — Ole Miss men’s basketball defeated No. 4 Alabama Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa, 74-64, earning the Rebels’ first-ever road win over a top 5 program in school history. After the game head coach Chris Beard and junior forward Malik Dia spoke with media.

Here’s a transcript of everything Coach and Malik said: 

Coach Beard’s Opening Statement

Chris Beard: We’re proud of our players for a lot of reasons. Top of the list, I do believe Alabama is one of the best teams in the country. It’s our second year at Ole Miss. We came here to build a program that can compete with teams like this, and tonight we obviously did more than compete. You know, how do we get it done? We were really concerned about their offensive rebounding. I think we held them to four offensive rebounds. One of those was late. We wanted to take care of the basketball and we did, low turnover game. We wanted to have balanced scoring. We got five guys in double figures. And if you’re going to win a big boy game, this was a first-place type game, then you got to have some special performances. So, obviously, (Malik) Dia, the basket opened up for him tonight and he really rebounded the ball. So lots of good things from our angle. It’s early, we’re just trying to kind of win the next game on the schedule. But I think not recognizing what the kind of team we just beat tonight, you know, we got a lot of players in there that really, really want to win. And they’re starting to understand that there’s a way to win. You know, it’s not just get yourself ready to ready to play. It’s, ‘What’s the plan?’ It’s a team sport. And, I thought tonight we controlled the tempo. We had no interest in playing a 118-115 game with Alabama. And so we did some good things. We executed the plan that we felt we needed to do to win the game. But nothing but respect for Nate and this team. They were in the Final Four for a reason last year, and they’re certainly, in my opinion, one of the best teams in college basketball. Maybe it’s time to talk a little bit about Ole Miss. You know, it’s early. I don’t say that in a self-promoting way. You know, I’ve been here before, but I do think that my job is to take up for my team a little bit. So,tonight, two really good teams playing, and I think most of the national scene didn’t give Ole Miss much of a chance. And our players believed that we could be successful in this game. And that’s what we did.

Question for Malik: I haven’t had a chance to look at the media guide yet. Was that the first time you ever had 19 rebounds in a game?

Malik Dia: I think so, yeah. That’s my first time.

Question: Malik, — Just what were those conversations like just in between those timeouts, knowing that you had a chance to knock off a top five team on the road for the first time in program history?

Malik: Just staying together, and on top of that, we were just playing defense pretty hard. Every time we had conversations, we were just trying to figure out what went wrong on the last possession or what we did. Good. So just sticking to the game plan. We worked really hard on the game plan these last two days, and we executed.

Question: Malik, just talk about the team defense you guys played. You guys did a really good job around the rim and Alabama had a hard time finishing.

Malik: We’ve been working on this defense since the summer. It’s definitely not an easy defense. He coaches us really hard each and every day to get it right. Even the smallest mistakes, we will always restart and do it over in practice. So, um, just repping that out these past two days, we knew we had to low-limit their possessions. So rebounds were big for us. We tried to keep them off the offensive glass, which I think we probably did, but we played really hard. That’s the thing on top of all the things.

Beard to Malik Dia as Dia is leaving the presser: Good job, big fella. I’m proud of you, man. Stay humble.

Question: Just how monumental is this win for what you’re building with this program, as it’s so early?

Coach Beard: In my mind, this was the fourth SEC game. We’re trying to put ourselves in position to win every night, execute a game plan. This is the first time, I mean, you know, when you get a job, you go in the arena and when you don’t see a Final Four banner, then you say, ‘we’re going to have to do some firsts around here.’ So, that stuff really means nothing to me — not to disrespect the question, but we didn’t come here to win a game in January. We came here to be one of those teams that has a chance to win six games in March in three weekends. So long ways to go. But tonight was a good SEC road win no doubt about it.

Question: Can you just remark on the way Ole Miss defended the three point line tonight.

Coach Beard: It was definitely a focal point. I think Nate’s offense is very, very aggressive. In my opinion, it’s a driving offense, and then the three point shot is a part of it. So, you know, we were prepared to protect the basket at the expense of giving up some threes in the first half. And one of their players got loose and hit a couple of threes. But we just kind of stuck to the game plan. But, as is the case with all really good teams, you enter the game with a game plan and you’ve got some adjustments in your back pocket. So, our first concern tonight was the dribble drive. And our second concern was the three point shot. I thought our guys did a good job balancing that between the game.

Question: Coach, you just kind of touched on this with the defense. But you held Mark (Sears) and Labaron Philon to 2-of-16 shooting. Just what did you see in Alabama’s guard’s play. And just what was your plan to defend those two.

Coach Beard: Well, I think fortune always plays into basketball. You know, if the ball goes in for him tonight, those are two talented players that make shots. So the first thing is you recognize this game has a lot of breaks. We got some good shots on our end, as well. In the first half, we didn’t finish well around the basket, but we loved the shots we were getting. But I do think you got to give our guys some credit. I can say this. We knew who those guys were. This isn’t a game where we got to keep going over personnel. When we started this game plan a couple of days ago, the players understand how talented these Alabama guards are. So we were focused. We didn’t play perfect. Nobody does. But I do think our energy and our focus — that’s a big word — we were focused on trying to just stick to the game plan. And then obviously they took some shots tonight that they normally make.

I know this is a basketball room, but I’d probably have a picture of Coach Saban up in here if I was you guys.

Question: Hey coach, talk about how your guards kind of controlled the pace because that’s always a big thing. Alabama likes to push. They like to get a lot of shots up. But you guys I thought did a great job controlling the pace the whole game.

Coach Beard: Yeah. So, there’s a way to win a game. There’s a way to put yourself in a position to win a game. And you know, the good thing about tonight was the guys believed in the game plan. Early this season, it’s like I’m fighting them a little bit. And I told him all week in preparation, ‘I’m here to help you. I’ve got one of the best seats in the building, and I’ll do everything I can to help you. But we all got to believe in the plan. If you don’t believe in the plan, speak up now. But let’s don’t get out there and not execute the plan.’ So obviously, you know, this is a team that averages 92 points a game in SEC play. I think 91 points a game on the season. This is an explosive offense. So you start by just saying, ‘hey, you know, probably not going to be our way if this game is in the 90s or 100. So we got to control the tempo.’ You do that by taking care of the basketball, by shot selection, by building a wall on defense. And then more than anything, though, you do it by intelligent players that understand what we’re trying to get done tonight. And so tonight we turned down a lot of shots that our guys can make at a good percentage, because we were absolutely committed to sticking to the game plan..

Question: Early on in the game, Grant Nelson gets a dunk. The second time he goes to the lane, he gets fouled hard. Leaves the game. Just from a physicality standpoint, no easy layups. Is that something that your program kind of has trickled down since you’ve arrived on campus? And just from a physicality standpoint, how would you think you guys fit today?

Coach Beard: Yeah, I just think that’s SEC basketball. You know, we didn’t get many open layups around the basket either. So it was a physical game as are all the games in the SEC. It’s a physical league for sure. I’m glad he was okay. He’s a special player. A lot of respect for him. When the play happened, I asked Nate, you think he’s okay? And Nate was like, ‘yeah, just good hard SEC foul.’ So, nothing special in this game plan in that regard other than this is an SEC game.  Victory is going to favor the team that gets gets the least amount of uncontested shots around the paint.

Question: With 12 minutes left, Alabama gets a technical. They have a chance to have a four-point possession. Missed two free throws at the end. (Sean) Pedulla comes back and hits a three. How big are those moments where the crowd’s kind of into it, and you guys can just kind of answer it with with something like that and suck the momentum out of the game?

Coach Beard: Well, first of all, you know, great crowd. I know a little bit about the history of Alabama basketball, and I was actually down here early. I tried for years to get in with Coach Saban, just to spend 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and couldn’t quite get it done. Our team at Texas Tech played for the national championship. And, I started getting, like, free breakfast burritos in Lubbock. And then doors started opening up a little bit. And one door that opened up was I had a chance to come spend some time with Alabama football. It was really one of the best three-day experiences I’ve had in coaching. Coach was great. Um, but equally, the staff was great. Spent time with your strength coach, who I know is doing great things right now for a purpose bigger than basketball. A lot of respect for him and his journey. The trainer in football is the best at what he does. And, so anyway, when I got down here, I think Nate was just coming in. I remember seeing Nate at an early football practice, and, Nate was really confident in he what he was going to be able to build here. So seeing the crowd tonight and what Nate’s done in the last couple of years here, it’s real. So tonight we knew this was going to be one of the toughest environments to play in. It was, but I think our guys did a pretty good job controlling those moments. One key play in the game was crowd was about to just erupt… I got up and was going to try to help the guys. I don’t like to stand much during the games, but Matt Murrell made a courageous senior type play to get the ball to the basket. And that kind of calmed the storm a little bit. But great crowd. I thought they were into the game. Our guys did a pretty good job eliminating those runs that Alabama goes in. You know, when the roof’s about to go off the top. And, we did just a good enough job to kind of keep them away from those explosive moments. And that’s what they call it in football, explosive plays. And tonight we we did a good job, you know, basically controlling the environment that we were in.