TRANSCRIPT: Everything Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said after Rebels’ 106-76 loss at No. 1 Auburn

Ole Miss (19-9, 8-7 SEC) dropped its contest at No. 1 Auburn (26-2, 14-1 SEC) 106-76 Wednesday night at Neville Arena. After the game, Rebels’ head coach Chris Beard met with media. Here’s everything he said.

Chris Beard’s Opening Statement

“Good as advertised. We played Auburn 80 minutes this season, so veteran team, older team, returners. Coach (Pearl) has been doing this for a long time. So he had just as good as advertised, a team that definitely, in my opinion, is one of the handful of teams that would be kind of the favorite to win six games in three weekends.

“I think the tale of the game for us is, if you had told me before the game that we could get to 80-something points and we were going to shoot close to 50 from the field and make some threes right around mid-30s, get to the free throw line more or equal to Auburn, and take care of the ball relatively well- ten or less turnovers– I wouldn’t have predicted that we were going to win the game, but I would have predicted we’d have a chance to win the game. But that wasn’t the story.

“Y’all saw it because on the other side of the floor, just just non-existent defense from Ole Miss. It’s not just the players, it’s everybody in the program. I think you give Auburn credit very, very difficult to guard when they’re making shots like they were basically in the first 6 to 8 minutes of the game. They won’t lose, calmed down a little bit, and they missed a few and we got back in the game at halftime. Should have been a seven-point differential. And we made a shot clock decision, should have held for the last shot in the first half and didn’t. But defense, just non-existent. And I would say a lot of it had to do with Auburn, they’re really difficult to guard. They come at you in waves with depth. And so that was the tale of the game from our perspective. I thought offensively we gave ourselves a chance to be in the game, and then defensively we just didn’t have a defense tonight. That’s my longest opening statement in the history of college basketball.”

Question: So Johni Broome, what makes him so difficult to guard? And what how do you game plan for somebody like that?

Coach Beard: Broome’s got great poise and great kind of patience. It’s one of those players that on film you might even kind of misguided…it’s like,man, is he playing hard? Does he take plays off? And I don’t think, well, I’m sure he does that from coach’s perspective. But he plays with a poise and kind of a pace, kind of a pro pace. That makes sense because he’s a pro. I think he makes timely plays, too in big moments. It’s a luxury for any team to be able to calm the game down and just throw the ball inside. It’s a challenge to guard him. If you double him, he’s such an improved passer that I think, even from last year, it’s not just about his left hand anymore. He can pass the ball. And if you don’t double him, he’s more than capable of getting to the free throw line or scoring. I don’t know him. Shook his hand four times, but he plays with a lot of poise. That’s the thing that I’m most impressed with, is he doesn’t seem to get too high or too low on a team that has some emotional characters, no doubt about it. I think Broome is kind of the kind of the steady rock, in my opinion.

Question: Coach, you team shot nearly 50% tonight and lost. Multiple coaches have come into this press room and talked about the strength of the SEC this year in basketball. Can you give us a comment on the strength of the league this year?

Chris Beard: Yeah, just as good as advertised. It starts with some of the best players in the league staying in the league. I think the SEC’s commitment overall to embracing name, image and likeness has been a real factor. Good recruits in the league, good transfers. Then the season starts and it’s the same thing at every press conference. If you’re coaching in the Big East, you say we’re the best league. If you’re in the Big 12, you say we’re the best league and no different. You know every SEC coach, ‘We’re the best league.’ And then what I think really happened was in the non-conference SEc had so many marquee wins, including Ole Miss. Give us some credit. We contributed to that, beat Louisville, an NCAA tournament team at Louisville. Beat BYU on a neutral floor, an NCAA tournament team. Beat a really good Colorado State team, sneaky, NCAA tournament team, in my opinion. But no, I think that’s kind of what happened. On Christmas Day, you look up at the non-conference records, and I think that’s kind of what started the narrative. You know, could this be maybe the best conference in the history of college basketball? Now, to me, the validation is what happens in March. But in my opinion, there’s four teams in this league that are almost kind of favorites to be in that 10 to 12 schools that basically kind of have an advantage. Like that’s a team that could win six games in three weekends, then you got the next tier. And despite what you saw today from Ole Miss on the defensive end, I do think that we are in that next tier. I think we are a team that if we can figure out some things defensively and just keep getting better over time, we could be one of those teams there, depending on how the bracket opens up and what have you. We’ve done it before, and so I think we’re kind of in that next tier.

Question: Chris, Chad Baker-Mazara had 40 in 2 games against you guys. He had been kind of back and forth with some injuries the last few weeks. When he’s healthy, what is what does he give that team as kind of an X factor?

Chris Beard: He’s got a great role on this team in my opinion. A lot of times young players hear the word ‘role’ and they think they’re being disrespected. You know what a role player in the NBA is? It’s a guy that’s got more money, and his grandkids won’t even have to work one day. So, the best players I’ve ever coached are role players. But I think back to him, he has the dynamic role in this team. His shot selection is a little bit different than most guys in my opinion, but his teammates are cool with that. He’s a good player, plays with a lot of emotion, obviously, but he can impact the game. I think above all, by being one of those guys that can go get a basket. You know, if the offense breaks down, you can give him the ball and he can go get a basket or he can make a play.

Question: In your last four games of the season, including tonight against number one, number five and number three. Even in a 30 point loss, do you take anything positive away from this that can help you against Tennessee and Florida in those last two?

Chris Beard: Yeah. You always take positive. It’s a 40-minute game. Yes, again I thought offensively tonight again, if you had told me before the game we shoot those percentages, take care of the ball, get some balanced scoring, get to the free throw line — and again, I’m not predicting a win at number one Auburn — but I’m predicting that we’ll be in the game and can maybe make it interesting late. So I think there’s some positives on the offensive side of the ball. I thought we got some contributions from some some players. Mikeal Brown-Jones has — nobody wants to hear our, our problems — but, you know, Mikeal has battled injuries all year long, and, I thought he gave us some real valuable minutes tonight and did some things again against some really good players. So that’s a positive off the top of my head.