TRANSCRIPT: Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard, Jaylen Murray and Matthew Murrell talk about Rebels’ 98-84 win over Kentucky

OXFORD, Miss. – With 24 assists to just one turnover and 98 points scored, led by Matthew Murrell’s season-best 24, No. 25 Ole Miss men’s basketball picked up a huge victory over No. 14 Kentucky, 98-84, on Tuesday night in the SJB Pavilion.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard and guards Matthew Murrell and Jaylen Murray met with media. Here’s a transcript of everything they said: 

Coach Beard Opening Statement

It never gets old. Wish I had a different way to say it, because we don’t ever take this for granted, but we’re just super appreciative of the attendance and the crowd. Our students show up early. They bring the juice. There were some times during the game, especially in the first half, where it was it was electric. So to make your opponent use a couple first half timeouts, that’s not all just the basketball. It’s a direct relation with what our home court is doing. So thank you to our students and thank you to the season ticket holders and all the people that came to the game today. Thank you. Wish I had a different way to say it that was stronger, but we really, really appreciate it. Second year here, we’re building the program and I think we’re going in the right direction in that in that way. I don’t ever really feel good about games before the game. But I felt good tonight when Sam showed up. That’s my guy. Toughest guy I know, period. And I know a lot of tough people. No disrespect to other people that I’ve said that before. Um, but in the last two years, I’ve been blessed to have a friendship with Sam. He’s my guy. When Sam shows up, Ole Miss wins. And so I just want to thank Sam for coming tonight, and he always inspires us. This basketball gives you a little a little adversity from time to time, but nothing like life. Sam’s the toughest guy I know.

Question: Matt, today was your first 20 point game all season. I know this has been a tough year for you. You’ve gone through a lot with your body. Just how how did this one feel for you?

Matt Murrell: It’s like it’s like finally getting your head above water, but, you know, just got to keep working, keep building from it. You know, take this confidence into the next game.

Question: Matt, how are you feeling physically right now?

Matt Murrell: you know, I mean you can ask Coach. I’m in the training room every day just trying to get as healthy as I can so I can able to go out there and then take the win in the best way I can.

Question: Just for clarity, what was exactly were you dealing with for the last week or so?

Matt Murrell: Lower body, lower body injury. You know, just trying my best to keep it under control.

Question: Juju, in the second half, the offense was a little bit more of a struggle than it was in the first half. And they kind of leaned on you to get some things going, especially there late. How did it kind of work out for you in the second half and kind of being assertive out there for you in the second half to get things going?

JuJu Murray: Well, um, you know, first I want to acknowledge my man Matt. You know, he’s been going through a lot these past couple of weeks, you know, which is like just trying to just get his body right. But in all reality it was Matt tonight, man. You know, I was finding him. You know, he was hitting big time shots and that’s who we was going with.

Question: Yeah 15 and ten and 24 and one as a team as far as turnovers and assists. I mean, what does it say about this team? I’ve been good at it all year. But that’s kind of a ridiculous.

JuJu Murray: I mean, when you got when you got a team of, you know, full of veterans, you know, we challenge ourselves most of the time in games, you know, just letting us know that. Not trying to turn the ball over too much. You know, if we make the right passes, make the right reads, you can always finish the game with five or less turnovers, eight or less turnovers. You know we got a veteran team though you know and we’ve been buying into it since the season started. You know after we’ve been going through all the no games and stuff like that and practices and seeing what kind of talent we got around us, so we’ve just been buying in.

Question: Just for the both of you guys. What were those that those days between the turnaround like Sean was in here you know on Saturdays saying like y’all are clearly capable of being a team of this caliber. It’s going to have to take that extra edge and extra. In what ways did both of y’all kind of see that play out tonight?

Matt Murrell: I feel like togetherness, you know, Juju, ten assists. Sean, 8 assists. You know point guard play. You know just sharing the ball. I feel like that was a big thing. You know we came in the game. We had one mind to stay together no matter what happened. Play with joy. And just like I said, no matter what happened, make sure we stayed together. That’s all we got at the end of the day.Each other.

Question: Matt, the 24 assists one turnover as a team I guess. How cool is that to be a part of and how many games have you even played like that where the turnover ratio is that high? Any level?

Matt Murrell: I think this may be my first game. I really think maybe my first game, but just credit to all of us. You know, just going out there and take care of the ball movement, moving it and you know, players being players and making shots.

Question: Juju, your coach has talked about how more passes tends to lead to more points being scored. That was obviously shown tonight. What did you see kind of in Kentucky’s defense that opened the windows for a lot of those kick outs for open looks for Matt and others?

JuJu Murray: I mean, um, credit to Kentucky, you know, that’s a great team. But, I would just say, you know, our mindset was just getting back to, you know, just making a couple passes, driving the basketball, you know, and just finding our teammates.

Coach Beard takes postgame questions

Question: That first half, not just the scoring, but the rebounding, the defense. It seemed like it’d be one of, if not probably the most complete half you played all year. What was working and kind of like, what were y’all doing?

Coach Beard: Yeah. We you know, it helps to make shots. Just a couple days ago, we were sitting here talking about that. So, the basket got big for us, but I thought we just played the right way. You know, we were sharing the ball. Most of our baskets were assisted. From a coach, that’s something you’re really always looking at. I thought our defense was our best 20 minutes of defense in the first half. Second half, you know, I’m working on this deal where you smell the roses along the way and try to stay positive, but, first half defense was really, really good. Second half just a lot we can get better at.

Question: Could you talk about the last four minutes, 15-3 in the last four minutes of the first half.

Coach Beard: Yeah, I think that was one of the things I was most impressed with. I’ve always thought different. At halftime, I thought, let’s go win the game 108-62. And, I guess human nature doesn’t work that way, but I’ve always been a little a little bit different. And, so I think one thing I was really proud of in the first half is we, we separated a little bit, and then the lull that you’re hoping doesn’t come, which we experienced in the second half, not taking anything away from Kentucky. But that was not our best defensive effort in the second half. The first half we didn’t have that let up and it was good. It was like, I didn’t want to go to halftime, you know, we wanted to keep playing. So I told the players after the game that I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed watching a team play more than I did tonight watching us play in the first half, especially.

Question: Chris, I’m not sure how much you saw of Kentucky with Lamont Butler, but if you did, how different are they without him, and how did you think you guys could really attack them offensively with him not in the lineup?

Coach Beard: Yeah, I don’t know their team. So I’m not an expert for that. But obviously he is one of the best point guards in the country. Um and for him not to play their team has to adjust, just like we had to adjust with Matt Murrell out some games, Mikeal Brown having some real adversity, Dre Davis. So yeah he’s one of the best point guards in college basketball. He brings another dynamic to their team. There’s no denying that. And we wish him the best in terms of getting back quickly. He’s one of the best players in the SEC.

Question: Speaking of Matt, talk about the way he kind of handled himself over the last couple of months with injury and all.

Coach Beard: Yeah, I’ve said it before and just a lot of respect for him and admiration of what he does on a daily basis. What he does with his 24 hours each day. And I recognized John Raybon, our trainer, our team doctors. But give Matt the credit. There’s a lot of early mornings and late nights. He’s really staying engaged too, with limited practice time. He understands the scouting reports. Just a lot of respect for him. I’ve seen it before, but Matt is doing what you have to do, at this level, when you’re banged up to give yourself a chance to try to help your team each night.

Question: I think you told us earlier in the season that you’ve always chased a game where your team doesn’t turn the ball over at all. You weren’t quite there today, but 24 and one. How special is that? And maybe how unique is that in your career?

Coach Beard: Yeah. Pedulla. He ruined that memory, right? (laughing) I was actually kind of thinking about that as the first half went on, because I’ve always envisioned that night being pretty special. We’ve done it one other time. I believe it was at Angelo State, and I believe the turnover was Thomas Brandsma. but I blame I blame everything on Thomas Brandsma. He’s my favorite player of all time, him and Avery Benson. And so Thomas will probably tweet tonight that it wasn’t him, but I blame everything on Thomas.  Tonight, Pedulla, just one loose ball handling play away from doing something that I’ve always chased my career. It’s not about me, but I just always thought it’d be cool to coach a team that had zero turnovers in a game.

Question: Chris, you spoke on some of the lulls in the second half, but what does it say about your team the resiliency of this team with Juju hitting that big three, Dre hitting a couple of those fadeaways that they took some punches but did not get knocked out.

Coach Beard: Yeah I agree. You know I just didn’t enjoy our defense in the second half, but I thought our offense just kept us alive. And we talked the other day about Auburn making some timely plays in big moments. They seemed to have an answer every time. And I would think that tonight offensively, we had an answer. We executed against their zone, and I think our guys did a pretty good job for the most part, staying aggressive. You feel the weight on the shoulders. We all understand, you know, defensively things aren’t going our way. But I thought our offense did a good job. And I think we scored 44 points in the second half and we could have got to over 50. But in the late game were watching the shot clock and making some free throws.

Question: What’s it been like to see Juju develop as a distributor this year?

Coach Beard: Yeah, tonight was special. I mean ten assists and zero turnovers. Juju’s a good guy, man. He’s got a big heart. He always bounces back. But to hear him answer the question and give the praise to Matt and stuff, that’s exactly what you want in a winner. But I would say that Juju played the game the right way, too. He did a good job of keeping his dribble tonight. Staying out of trouble areas underneath the basket. We call that the Nash or Stockton dribble. And he just played well. Point guard mentality is our terminology. It’s what we say and it’s just understanding the game. Sean and Ju are scores at heart. They can score the basketball. And to this point in the season, just very appreciative of them trying to play the game in a way that what we need tonight to win, because we’re going to need both those guys to have 25, 30 point nights. Juju’s got it in him. Tonight, he just had a lot of confidence. Looked secure in himself that, ‘hey, I’m the point guard of this team. I’ve got some hot teammates around me. Let me do my job.’ So I was really impressed with Juju tonight.