TRANSCRIPT: Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard, JuJu Murray and Dre Davis discuss loss to Auburn, upcoming NCAA tournament

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Ole Miss men’s basketball put up a valiant effort against Auburn Friday before ultimately falling, 62-57, to the No. 1 seed Tigers.

After the game, head coach Chris Beard, JuJu Murray and Dre Davis met with media and talked about the game.

Coach Beard’s opening statement

Hey, good hard-fought game. Congratulate Auburn on the victory. Defensive game. Easy baskets were hard to find throughout the game. You know, if we hold Auburn at 62 points, we should have a chance to win the game. And we did. So I thought we played some good defense today. You know, they’re the SEC champs, projected one seed. You guys just saw it. What does that make Ole Miss? We can play with these teams. It’s a disappointed locker room right now because we expected to win this game. I didn’t think we got beat though. I think, like I told the guys, sometimes you win, sometimes you run out of run out of time. It really felt like if there’s a little bit more time on the clock, we liked where we were. So, congratulate Auburn and a defensive tough game. You know, lastly, basketball is about making shots. Today was a game we needed to make 9 or 10 threes, kind of mathematically with how the game was set up. And for us to shoot 17% from three point line, most of those threes were good looks. Um, you know, if we make a couple more shots today, get one more rebound, we win the game. Congratulations to Auburn. Wish those guys the best of luck here in Nashville. And then next weekend in the national tournament.

Question: Dre, what your mind was was the big difference between this game and the one in Auburn not too long ago? Coach said defense. But I guess if you could expand on that, what different was it about the defense that you guys played?

Dre Davis: I think it was just a different level of focus coming into the game. You know, understanding that, you know, we wanted to make a run and win this tournament. So I think it was just a different level of focus and intensity coming into the game and preparation, being locked in on what we said we were going to do. I feel like for the most part, we did that. You know, we had some slip ups here and there, but for the most part, I feel like we stuck to the game plan and did what we said we were going to do.

Question: Neutral site games this year, you’ve either won or just come up with a couple possessions short. Just the type of environments that you’ve been in. You know, the competition this week and all. In what ways do you feel like this prepares you going into March?

JuJu Murray: I would say it’s going to prepare us a lot. You know, just the simple fact that it’s going to be more big games when we go to the tournament. You know got to get ourselves ready and prepared for that. So I feel like this is definitely a good test going into the tournament.

Dre: Just piggyback off him, just good test run. Like you said, we’ve been through this multiple times throughout the season. You know, I feel like the coaching staff put together a good schedule to get us prepared for that with multiple neutral site games. So, just got to get prepared now.

Questions for Coach Beard

Question: Coach Beard, last we talked, you talked about the depth of the league and the the NIL causing so many players to return. So there’s so many quality teams. Can you talk about Johni Broome and the difficulties that you guys had guarding him today?

Coach Beard: He was the difference in the game in a one-possession game. He goes 23 and 15. You know, I think he’s worthy of all the attention and awards he’s winning. You saw it today. All the way down to the last play. So the shot clock differential was just enough where we got to coach this decision. Do we try to get one stop, and then we’re going to have about 10 seconds with the basketball coming down with a broken floor? Or do we extend the game by fouling? Our defense had gotten a little bit better in the last 7 or 8 minutes of the game. So we all made the decision. Players believed in it. And then what does Auburn do? Veteran team, well coached. They get the ball to the right player in the right spot. And then he made a tough shot, not a tough shot, but he made a contested shot. So again the question was about Broome. And there you go, 23 and 15 on the biggest stage before the tournament. Last play, his team has to make a play and he’s the one that does it.

Question: Chris, the last two times you guys have played, it’s been kind of shootouts, really offensive minded. That wasn’t really the case today. I mean, do you feel like the familiarity that you guys have have built with each other this year, do you feel like that attributed to it or just, I guess, what led to it being such a different game thematically?

Coach Beard: Yeah, for sure. The first two games Ole Miss vs. Auburn were a little bit surprising. We scored the ball at a rate well enough for us to win the game, but didn’t defend well enough. In Oxford, we played really well. Auburn, I thought it was their A plus game, and Coach Pearl even mentioned that after the game. Today’s game was defensive tough. But again it’s not slighting Auburn at all, but you know when we go 4-for-21 from the three point line, and most of those were good shots. Couple late shot clock, kind of forced. But I would say 17 of the 21 were probably shots that you have to take and you have to make to beat Auburn. So if we make our normal 35, 36% threes as a team, you know, we score enough points to win.

Question: Chris, different teams kind of develop at different rates along the year. As as you reminded me yesterday, you’ve had success every place you’ve gone. At what point did you realize that this team would be really good?

Coach Beard: That’s a good question. Of course, in recruiting, when you put the team together, you have high expectations because you see the plan in front of you. But when it gets real is probably when competition starts. So we had a really good summer. We set up our summer a little bit different than the past, you know, with new teams, portal, new players. You can’t just spend your whole summer working drills or shell drills. You got to get out there and play a little bit. And so we had multiple inter-squad scrimmages with officials and I think about halfway through the summer, we started visualizing how this could be a good team. And then certainly your non-conference, an early win against Colorado State, who I think is an NCAA tournament team, and our MTE put us against BYU, a really good team in the Big 12, and we lost in overtime to a Purdue team that’s still alive today, I believe, in the Big Ten tournament. So I think the combination of putting together a good team with recruiting and roster management, watching those guys begin the gelling process in the summer, and then some success in the nonconference, I’m not going to say it raised our expectations but it verified what we thought the team could be.

Question: Coach, what’s your message to your team heading into the NCAA tournament? You’ve now played Auburn three times. You guys being in the SEC have played one of the hardest schedules out there. Given the depth of the conference, you know, how do you think that’s prepared you for the tournament. And what do you tell your team about where you’re at?

Coach Beard: Yeah. So the message immediately after the game today, again, a hurt locker room because we expected to win this game, was that. I didn’t think we got beat today. I think we ran out of time. We could have loved, you know, put two more minutes up there and let us play a little bit more. So I thought the effort was good today. But when you play a team like this, you have to play well in almost every area. We took care of the ball, especially in the second half. We played good enough defense for the most part. We got to do a little bit better job on the backboards, and we got to make some shots, 4-for-21 (from three). The message for the team moving forward is we’ve always had kind of the same model in March. Two things: it’s really simple. We tell the players ‘we want to be us.’ Why? Because us is pretty good. We’re one of the best teams in the country. We’re going to get a nice seed at large bid in the tournament. So let’s don’t show up to the NCAA tournament and be somebody we’re not. Let’s just be the best version of us. Let’s be us. Secondly, we want to have some fun along the way. Yeah, it’s a business trip, no doubt about it. But, man, you work your whole life in coaching and playing to play in the NCAA tournament. So let’s don’t forget that. Let’s enjoy every practice, every shootaround, every bus trip, the plane trip, the camaraderie in the hotel, the meals. You guys know this, man, the meals in the NCAA tournament are really, really good. Nobody even skips the salad portion of the meals because the salad looks like you’re at one of those Brazilian steakhouses. You know, we’re going to get some gear and we’re going to enjoy ourselves. We’re going to smell the roses, as we call it. And so, that’s always been our plan in March. Sounds simple, but to me, that’s the way to do it. You know, be the best version of yourself, be us, and then smell the roses along the way. Have some fun, play with joy. And we had that today. In our time outs, we’ve got guys, you know, smiling with joy, like, ‘we’re here, man. We got a chance. Let’s go try to win this game.’ So that’s always been our message in March and will be this week as well.