TRANSCRIPT: Everything Coach Beard said after Ole Miss’ 2OT loss to LSU

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss men’s basketball came up short Wednesday night, falling to LSU, 99-106, in double overtime in a matchup between two teams desperate to break through.

Final From Oxford. pic.twitter.com/WVgKq63NnZ

— The Rebel Walk (@TheRebelWalk) February 26, 2026

After the loss, head coach Chris Beard met with the media. Here’s everything Coach Beard had to say:

Question: What were your overall takeaways from this game?

Coach Beard: Well, it’s obviously two teams that are having really tough seasons. Lots of adversity. You know, it doesn’t appear like LSU has any quit in them. Just continue to be in a lot of close games. I think the same thing could be said for our guys. So tonight, somebody had to win. Had a chance to win in regulation. Didn’t execute the out of bounds play. AJ was wide open. We missed him. Chance to win at at the end of the first overtime. You know, had one of our best players with the ball in the middle of the floor. So, unfortunate it didn’t go our way. I thought number three for LSU was the best player on the floor. And, we couldn’t guard him.

Question: You had some opportunities, end of regulation and the first overtime, to put the game away. What were you specifically looking for on those possessions and what do you attribute the lack of execution to?

Coach Beard: Without seeing the tape, I don’t want to be wrong here, but I think at the end of, at the end of the game regulation, we kind of had a broken floor. So, letting the guys play in those moments, we’re prepared for that. We know exactly what we’re supposed to be doing. Kind of a loose ball, we got the timeout. So the out of bounds play, have to go back and look at it. But I think AJ was open underneath the basket. We just missed it. Then the second play we were supposed to be screening our own man. And so Patton ended up in a in a tough spot. So, two mistakes into the first overtime. Did AJ Storr have the ball? Yes. Just employing AJ in those moments to try to get to the free throw line and stay away from the mid-range, but that’s not what happened.

Question: You guys took an eight point lead kind of late in the second half, and then it seemed like LSU just had a rebuttal for everything you did. What did you see from that vantage point?

Coach Beard: I thought both teams were really tired. So we even tried to sub a little bit in the overtime. That didn’t work. Again, I thought number three was the difference in the game. He didn’t seem to be as tired as our guys were.

Question: In between games day to day at the practices, how are you seeing guys not let frustration overtake them?

Coach Beard: Well, it’s a lot like tonight, you know, it’s like it’s not too bad. Teams playing tonight night, it’s two teams with a lot of adversity. They’ve been in a lot of games playing in the Southeastern Conference. So something had to break for one of them tonight. You know, we had a couple of dumb fouls at the end of the game and again, we had the ball in our hands, two chances to win it tonight and didn’t get it done.