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Ole Miss

Chris Beard hopes Ole Miss loss vs. Mississippi State will serve as a reminder moving forward

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•about 9 hours
NCAA Basketball: Louisiana State at Mississippi
Jan 11, 2025; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Chris Beard looks on during the second half against the LSU Tigers at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Rivalries in college basketball don’t always carry quite the same intensity as they do in football, but you can be sure when Mississippi State and Ole Miss square up the stakes are high.

Especially when both teams are ranked.

Such was the case over the weekend, when the No. 15 Bulldogs outlasted the No. 21 Rebels to win an overtime game, taking the first of two meetings this season. That result left Ole Miss coach Chris Beard a bit dismayed.

“It’s just a reminder for our team this is Round 5 in the SEC, so this wasn’t the first time we’ve had some adversity or played against a really good team,” Beard said. “But I think, I hope what the reminder is for our players and what we’ll certainly emphasize our next practice is we’ve got to do what we say we’re going to do. Also known as discipline.”

Ole Miss just played ever so slightly out of character on Saturday and it was enough to prove costly. The team’s four-game winning streak was snapped as a result.

There’s still plenty of basketball left to be played, though. Beard didn’t want his team stressing too much about the particulars, just the process.

“You’re not going to make every shot in the game, you’re not going to get every call, but you’ve got to do at some point what you say you’re going to do,” he said. “So on a couple of our post defensive mistakes, we didn’t do what we set up to do.”

Mississippi State scored a whopping 40 points in the paint in the contest, exposing Ole Miss down low. That can’t happen going forward if the Rebels want to get deep into the postseason.

Everything now is a setup for that.

Ole Miss took a step in the wrong direction on Saturday but can correct it going forward.

“So it’s been a strength of our team with our veteran players to be able to help the guys, adjustments, whatever you want to call it,” Beard said. “But tonight we just made some mistakes that we just couldn’t overcome.”

Ole Miss will get a chance to turn things around on Wednesday night when it hosts No. 13 Texas A&M at 9 p.m. ET with a broadcast on ESPN2.