Chris Beard issues apology to Ole Miss fans after loss to Texas A&M

Ole Miss dropped a heart-breaker to Texas A&M on Wednesday night, falling 63-62 on the home floor. And after the game, coach Chris Beard had a message for the fans.

He was sorry to let them down.

“I just really appreciate the crowd, the attendance. Just apologize to everybody that came to the game,” Chris Beard said. “I know you come to the game wanting to win, and we were so close to getting that done for everybody tonight, but it doesn’t take away the fact that we want to say thank you. We really appreciate the crowd. It was a special night of college basketball attendance and environment wise.”

More than 10,000 people packed into the Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss, where Chris Beard led his No. 16 ranked Rebels against the No. 13 ranked Aggies.

It was competitive throughout, though the Rebels maintained a lead almost from start to finish. The end, though, did not go Ole Miss’ way.

“Trust me, nobody feels worse than we do,” Chris Beard said. “We feel like we let a lot of people down tonight. It’s a long season and we’ll get back to work. Give A&M credit for doing what they had to do in the last couple minutes to give themselves a chance to win the game.”

Chris Beard questions foul disparity

There was one element of the loss for the Rebels that did not sit well with coach Chris Beard.

His team shot only four free throws in the entire contest.

“I’m not going to comment on that tonight,” Beard said when asked about the discrepancy. “I would just say that it’s two physical teams playing. It was really hard to understand and comprehend from where I was sitting that we played 16, 17 minutes of SEC basketball and there’s only one foul on the opponent.”

Chris Beard went on to praise the quality of SEC referees, though he did subsequently call the foul disparity “puzzling.”

“These are the best officials in college basketball, period,” Beard said. “So it’s never about that. But it was a puzzling stat. Opponent can come in here and play physical and tough, that’s their identity, that’s who they are. Their coach will tell you that more than I can. So no fouls off the ball, 17 minutes in an SEC game. That was puzzling, to say the least.”