Chris Beard shares his message to Ole Miss after South Carolina loss

Ole Miss dropped their second straight and fifth of the last six in a 13-point loss to South Carolina on Saturday. It’s just the latest lesson for the Rebels in a sport that Chris Beard says is full of teachings.

Beard shared the message that he gave to his team in his postgame press conference after losing a 72-59 result to the Gamecocks this weekend. He said that he hoped that his Rebels learn from this loss and this latest stretch in order to become better players and, in turn, better people moving forward.

“I just told the guys. This whole thing of team sports? It’s one of the best educations you can ever get,” said Beard. “No disrespect to math class or history class. When you play a team sport, you just learn every life lesson that you’re going to need to be a man, a great father, a great husband.”

After the first minutes, the ranked Gamecocks led for the duration in Oxford. That lead extended to as much as 17 in the second half. They did so by having four players finish in double figures, including B.J. Mack with a game-high of 17, while shooting 47.1% from three as a team.

As for Ole Miss, they had four starters score 10 or more points but shot just 33.3% from the field overall, including only 18.8% from distance. They also managed to lose the glass by 10 boards with South Carolina grabbing seven more on defense and three on offense.

With the loss, the Rebels are 19-8 overall and 6-8 in the SEC. February has not been kind to Ole Miss as they’ve lost all but one of their games this month to Auburn, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and now the Gamecocks twice. That skid has now hurt their postseason possibilities with them firmly on the bubble with four games to go.

Beard and company have work to do if their season is to extend past the SEC Tournament in Nashville. He is ready to fight for it, though, based on the response that he expects from his team in the coming days.

“This is adversity. When it hits you? It hits you hard,” said Beard. “You’ve just got to deal with it.”

“I’m excited to get back to the practice floor tomorrow with our guys to see how we respond.”

Flanigan ejected in second half vs. South Carolina for elbow

Allen Flanigan was ejected on Saturday versus South Carolina after he threw an elbow to the face of Zachary Davis.

The play happened in the second half and, after officials reviewed it, Flanigan was assessed a Flagrant II. That immediately ejected him from the game and he headed to the locker room with 16:53 in the second half.

Allen Flanigan what are you doing pic.twitter.com/s4BtvsCSw5

— We Run the Sip (@OMRebelNation) February 24, 2024

It’s likely that Flanigan will hear something from conference officials about that one.

Before he left, Flanigan had 11 points, three rebounds, and two steals for Ole Miss.