Win Case declines commenting on Chris Beard to Ole Miss rumors

Ole Miss interim coach Win Case isn’t letting the rumors of Chris Beard to Oxford cloud his mind.

After Case’s squad defeated South Carolina by a score of 67-61 at the SEC Tournament, Case was asked to speak his mind regarding the rumors that the former Texas leader is coming to Ole Miss. However, the Ole Miss coach’s focus is solely on the court, deflecting and redirecting the question.

“I just want to defer all questions about the coaching search to Keith [Carter], our Athletic Director, and our administration,” responded Case. “I want to leave it at that.”

The floodgates were opened on Wednesday, when Pete Thamel of ESPN reported Beard and the Rebels have spoken about the job.

Beard, who is viewed one of the top coaches in college basketball, would be considered a tremendous hire for Ole Miss. He has experience winning in the NCAA Tournament, dating back to his days at Texas Tech. A Final Four and national championship appearance is on the resume — something the Rebels have never accomplished.

Nevertheless, Win Case is only focused on the SEC Tournament at the moment, not Chris Beard. That’s the right focus to have, even if it may not be where Ole Miss fans are looking at the moment.

Ole Miss playing with a chip on its shoulder in SEC Tournament

Meanwhile, Ole Miss forward Jaemyn Brakefield and guard Amaree Abram sat on the SEC Network set after defeating South Carolina, 67-61, in agreement on one key aspect heading into the second round of the SEC Tournament. The Rebels have a chip on their shoulder, and they are going to use it.

“Just wanted to come here and play with a chip on our shoulder,” Abram said. “We just got something to prove. We taking it one game at a time.”

Brakefield agreed.

“I feel like we got momentum.” Brakefield later added. “Just coming in here, I knew nobody wanted to play us first round. We got a chip on our shoulder and we’re going to one game at a time. Now we’re gonna transition our focus on Tennessee. We’re gonna learn from in January when we played them and we’re gonna piggyback off that.”

Abram scored a team-high 20 points off the bench while Brakefield had 16 points and seven rebounds.

The Rebels defense held the Gamecocks to only 41.7% shooting from the field and 28.6% from beyond the arc.

“We knew the matchups that we wanted to have,” Brakefield said. “We got great defenders. We know they had great offensive players. We just wanted to keep our matchups the same and really just try to dial in on that. We knew they’re a great team. GG Jackson, he finished with 24. He’s a great kid so we tried to contain him as much as we could but he’s a great player.”

Ole Miss has to get back on the grind quickly with its next SEC Tournament game coming Thursday against Tennessee. Brakefield said the team is going to stay focused over the next 20 hours or so before opening tip.

“We’re right to the next one,” Brakefield said. “Not gotta do too much celebrating. We’re gonna know that we got stuff to work on.”

But that doesn’t the Rebels aren’t going to enjoy their victory.

Interim head coach Win Case told the SEC Network in his post-victory live hit that he expects to walking into a good atmosphere in the locker room.

“It was great,” Case said. “The thing I love about our guys, we always talk about happy locker rooms. This is gonna be a happy locker room.”

On3’s Peter Warren contributed to this article.