December is ‘about trying to improve’ for Chris Beard and Ole Miss basketball
Ole Miss basketball had the look of a postseason contender last week in San Diego.
The Rebels (6-1) split against BYU and Purdue in the Rady Children’s Invitational. Their two-point loss to the No. 12-ranked Boilermakers in the championship game came on a last-second put-back.
The win over BYU was a boon for the Rebels’ NET ranking. The Cougars were NET No. 12. Purdue was NET No. 3. The Boilermakers snapped Ole Miss’ nation-leading 19-game non-conference winning streak.
“Obviously the first opportunity to play against kind of Power 5 opponents,” Ole Miss second-year head coach Chris Beard said in his press conference on Monday. “It’s early-season (and) we’ll see how it plays out, but I do think BYU and Purdue both have chances to have really good seasons. Just the reality of playing against great competition gave us an opportunity to improve. Exposed some things, for sure.
“Short turnaround on this Louisville game, but I think we can get through this three-game stand right here — the two in San Diego and Louisville — and then we have a chance to practice and get back to us things that were exposed.”
WATCH: Juju Murray stuffed his Thanksgiving stat sheet in Ole Miss win over BYU
No. 23 Ole Miss travels to Louisville (5-2) Tuesday at 8 p.m. CT as part of the SEC/ACC Challenge.
The game will be broadcast by the ACC Network.
The Cardinals are 3-1 at home this season. They rank eighth in the ACC in points in the paint (35.4 per game), led by James Scott, who’s averaging 6.3. They’re shooting 44.7 percent from the field as a team.
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“We’re still a work in progress,” Beard said. “I don’t think we’re any different than any other team. You don’t want to be your best version in November. Try to hold serve as much as you can. December is a big month because it’s got to be improvement heading into conference play. December’s always been about trying to improve.
“Our players’ hearts are in the right place. The guys want to do well. They want to win and they’re putting in the time.”
The split in San Diego crystalized some areas of improvement for Beard and Co.
“Didn’t get off to a great start in either game,” Beard said. “Really looking at everything that goes into that — the players on the floor, the offense and defense schemes and two winning-time situations. We closed the game out against BYU. We obviously didn’t closed the game out against Purdue.
“Try to be a better rebounding team. On offense, continuing to try to find that balance between trying to get to the free throw line, but also understanding one of our identities is our three-point shooting.”
