Everything Chris Beard said after No. 21 Ole Miss basketball’s first SEC loss

No. 21 Ole Miss basketball on Saturday rallied at No. 15 Mississippi State. 

The Rebels were down eight at halftime and even had a game-tying 3-point attempt in overtime. However, the in-state rival Bulldogs ultimately dealt Ole Miss its first SEC loss of the season, 84-81.

The Rebels (15-3, 4-1 SEC) were coming off their first Top 5 road win in program history at No. 4 Alabama. The Crimson Tide on Saturday bounced back with a win at No. 8 Kentucky — the first for Alabama over a Top 10 Wildcats team since 2002.

Here’s everything second-year Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said in his postgame press conference. 

OPENING STATEMENT

Beard: It was a good college basketball game. Congratulate (State head coach Chris) Jans on those guys protecting home court. The start of the game for us was just unacceptable. You can’t dig a hole like that the first eight minutes of the game, the first two four-minute periods in the 40-minute game. 

But give them credit. I think they fed off the crowd. They were the more physical, aggressive team the first eight minutes of the game, so now we’re playing from behind. Give them credit. We understood what we were walking into today. Just didn’t get it done early, then really the difference in rebounds and free throws. They make more free throws than we shoot. 

“I have no major complaints on the officiating. Hard game to official.”

They were the more aggressive team. They did a good job drawing those fouls, but the free-throw differential was big to overcome. You’ve got to do something special in the game. 

And then finally the rebounding. Had one offensive rebound at halftime. We’re out-rebounded 15 or 20 at half. There’s some positives. We fought back to get this game into overtime. Speaks a lot of our team and what we could be. 

When you get down to late in the game, winning time, it’s going to be the team that makes the least mistakes. We missed a couple block-outs and our shot selection wasn’t where it needed to be late. 

Give Mississippi State the credit; they were the more aggressive team and played great today at home. Was a good college basketball game. 

RELATED: Lack of ‘competitiveness,’ and ‘aggression’ at the start hands No. 21 Ole Miss its first SEC loss

ON THE MISSISSIPPI STATE BIGS

Beard: Two physical guys (Cameron Matthews and KeShawn Murphy). Really put their bodies on the line. Jans does a good job of getting them to their spots. Obviously as the game went on they were posting us with our size mismatch. But you’re looking at time and score there, so you make a commitment to really try and stop the 3. 

We just made some critical mistakes. What we all should’ve saw is a couple of post moves in those moments, but they were still getting to their game plan of inside-out 3s, even after we tried to adjust. They were disciplined today. I wasn’t in their hotel, but pretty obvious to me they were doing what they were trying to get done. We just had too many critical mistakes in big moments.

ON WHAT HE LEARNED ABOUT OLE MISS IN THE LOSS

Beard: It’s just a reminder for our team this is round five in the SEC. This wasn’t the first time we’ve had some adversity this year. Played against a really good team. 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. You’re not going to make every shot in the game. You’re not going to get every game. But you’ve got to do, at some point, what you say you’re going to do.

On a couple of our post defensive mistakes we just didn’t do what we set up to do. It’s been a strength of our team with our veteran players to be able to help the guys, adjustments. Tonight we just made some mistakes we just couldn’t overcome.

ON MATTHEW MURRELL

Beard: I thought Matt played with a lot of courage today. This game’s important to him. Matt’s been here in Mississippi for five years now. He understands this game as much as anybody. I thought he played the game with a lot of courage today. 

Big play in the game was the breakaway layup. The Matt Murrell I know goes and dunks that ball. Did that decision have something to do with his health? I don’t know; I don’t want to speak for Matt. But that was a big play in the game. 

But Matt played really hard today. He played with some courage. He’s overcome a little bit of adversity, as are most players in college basketball right now. It’s January; there’s not a lot of guys out there feeling 100 percent healthy right now.

ON MALIK DIA HAVING 19 REBOUNDS AT ALABAMA, TWO AT STATE

Beard: The first 8-10 minutes of the game were really disappointing to me. Just our competitiveness — not just Dia; it’s a team sport. Many of his teammates. I just leave it at that.

We need Dia to play well. Should have played more today. Maybe those are decisions coaches have to make. What we were doing was actually, obviously working. We got back in the game (and) had a chance to win the game. Went to overtime.

But certainly Dia is one of our best players. He needs to be on the court. 

ON THE CROWD

Beard: It was a great college basketball crowd. Everybody in the SEC has a home-court advantage. We’ve got some older, veteran guys with a lot of pride. That was what I was kind of asking at halftime. You say somebody’s not ready to play, you say somebody looks soft out there (and) you’re lacking the physical, guys don’t want to hear that, because we don’t have soft players. The toughest of competitors can still have some bad possessions. I didn’t think we came out with the physicality necessary to take their first punch. 

MORE ON DIA

Beard: I don’t like to comment on that kind of stuff until we watch the film. Dia is a talented guy. We needed a paint presence and some rebounds today. We didn’t need another guy out there shooting jump shots or fade-aways. But this isn’t on Dia. This is a team sport. He’s one of our best players. We’ll study this film and get better and hopefully he can respond as I can respond and all of us need to respond.