Everything Chris Beard said with Ole Miss now focused on the NCAA Tournament

Ole Miss basketball gave top-ranked Auburn all it could handle Friday in the SEC Tournament.

It still wasn’t enough. 

The Rebels (22-11, 10-8 SEC) moved to 0-3 against the Tigers (28-4, 15-3) this season with a 62-57 loss. Ole Miss now turns to the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday. The Rebels were a projected 5-seed playing in the Midwest Region in the latest bracketology from ESPN. 

Here’s everything second-year Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said following the Auburn loss.

OPENING STATEMENT

Beard: Good, hard-fought game. Congratulate Auburn on a victory. Defensive game. Easy baskets were hard to find throughout the game. If we hold Auburn to 62 points, we should have a chance to win the game, and we did. Thought we played some good defense today.

They’re the SEC champs. Projected 1 seed. You guys just saw it. What does that make Ole Miss? We can play with these teams. Disappointed locker room right now because we expected to win this game.

I didn’t think we got beat, though. Like I told the guys, sometimes you win, sometimes you run out of time. I really felt like a little bit more time on the clock. We liked where we were. Congratulate Auburn. 

A defensive, tough game. Lastly, basketball is about making shots. Today was a game we needed to make nine or 10 threes. Mathematically, how the game was set up. For us to shoot 17% from three-point line. Most of those were good looks.

Couple shots, one more rebound, we win the game. Congratulations to Auburn. We wish them the best of luck here in Nashville and in the NCAA tournament.

ON AUBURN STAR JOHNI BROOME

Beard: He was the difference in the game. In a one-possession game he goes 23-15. I think he’s worthy of all the attention and awards he’s winning. You saw it today all the way down to the last play.

Shot clock differential was just enough. We got a coach’s decision do we try to get one stop, we’re going to have about 10 seconds with the basketball, coming down with a broken floor, or do we extend the game by fouling. 

Defense got better in the last seven or eight minutes of the game. We made the decision, players believed in it. What does Auburn do? Veteran team, well-coached, they get the ball to the right player in the right spot, and he made a tough shot. Not a tough shot, but he made a contested shot.

The question was about Broome. 23-15 on the biggest stage before the tournament. Last play his team has to make a play, and he’s the one that does it.

ON THE DIFFERENCE IN THE THIRD MATCHUP WITH AUBURN

Beard: The first two games, Ole Miss-Auburn, were a bit surprising. We scored the ball at a rate well enough for win the game, didn’t defend enough.

Oxford we played really well. Auburn, I thought it was their A-plus game. Coach Pearl even mentioned that after the game. Today’s game was defensive, tough.

Again, it’s not slighting Auburn at all. When we go 4-21 from the three-point line, and most of those were good shots, a couple late shot clock kind of forced. I would say 17 of the 21 were probably shots that you have to take and you have to make to beat Auburn.

If we make our normal 35%, 36% threes as a team, we score enough points to win.

RELATED: Madness of March extends to Ole Miss baseball opening SEC play this weekend

ON WHEN HE REALIZED OLE MISS WAS GOOD

Beard: That’s a good question. Of course, in recruiting when you put the team together, you have high expectations ’cause you see them playing in front of you. But when it gets real, it’s probably when competition starts. We had a really good summer. We set up our summer a little bit different than the past with new teams, portal, new players. You can’t just spend your whole summer working drills, shell drill. You have to get out there and play a little bit.

We had multiple inner-squad scrimmages with officials. About halfway through the summer, we started visualizing how this could be a good team. Certainly your non-conference, early win against Colorado State, who I think is an NCAA tournament team, our MTE put us against BYU, a really good team in the Big 12. We lost in overtime to a Purdue team that’s still alive today, I believe, in the Big Ten tournament.

I think the combination of putting together a good team with recruiting and roster management, watching those guys begin the gelling process in the summer, and then some success in the non-conference, I’m not going to say it raised our expectations, but it validated — what is that word? — verified what we thought the team could be.

ON HIS MESSAGE TO THE TEAM HEADING INTO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

Beard: Yeah, so the message immediately after the game today, again a hurt locker room because we expected to win this game, was that I didn’t think we got beat today. I think we ran out of time. We could have put two more minutes up there and play a little bit more.

I thought the effort was good today. But when you play a team like this, you have to play well in almost every area. We took care of the ball, especially in the second half. We played good enough defense for the most part. Got to do a little bit better job on the backboards. We got to make some shots. 4-21.

The message for the team moving forward is we’ve always had kind of the same model in March. Two things, really simple. We tell the players we want to be us. Why? Because us is pretty good. We’re one of the best teams in the country. We’re going to get a nice seed, at-large bid in the tournament. Let’s not show up to the NCAA tournament and be somebody we’re not. Let’s be the best version of us.

“Secondly, we want to have some fun along the way.”

Yeah, it’s a business trip, no doubt about it. Man, you work your whole life in coaching and playing to play in the NCAA tournament, so let’s don’t forget that. Let’s enjoy every practice, shoot-around, bus trip, the camaraderie, the hotels, the meals. You know this, man, the meals in the NCAA tournament are really, really good. Nobody even skips the salad portion of the meals because the salad looks like you’re at one of those Brazilian steakhouses.

We’re going to get some gear and enjoy ourselves. We’re going to smell the roses, as we call it. That’s always been our plan in March. Sounds simple, but to me that’s the way to do it. Be the best version of yourself, be us, smell the roses along the way, play with fun, enjoy.

Our timeouts, we got guys smiling with joy. We got a chance, let’s go try to win this game. That’s always been our message in March and will be this week, as well.