Chris Beard's Take: Ole Miss Basketball Set To Face Elite Alabama Crimson Tide Squad

Chris Beard and the Ole Miss Rebels have quickly become the storyline of the SEC Tournament with the No. 15 seeded squad earning back-to-back wins over Texas and Georgia to open postseason play.

After an impressive win over the Texas Longhorns on Wednesday night in Round 1, the Rebels carried their momentum into Thursday's clash against the Bulldogs behind a strong night from Malik Dia in Nashville.

Now, Beard and Co. have found themselves in the SEC Tournament Quarterfinals Round with a matchup against the Alabama Crimson Tide up next on the docket.

What were Beard's thoughts following Thursday's win over Georgia and what's next?

Chris Beard's Take: Rebels Clicking at Right Time?

Q. Today your largest lead was 23 with 13 minutes to play. We saw the crumble, saw the falloff. What do you think prepared yourself and the team the most to finish strong?

CHRIS BEARD: That's a good question.

Definitely had some self-inflicted things during that -- crumble is your word. I wouldn't disagree with that. Give credit to the opponent. Georgia got super aggressive. The press heated us up a little bit.

I think in terms of our guys just having the poise, I mean, we're just in the mode now where we're trying to extend our season.

Fortunately or unfortunately, whichever way you look at it, we've been in some situations similar to this this season. We've been in almost every game. Just haven't come through like we did tonight more times than not.

I think we relied back on some of our past experience. I think our coaching staff did a good job tonight during the storm, just kind of weathering it. We had some contributions from different players. Klafke came in, made some plays. Kezza finished the game. It was really a team effort that pulled it through for us.

Q. I saw when Travis was answering a question earlier, he talked about being nastier on the court. You nodded your head. What has that process been like?

CHRIS BEARD: Travis Perry is a sophomore in college basketball. Played a role last year at his previous school. The idea for him at Ole Miss was to play a bigger role.

Travis is not a soft player. He's a physical guy. He's a competitor. But in the game of basketball, there's going to be plays and possessions where you have to play with that kind of strength.

We've been encouraging Travis from one day to initiate the contact, don't run from it. I think tonight's stat with him getting six rebounds speaks for itself. Obviously he took a big-time pop there on the flagrant.

No, Travis has got some nasty in him. It's just kind of a deal where we're trying to pull it out of him slowly but surely.

Q. Your team attempted a lot fewer threes than the first half. Did Cyril's ejection have any influence in your dynamic going into the second half because they have fewer bodies, less bigs on the front court?

CHRIS BEARD: I think that would be more so a question from them. It appeared to me they were guarding the three-point line really well early. It is a strength of our team. We were having a hard time getting open looks. Got Travis loose a few times on sets.

In the second half, it loosened up a little bit. Whenever you're playing against that kind of desperation defense, they had fouls to give. They were very aggressive. They were putting two on the ball. I think we had some timely three-point shots with the spacing.

When both teams got just tired during that two-minute stretch, I didn't want to call a timeout because I knew we might need them later on with the press that Georgia is so good at.

That was some ugly basketball there for a while with all the fatigue. I think during that stretch, we were able to get some threes, as well.

Q. When you come into a tournament like this needing to win five games in five days, do you feel there's maybe a chip on your shoulder going in? How do you feel your confidence grows when you win? There's a much more realistic pathway to a championship on Sunday.

CHRIS BEARD: Our big thing is we've tried to tap into our NCAA tournament experience. We're not viewing this any different. This is our survival and advance moment.

Like I said yesterday, and again earlier, everybody finds themselves in this position. It will start for 68 teams, starting on, what, Tuesday or Wednesday with the play-in games. That's the mode we're in now.

Not a lot of conversation about winning this tournament to get a bid. We're just trying to win the next game on the schedule. But we understand that we're in survive and advance mode.

We started watching the Jimmy V Survive and Advance 30 for 30 last week. We watch about eight-minute segments throughout the day with our team, trying to get them to tap into this moment.

This is really where you don't want to have any regrets. It would be nice to play your best basketball, but that's not always possible. What we want to do is mentally just make sure we don't have any regrets mentally to understand this is where we are, we're trying to extend our season. No different than when we play in the NCAA tournament. Really we're following that game plan this week.

Our NCAA tournament just came a week early.

Q. I remember you telling us last year how you knew very early on that that team was going to be very good, probably in the pre-season. Is there anything about this team that shows you they can probably make a run here?

CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I think so, for sure. It's obviously been a challenging season with a lot of adversity. I'm not really thinking about that now. But I never shy away from the idea of my biggest belief, the thing that I'll always remember about this team, is that these guys have not quit. A lot of people that haven't seen our play this year in person that are here in Nashville see that. Beginning yesterday against Texas, a really good team, today Georgia, an NCAA tournament team.

You see it. It's not always pretty. We're not perfect. But our guys don't quit. You saw it in all different varieties today. The start, the defense, the lead, things are kind of falling apart on us. Zero quit. I will always respect that about this group of 15 players. It's been an up-and-down journey. But these guys continue to play for Ole Miss.

I know I'm proud of 'em. I know our fan base is proud of 'em. That's what I'll always remember about this team.

We'll have to have that same ingredient tomorrow. We'll have to have some belief, some championship DNA tomorrow. I'm confident we'll show up to play.

Q. Do you keep the process for preparing for tomorrow the same as yesterday? What are your keys especially with how Georgia plays?

CHRIS BEARD: We're going to switch it up a little bit. We normally go back to the hotel to have that good meal. Tonight we're going to go to Halls steakhouse. James used to live in Charleston. The Halls brothers are friends of mine. One of the best restaurants in the country. We told the guys if we got it done tonight, we'd go to Halls, all the way down to where Kezza was hitting the last free throw we really needed.

From a coaching standpoint, do you talk to the guy, not talk to the guy, call a timeout, tell him to get off the line, do you trust the feel. To me it's always a game-time decision.

But on that one I did pull Kezz off the line. I said Kezz, look, a big shot here. I really want that shrimp cocktail here in about 45 minutes. Shout-out to Halls, helping us get the victory tonight. And shout-out to Kezz, stepping up and making the biggest free throw of the season.

Q. When things kind of shifted there in the second half, you could feel it in the building, a lot of people were looking for maybe a timeout or something. You let them play. What is it about this team that gave you the confidence in that moment to let things unfold?

CHRIS BEARD: Yeah, I think, first of all, from a coaching standpoint, I think it's my responsibility to have timeouts late in the game, especially when you're playing a team like Georgia who has one of the best defensive presses in college basketball. So that plays into it.

It's also just kind of a belief, are we making individual mistakes or are we having a meltdown. And I think (loss of audio) . I didn't think he needed me to call a timeout. I thought for the most part, even though it might not have looked like it, we had the ball in the right players' hands. Spacing was an issue.

Those are the decisions we have to make as coaches. They're really hard to live with when you don't make the right one. Tonight my focus was that I needed timeouts in the last four minutes of the game because I understand what Georgia can do defensively.

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