Chris Beard's Take: Ole Miss Rebels Remain Alive With Arkansas Razorbacks Up Next

Chris Beard and the Ole Miss Rebels are heading to the SEC Tournament Semifinal Round after taking down the Alabama Crimson Tide 80-79 on Friday night at Bridgestone Arena.

Behind a strong effort from the Rebels in Nashville, Beard and Co. remain alive with the program now eyeing a date against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday night.

Ole Miss sits in "surivive and advanve" mode with John Calpari and Co. looking to spoil the Ole Miss Rebels' chances. What did Beard have to say?

Chris Beard's Take: Ole Miss Eyeing Title Appearance

Q. Alabama played with a lot of space, a lot of intensity. They amplified that in the second half. How do you think your team did playing with that kind of tempo, specifically in the back court?

CHRIS BEARD: The best we could. They're a lot to handle when they start coming downhill with reckless abandon.

Everybody thinks about the three-point shot. It's obviously one of the parts of their identity. But I would argue from my standpoint, and I'm not in their locker room every day, I think their ability to get downhill, get to the free-throw line, the paint. That was really the coaching decision on the last possession. You stay committed to guarding the three-point line, they're just too explosive.

We rolled the dice there a little bit and protected the rim late. But they're really, really hard to defend.

Q. You mentioned in previous press conferences shifting your strategy to rest and recovery. Do you feel the momentum from the two games you've already played have helped you carry along momentum and beat Alabama who approaches the game rested?

CHRIS BEARD: Back-to-back days with that one? It's nice. Front tuck, shirttail completely tucked? Like it. I didn't know what a front tuck was till this summer (laughter).

Here's the deal. I'll tell you what we told our team. The first thing, we set the tone early this morning. Saw a couple guys kind of yawning as they came into breakfast. That's not going to work.

Just reminded the guys that this whole narrative they might be reading, they might not, we urge our guys to get off their phones this time of year. We all know they're probably on 'em.

Is Ole Miss going to be tired after playing 80 minutes? I don't believe in that. These players, they're not 29, 30, 31 years old. They grew up playing in the summer, sometimes three games a day on the AAU circuit. All of them in their respective basketball journeys played pickup basketball seven days a week for hours and hours and hours. I know that was true for me, Conflans Park and Northwest Rec in Irving, Texas.

There's no excuses here. You might see that narrative. But depth is one thing that we have on our team. We were prepared to play as many players as we needed to tonight. That was the thing, we set the tone this morning. Same routine that we've had the last two or three days here in Nashville. We're not going to buy into this deal where it's three games in three days.

Yeah, who cares, it's basketball.

Q. One thing to say survive and advance, tune everything out. The way your team has played, to not trail, what is working specifically to have that mentality?

CHRIS BEARD: I think finally we're seeing the vision of our team. We're playing really well right now. Out-rebounding the opponent, taking care of the ball, balanced scoring, timely execution, late shot clock. We're just doing a lot of good things.

I know many of you haven't followed our season other than the win/loss record. I know that's not easy to look at. But we played some good basketball. We can play with anybody in this league. We played Alabama in Oxford, Mississippi several weeks ago. Basically tied game at halftime. One-possession game about 10 minutes left. They hit us with a haymaker. The final score wasn't reflective of what the game really was.

I wish I had a more elaborate answer. We're playing good basketball. We got a lot of belief. The guys are continuing to prepare. We had guys this morning, this afternoon, watching their clips from yesterday's game, getting prepared for tonight's game.

Just really happy for our players. They deserve all the credit. They've refused to quit. We're executing game plans. We're playing good basketball. I think we'll be a factor in the rest of this tournament.

Q. Two nights in a row you had to withstand a furious late rally to win. Had a lot of poise tonight, maybe more so than you had early in the year. Sometimes we can't hear it, it looks like your team is communicating better on the floor. Is that fair?

CHRIS BEARD: More than fair. I agree. One of our challenges this year has been communication. Player-led teams is the only way to win in March. In November and December and January, you're working towards that. We just didn't get it done. It's not all on the players.

For some of this season, it has not been one of our best coaching jobs. Here we are standing at the end. Our communication is better. I thought tonight we used the timeouts well again. It's kind of scary not having one late, but I really wanted to try to get a good look at that out-of-bounds play. That was a coaching decision.

Travis Perry did a good job tonight on the inbounder on our press breaker, two hands on the basketball, confident. Nobody was hiding tonight. We made just enough free throws to win the game.

Q. What did it mean to you as a coach to see the way Ilias played tonight, turnaround shots?

CHRIS BEARD: He's a good player. When you talk about really good players, they have so many things in their bag. I mean, it's that balance of time and score and who's guarding you, what does the team need now.

Ilias has about three shots he can get off at any time. I thought tonight four assists, only one turnover, obviously scored the ball tonight. For Ilias, it's about controlling the game. Ole Miss can win if he has eight points and 10 assists. Sometimes Ole Miss needs 17 points from Ilias.

Tonight I saw a lot of courage. One specific thing I will not forget. Alabama has a drastic game plan where they put their big on Ilias. He got a big wide-open three and missed it. The next time down, he had the courage to take it again.

Basketball, percentages are going to always even out. That's something I will never forget about tonight's game, a lesser player may have turned down that second open look. They are basically begging him to shoot at that point. So a lot of respect for Ilias having the courage to take that shot.

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