Matthew Murrell, Ole Miss Basketball Players Get Emotional Discussing 2024-25 Year

The No. 6 seed Ole Miss men's basketball team (24-12, 10-8 SEC) dropped a hard-fought matchup against No. 2 seed Michigan State (30-6, 17-3 BIG 10) 73-70, Friday night at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ole Miss seniors Jaemyn Brakefield and Matthew Murrell addressed the media to discuss the 2024-25 season and what's next for the program in Oxford.

Brakefield and Murrell's Thoughts: Ole Miss Basketball Evolving

Q. Jaemyn and Matt for you guys to stick it out and remain with this program for so many years, just to see it bear this kind of fruit, how does it feel, and what do you think it does for future years at Ole Miss, especially for Coach Beard?

JAEMYN BRAKEFIELD: It means a lot, obviously just sticking around and seeing the growth. Even off the court, in the community, just engagement in general.

Oxford is a beautiful place, and I'm glad that we were able to execute.

MATTHEW MURRELL: Just being able to be a part of the change, it's definitely been something special. Ole Miss wasn't really on the national map a couple years back, and we felt like we've been able to grow it throughout the years. Like Coach Beard said, Ole Miss will be here to stay.

Q. Matthew, take me through what you feel like was the difference in the game towards the end, and what did you see?

MATTHEW MURRELL: It just came down to which team made the fewest mistakes. It came down to just execution. They got the upper hand at the end.

Q. Matthew, I'll come back to you. What do you take away from this season? I know it wasn't the ending you wanted, but I heard your teammate talk about how special this season was. How was it for you and getting to this point?

MATTHEW MURRELL: It was definitely a special season, a season I won't forget, not just for the run that we made, but just the camaraderie, the teammates that I had. It was a very tough season for me. Obviously Coach talked about it. I've been injured most of the season.

Just this team helped my confidence so much fighting through everything. So this group of guys will hold a special place in my heart.

Q. This one's just for Coach Beard. I'm just curious how much tougher is it to kind of win these games down the stretch when you've got a program that's kind of pioneering into the Sweet 16, first time maybe you all had been there?

CHRIS BEARD: Zero factor, and I'll repeat what I said. The thing I'm most thankful for, really why my emotions are different right now than at the end of any season, I'm just thankful. What these guys did -- what these guys did is they raised expectations, first for themselves and then the program.

When we were at the Selection Sunday show in March and the name came across, it wasn't about like we've made it, it was about let's get to work. Six games in three weekends. For that, I'll forever be thankful. I know they're going to do that for the rest of their lives. Whatever they want, they're going to go get.

I've been blessed to coach a lot of great teams, but these guys were different. Literally we walked around expecting to win the SEC, expecting to win every game, and expecting to make it to San Antonio, and it was beautiful to be around.

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