Ole Miss coach Chris Beard clearly wasn’t happy with some of the calls his players weren’t getting. He made his “displeasure” known in the moment and was promptly ejected from the game.
After the final buzzer sounded on the Rebels’ 84-66 loss to No. 25 Tennessee, Beard explained the reason for why he was upset enough to be tossed from a game.
Here’s what he said in the post-game press conference:
On why he was ejected…
I’ll give you a couple things. You have a Hall of Fame coach here, first ballot, one of the best that’s ever done it. I think if you look back at different spots in his career, he had to fight for his program and so I kind of think that’s where we are with Ole Miss, right?
The free-throw differential in this game and the foul differential in this game. Just frustrating from a coaching standpoint and a playing standpoint. So it’s never personal. These are the best officials in college basketball. I can say things like that because I’ve been at all different levels. I know what average officials look like. I know what poor officials look like. These are the best. But on tonight’s game, you know, the free-throw differential, the fouls called free-throw differential. At some point as a coach, you have to fight for your players, and that’s exactly what happened tonight.
On physicality of the game…
I think the first half was a game that we’ve had many times with Coach (Rick) Barnes. It was physical. Baskets were hard to get. Both teams were playing good defense. Fom our point of view, we just felt like we left some offense on the table in the first half. Really probably should have had the lead at halftime. But I thought our effort for the most part in the first 20 minutes of the game was one of our better halves this season.
On Tennessee’s Nate Ament…
He’s obviously a future NBA player. I think he’s gotten better from November to December, January to February. That’s not always easy to do when you’re playing with the physicality in this league and the competition, and now he’s forcing game plans as well. But he’s definitely improving, which I think is a credit to their coaching staff and the guys that play with him. Dynamic player. He basically has an unblockable shot that coach Barnes has taught many guys. Kevin Durant, LaMarcus Aldridge, he’s taught a lot of guys that shot over the years, so that’s a problem. But I think the young guy plays with a lot of demeanor and poise. He’s an all-conference player in our league. I’m not talking about the all-freshman team. He’s one of the best players in our league. Tonight, Tennessee’s best two players produced in a big way. We didn’t get those contributions from guys that we have to have those type of games from. So all credit goes to Tennessee tonight. I thought they played a good game, especially in the second half.
Final thoughts on officiating…
I think all we ask for is a consistent whistle. You’re going to call post-defense foul on that end, call post-defense foul on the other end. It wasn’t the difference in the overall final score of the game, but at some point, you got to fight for your players, and that was the objective tonight in that moment. But again, the story is Tennessee played really well tonight, well-coached, best two players showed up in a big-time way on a night where I guess you guys were a little bit under-manned tonight, a couple key players didn’t get to play.
