Chris Beard on mindset entering March games: ‘It’s all must win’

After going on a three-game losing streak, Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard went into Saturday’s game against Oklahoma knowing his team needed a win. That’s exactly what his team got too, winning a tight battle.

After the game, Beard pushed back on the idea that Ole Miss was pressing after losing three games in a row. Instead, he emphasized that his team needs the correct mentality. That’s because, come March, every game is vital.

“I don’t see it like that [winning being a relief]. It’s not coach speak,” Chris Beard said. “The TV reporter today after pregame… and he had mentioned we had dropped three in a row. I didn’t realize that. This is the SEC. It’s an 18-round fight. You better have a short memory. We all kind of recognize when we’re on a winning streak because other people’s perceptions change. We enjoy it. I don’t think of it as losing. You win the game or you run out of time. Either way, you get back to work quickly.”

Coming in off a three-game losing streak, Ole Miss found itself in a position where a loss would drop the team to .500 in SEC play this season. Ole Miss earned the win, though, to move to 9-7 and start building momentum once again for the postseason. They did that, largely, on the back of shooting 45.5 percent from three-point range.

“With that being said, Captain Obvious, we need to protect our home court today. We understand the opportunities that we have coming after this game,” Beard said. “Must-win? Absolutely, but it’s March. What win in March isn’t a must-win? I guess some teams go to their conference tournament and maybe don’t value that, but that’s not us. We’ve always thought you want to go into the NCAA Tournament winning games. So, this is March. The whole idea of must-win, it’s real. But we talked about this way back from the summer when we put this team together.”

Moving forward, the schedule won’t get any easier for Ole Miss. On Wednesday, the final home game of the season for Ole Miss is against Tennessee. After that, the regular season wraps up with a road trip to play Florida. So, the schedule remains a massive challenge for Beard.

“My message today to the players is, and you can see it in their body language and their expressions. We feel the same thing the fans feel and everybody feels. I said, ‘Guys, don’t let the stress get to you. Just focus on the defensive end. Focus on the next-play mentality, not the next shot or what the scoreboard is even saying. We’ve got to get some stops and we’ve got to continue to really value our offensive possessions, too.’ But that’s what March is. Trust me, when you get to that tournament, it’s all must-win. You’re dying to go back to that hotel to have one more day with your teammates. You’re one game from the Sweet 16,” Beard said.

“Today we did tap into that. I appreciate our veteran players that have never experienced these March moments really trusting the coaching staff and executing for the most part mentally what we were trying to do.”

The SEC Tournament is set to begin on March 12th. If it began with the current conference standings, Ole Miss would have been the seven-seed. However, with two very challenging games to end the regular season, Ole Miss could slip in the standings with a pair of losses.

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