Ole Miss Basketball Head Coach Chris Beard Shares Key Takeaways From Charity Game

Following Sunday's charity game, Coach Beard shared his thoughts and plan moving forward.

Mar 14, 2024; Nashville, TN, USA; Mississippi Rebels head coach Chris Beard watches against the Texas A&M Aggies during the second half at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images / Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

The Ole Miss Rebels got to play in front of their fans for the first time this year on Sunday as they came away with a 91-74 win over Illinois in their preseason charity matchup. Despite the major win, head coach Chris Beard noted some areas of improvement for the Rebels moving forward.

"Our fate will be on the defensive end," Beard said postgame.

The Rebels offense was lights-out, but Ole Miss still allowed 74 points despite forcing 22 turnovers and recording 12 steals. A problem so far has been rebounding and second-chance points. The Rebs allowed 15 offensive rebounds and 15 second chance points on Sunday.

"Giving up double digit offensive rebounds is just unacceptable," Beard said. "It's a problem."

However, Beard also made sure to shout out the offense and acknowledged the great day they had, especially in the assist totals.

"We'll have to have some unselfishness, and we obviously did today with 25 assists," Beard said. "Not a lot of basketball games like that, so that shows you where our guys were mentally and where their hearts are sharing the ball. I saw a lot of players turn down an average shot for the hopes of a better shot, so 25 assists is a big part of this game."

Beard was also pleased with his team's ability to take care of the ball and win the turnover battle on Sunday. Illinois reached the Elite Eight a season ago, and even with some new pieces on the roster, turning the ball over against the Illini would have been a recipe for disaster.

"We had a low turnover game," Beard said. "I eight or nine turnovers out there was all. Some of those are just mistakes that we can clean up, and then we forced a lot of turnovers, so I think there were several games within the game, and one of those was the turnover game."

The Rebels did indeed get better shots and converted, as they shot 49 percent from the field and 52 percent on 23 attempts from behind the arc. They also drew a decent amount of fouls and went 9-for-12 from the line.

Beard has also been an advocate for growing a homecourt advantage at the SJB Pavilion and made sure he took some time to speak to those fans in his postgame presser. Coming off a football game the day before, the students showed up en masse to support Beard's program in the early tip-off.

"We're very appreciative with the crowd today," Beard said. "We had a lot of students that probably had a pretty good night last night in Oxford but still came out, so we really appreciate it."

While the Rebs looked strong in their matchup on Sunday, they start their regular season journey in a week when they take on Long Island at home with a 7:30 p.m. CT tip-off. The game next Monday will be televised on SEC Network+.