It was brutal for Ole Miss fans to see the Rebels fall for the seventh-time straight on Saturday.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs got physical and took Chris Beard's squad to the woodshed in a 90-78 loss.
What made it worse was that the Rebs looked prepared coming off six consecutive losses. However, it wasn't enough, which was clear in their failing to even manage to set hard screens and demand contact against the Bulldogs.
The situation is as heartbreaking as it gets for Beard and his squad, yet the Ole Miss men's head basketball coach had just one thing to say: life isn't fair and you have to keep moving when asked whether it affects the team's morale.
"I don’t know if they’re devastated — that’s a question for the players. That’s why you guys have access to them. What I know is you keep chipping away. Life isn’t fair. You’re going to face adversity as a man, father, husband, teammate, coach, player — that’s just life," Beard said.
The coach then went off about where things went wrong, and it how they could have gone right with better decisions.
"I think our guys have continued to fight, but tonight we weren’t physically tough enough early to keep the game within reach when shots weren’t going down. There’s a mental toughness element to this. Some guys know how to win, some guys are learning, and we’re doing everything we can to teach that.
Chris Beard isn't taking names
Beard wasn't about to throw any of his players under the bus, though. Instead, he took full responsibility for the loss.
"But this shouldn’t have been the kind of loss it was. This should’ve been a one- or two-possession game at home with a chance to feed off our crowd, which was great tonight. I apologize to everyone who came out."
"We’re not going to point fingers. This isn’t on the players alone. It’s on all of us, including me. Hats off to Coach Jans and his team."
A seven-game tailspin is a tough place to make a comeback from. With just six games to go, we'll see whether it motivates a legendary comeback arc, or pushes them into a meltdown.