When the whole season is a heartbreaker, what's another loss for Ole Miss Rebels?
Chris Beard's squad fell to yet another SEC heavyweight, Vanderbilt, on Tuesday night in a 89-86 overtime thriller.
After the eventful night — with a flagrant foul that left the Rebels fuming — and the massive losses they had been through, Chris Beard pointed out the one thing that was the reason the Rebels lost to the Commodores in the overtime thriller they almost had in their pockets.
Chris Beard thinks turnovers are to blame for the loss
Ole Miss undeniably hit a historic low, but there is still one thing they do better than many other teams: forcing turnovers.
They raked up 16 turnovers to the Commodores' 9. Plus, the Rebs rank the second best in the SEC in forced TOs per game, 15.2, following up behind Auburn at No. 1 with 15.8.
However, against Vanderbilt, that number took a hit as the endured 17 turnovers, and forced just 9 out of Vandy. Beard says that is what cost them the game, and not the refs stoping the game and ruining the moemtum they built.
"We had 17 turnovers tonight," Beard said post-Vanderbilt loss. "We're one of the best teams in the country through a season that's had a lot of storms. The one thing you can say is we're pretty good about protecting the ball. You know, I don't know what the exact number is right now, but we seem to be around 10 a game."
"We played a lot of games this year with under six or seven. And so really the difference in the game, just like I just told the players in the locker room, you got to control what you can control. We can't control some of these calls and things like that. No problem. Nobody can. But tonight, 17 turnovers against an NCAA tournament team. You know, that's ultimately what cost us the game. So, no excuses."
Being back in their element of forcing turnovers and maintaining their positive turnover margin will be one of the many lessons the Rebels will be taking with them to Nashville and to the offseason from their terrible 12-18 slump.
They face South Carolina this Saturday, their only remaining chance to add an SEC win to their regular season schedule.