Ole Miss Basketball HC Chris Beard apologizes to fans for Texas A&M performance

Ole Miss Basketball finished the regular season with a lacklustre performance against Texas A&M at the Pavilion yesterday. Head coach Chris Beard was far from happy with the team.

A 26-point loss to Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon had Chris Beard using some choice words during his post-game press conference. The first-year head coach was upset with the lack of heart shown on the court by some of the Rebels players.

Beard spoke about walk-on freshman guard Cam Brent, also known as "Muggs", using his performance as an example of the effort he wants to see on the court when wearing a Rebels jersey.

"Muggs doesn't have a scholarship," Beard told reporters. "He pays his own way through school. He doesn't benefit from [NIL] financially. I'll tell you what Muggs does have though: he has heart and he's a competitor. Muggs is one of those guys that doesn't lose, and we're going to build a program [at Ole Miss] to that point. Today we lost, but not Muggs."

Beard didn't hold back also suggesting that paying fans should be reimbursed for having to watch the lack of effort shown by the team.

"We just want to apologize to everybody," Beard said. "I'll check with Keith [Carter] and see what the rules are on this, but anybody that paid money to come see this game today, I'd like you to get reimbursed. We'll check the NCAA rules on that stuff, but just want to apologize. That's not the effort that you spend your time and money on to come watch."

Chris Beard will hope his press conference will spark some energy into the Rebels with the SEC Tournament coming up this week. Despite the loss, they still avoid a first-round match. However, they will play the Aggies again on Thursday night, looking to avenge yesterday's loss.