NEED TO KNOW
- Chris Beard was escorted from the Feb. 3 game between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Tennessee Volunteers after lashing out at referees for a foul call
- In videos of the incident, the Ole Miss coach could be seen yelling, pointing and flailing his arms as his colleagues attempted to restrain him
- “At some point as a coach you have to fight for your players, … that’s exactly what happened tonight,” Beard said after the game
Chris Beard doesn’t hesitate when it comes to standing up for his players.
During the Feb. 3 basketball game between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Tennessee Volunteers, the Mississippi coach was ejected from the arena in the second half of the play after he lashed out at referees in protest of a foul call.
In videos shared to social media, Beard, 52, can be seen stepping onto the court while yelling, pointing and flailing his arms. And when his colleagues attempted to stop and restrain him, he went as far as pushing them away and hitting them on the arm in frustration.
Moments later, security guards approached to remove the coach from the game. But in another clip from the incident, Beard appears to run back to his team to give his players a few passionate words of encouragement before removing himself completely.
AP Photo/Wade Payne
As for why he reacted so strongly to the foul? During a post-game press conference, the coach said that the “free throw differential in this game and the foul differential in this game” was “just frustrating from a coach’s standpoint and a playing standpoint.”
While Ole Miss ultimately lost the game 84-66, Beard was more concerned that his team was called for 27 fouls and shot 21 free throws in the game, while Tennessee was called for only 18 fouls and shot 34 free throws, per ESPN.
“It’s never personal,” Beard explained of his outburst. “These are the best officials in college basketball. I can say things like that because I’ve been at all different levels. I know what average officials look like, I know what poor officials look like. These are the best.”
“But on tonight’s game, the free throw differential, the fouls called free throw differential, at some point as a coach you have to fight for your players,” he continued. “That’s exactly what happened tonight.”
Beard also pointed out that Tennessee coach Rick Barnes fought for his own team in the past — and now it was time for Ole Miss to do the same.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
ESPN/YouTube
“You have a Hall of Fame coach here, first ballot, one of the best that’s ever done it,” he said of Barnes. “I think if you look back at different spots in his career, he had to fight for his program. I kind of think that’s where we are with Ole Miss right now.”
Later on in the press conference, Beard reiterated that all he and his team could ask for was “a consistent whistle.”
“If you’re going to call post defense foul on that end, call post defense foul on the other end,” he emphasized. “It wasn’t the difference in the overall final score of the game, but at some point you got to fight for your players and that was the objective tonight in that moment.”
Read the full article here
