By Adam Brown, OleMiss365.com
Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard met with the media on Monday. This week, the Rebels play two conference games on the road at Georgia and Mississippi State.
Ole Miss (9-7, 1-2 SEC) is coming off their first conference win of the season, 76-69 against Missouri on Saturday.
“During the game, we got positive contributions from everybody who played in the game,” Beard said. “One thing that I thought was worth signaling would be more of a national story. We are having a slightly different win-loss record this season, but let’s talk about Gusto (Augusto Cassiá). Here is a player who is in the mix; he’s played in every game and is a good veteran. A junior playing college basketball, and in the first half of the game, doesn’t get into the game. Cory Chess was playing really physically, and just kind of a coach’s decision.”
“With 11 minutes left in the game, Chess fouls out, and the coaching decision is to try and go small ball to open the offense or stay committed to two bigs on the floor,” Beard said. “We called Gusto’s name, and he is ready to go in there and really was the best player on the floor for those eight, nine minutes he played, offensive rebound, put back, the pick and roll, dunk, and one was very competitive on defense.”
Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard
Cassiá finished the game going 3-for-4 from the field, with two rebounds and seven points.
Ole Miss is headed to Athens to take on the No. 21 Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs are coming off a 75-70 win over South Carolina.
“Mike (White) definitely has an identity on this year’s team,” Beard said. “All of his teams have an identity. Years ago, we played his Florida team in an NCAA tournament, and I remember it was a really good pick-and-roll team. Really good shot blocking team. So the identities have changed this year. They’re totally committed to the pace of play, one of the fastest teams in college basketball. With early shot clock shots, and put a lot of pressure on you on the break.”
Beard added that “it is real and the same identity from game one to the last game they played,” he said. “I think they have a good team. I think they returned four players that are in the mix, and that is always a luxury. Did a nice job in recruiting with the transfer portal, bringing experienced guys in, and they are making an immediate impact with performance.”
Tipoff for Ole Miss and Georgia on Wednesday is set for 6 p.m. CT and can be seen on ESPNU.