{"id":365,"date":"2026-02-04T16:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/2026\/02\/04\/ole-miss-coach-chris-beard-ejected-from-basketball-game-following-emotional-on-court-display\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:40:21","slug":"ole-miss-coach-chris-beard-ejected-from-basketball-game-following-emotional-on-court-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/2026\/02\/04\/ole-miss-coach-chris-beard-ejected-from-basketball-game-following-emotional-on-court-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss Coach Chris Beard Ejected from Basketball Game Following Emotional On-Court Display"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;At some point as a coach you have to fight for your players,\u201d the coach said<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/5OjOgWeUq-RmE7BffyhN00t9uf0=\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)\/Chris-Beard-ole-miss-escorted-out-2426-ce039f14dd9e49faa0f6aa94f5265df0.jpg\" alt=\"An officer tries to restrain Mississippi head coach Chris Beard AP Photo\/Wade Payne\" title=\"An officer tries to restrain Mississippi head coach Chris Beard as he runs back onto the court after being ejected during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Tennessee, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Knoxville, Tenn.\"\/><figcaption><i>An officer tries to restrain Mississippi head coach Chris Beard <\/i>\n<p>AP Photo\/Wade Payne<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>NEED TO KNOW<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>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<\/li>\n<li>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<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAt some point as a coach you have to fight for your players, \u2026 that\u2019s exactly what happened tonight,\u201d Beard said after the game<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Chris Beard doesn&#8217;t hesitate when it comes to standing up for his players.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During the Feb. 3 <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/basketball\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">basketball game<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JordanDajani\/status\/2018867860114948488\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow\">videos<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Moments later, security guards approached to remove the coach from the game. But in another <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JordanDajani\/status\/2018868230635610506\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" rel=\"nofollow\">clip<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/eJC4ecmcUBoOShAm2-Qy3-Gm4PI=\/fit-in\/1280x960\/Chris-Beard-ole-miss-escorted-out2-2426-ddbd83bbbd2b47deaa105f5d6c8c9e43.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Beard looks at officials after being ejected during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game AP Photo\/Wade Payne\" title=\"Mississippi head coach Chris Beard looks at officials after being ejected during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Tennessee, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in Knoxville, Tenn. \"\/><figcaption><i>Chris Beard looks at officials after being ejected during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game <\/i>\n<p>AP Photo\/Wade Payne<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As for why he reacted so strongly to the foul? During a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8UbOOYrk41M\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">post-game press conference<\/a>, the coach said that the \u201cfree throw differential in this game and the foul differential in this game\u201d was \u201cjust frustrating from a coach\u2019s standpoint and a playing standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/matchup\/_\/gameId\/401808218\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">ESPN<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s never personal,\u201d Beard explained of his outburst. \u201cThese are the best officials in college basketball. I can say things like that because I\u2019ve been at all different levels. I know what average officials look like, I know what poor officials look like. These are the best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n<p>\u201cBut on tonight\u2019s game, the free throw differential, the fouls called free throw differential, at some point as a coach you have to fight for your players,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what happened tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beard also pointed out that Tennessee coach Rick Barnes fought for his own team in the past \u2014 and now it was time for Ole Miss to do the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\">free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/ZCj2uo1kx3r0qgvuioz5KJKkvMw=\/fit-in\/1280x960\/Chris-Beard-ole-miss-escorted-out3-2426-4efc8d8fd6224823b4c300d99d8d02c3.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Beard ESPN\/YouTube\" title=\"Chris Beard\"\/><figcaption><i>Chris Beard <\/i>\n<p>ESPN\/YouTube<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cYou have a Hall of Fame coach here, first ballot, one of the best that\u2019s ever done it,\u201d he said of Barnes. \u201cI think if you look back at different spots in his career, he had to fight for his program. I kind of think that\u2019s where we are with Ole Miss right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later on in the press conference, Beard reiterated that all he and his team could ask for was \u201ca consistent whistle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re going to call post defense foul on that end, call post defense foul on the other end,\u201d he emphasized. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t 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.&#8221;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;At some point as a coach you have to fight for your players,\u201d the coach said An officer tries to restrain Mississippi head coach Chris Beard AP Photo\/Wade Payne 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everything-else"],"wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"1":{"name":"Everything Else","link":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/category\/everything-else\/"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adsandthings.com\/winews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}