Chris Beard Speaks on Malik Dia’s Limited Minutes in Loss Against Mississippi State

The Ole Miss Rebels encountered their first bump in the road in SEC play as they suffered a loss to in-state foe Mississippi State on Saturday night.

One noticeably missing piece to Saturday’s game was trasnfer center Malik Dia, who has been dominant since conference play began.

Dia saw struggles earlier on this season, seeing limited minutes due to foul trouble, but this was not the case as he only had one personal foul in his 18 minutes of play.

Dia finished the game with eight points, two rebounds, two assists and a steal, but he also struggled to hold onto the ball, recording four turnovers.

Rebels head coach Chris Beard spoke postgame on why he veered away from the big man, even taking some blame for limiting Dia’s minutes.

“We need Dia to to play, and we need him to play well,” Beard said. “Should he have played more today? Maybe. Probably. Those are decisions coaches have to make. What we were doing was obviously working.

“We got back in the game, we had a chance to win the game, the game went to overtime, but certainly Dia is one of our best players. He needs to be on the court for us.”

Coming into the matchup, DIa has averaged 17.5 points per game and 10 rebounds, including his season-high 23 points matched with his career-high 19 rebounds earlier this week in a win over Alabama.

Ole Miss is set to take on Texas A&M at home on Wednesday where Beard could look back to the first-year Reb to provide a spark in Ole Miss’ first home game in 11 days. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m. CT on ESPN2.