Chris Beard to Texas

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

That’s what I want to hear slouch, take shots back don’t stand for it. But you are being a pussy and we want to hear how west Texas angry that makes you. Just get on the surly podcast and let’s make history. Give me a shout out too. 

I've repeatedly stated I am not angry at Beard.  I have not posted in anger about Beard.  I do not wish bad things to happen to him on a personal level.  I will not root for Texas basketball.  Is that fair?

 

22 minutes ago, westexhorn said:

i think you are in your final form.  Time to stamp your legendary presence on the podcast and on surly's history

I've been here 13 years.  I call em like I see em.  Always have.  I have no idea what final form is, unless you're saying i died.  LOL.

 

20 minutes ago, SizzleChest said:

So now we know what butthurt squared looks like.

Really?  someone shares a legit POV addressing another poster's question and it bothers you?  That's not how this community works.   hell, if you just want to sit around sucking each others' dicks, then put the banner up...

16 minutes ago, RGBIII said:

Open invite still. Recording at 9 tonight and doing a live recording Wednesday at 9 next week

I can do it next week.  I truly do appreciate the invitation, and I was absolutely willing to discuss things before anybody knew how things were going to turn out. Not sure what Immamac's deal is.  If it's just a hunting exhibition and wanting to fire shots on the podcast, then find another pinata. You can go through this whole discussion the past 2 weeks and nowhere in there am I pulling punches.  To say i am being a bitch because I answered a question is bullshit.  There's no way that would be said if we were all sitting around talking.  If the podcast goes there I will hang up.

Edited April 8, 2021 by slorch

[Herbie Hancock 7315]

Idk why y’all give Slorch the attention that you do. I’ve been watching him post since the early 00’s over at littleswc.com and 5aTXfball and while he’s not a bad guy at all, he damn sure ain’t ever gonna change his stance. The more people that poke holes in his arguments the harder he digs in And for as long as he’s been posting here some of y’all should have figured that out by now. Hell we have Slorch’d in the shaggy/surly lexicon for a reason

[RollLeft 5040]

6 minutes ago, Herbie Hancock said:

Idk why y’all give Slorch the attention that you do. I’ve been watching him post since the early 00’s over at littleswc.com and 5aTXfball and while he’s not a bad guy at all, he damn sure ain’t ever gonna change his stance. The more people that poke holes in his arguments the harder he digs in And for as long as he’s been posting here some of y’all should have figured that out by now. Hell we have Slorch’d in the shaggy/surly lexicon for a reason

Because at the end of the day he's...

Sure, sometimes he posts like a red raider phag, but he's our resident red raider phag.

Edited April 8, 2021 by RollLeft

[RGBIII 22798]

10 minutes ago, slorch said:

I've repeatedly stated I am not angry at Beard.  I have not posted in anger about Beard.  I do not wish bad things to happen to him on a personal level.  I will not root for Texas basketball.  Is that fair?

 

I've been here 13 years.  I call em like I see em.  Always have.  I have no idea what final form is, unless you're saying i died.  LOL.

 

Really?  someone shares a legit POV addressing another poster's question and it bothers you?  That's not how this community works.   hell, if you just want to sit around sucking each others' dicks, then put the banner up...

I can do it next week.  I truly do appreciate the invitation, and I was absolutely willing to discuss things before anybody knew how things were going to turn out. Not sure what Immamac's deal is.  If it's just a hunting exhibition and wanting to fire shots on the podcast, then find another pinata. You can go through this whole discussion the past 2 weeks and nowhere in there am I pulling punches.  To say i am being a bitch because I answered a question is bullshit.  There's no way that would be said if we were all sitting around talking.  If the podcast goes there I will hang up.

Taking shots on a podcast is bullshit stuff, we aren’t trying to go all Jim Rome type of shit. That’s not interesting to anyone. One dumb laugh isn’t worth trying to fill 30 minutes of nothingness. Open and honest discussion from two different view points is what people want to hear

[Rockethorn1978 6071]

I don’t know man I loved watching  jerry and the fights. Just please have derka on too, after covid we(surly) deserve a on air derka explosion response to slorch. Even if it’s staged. I don’t care. Just do it.

[MotownHorn 1742]

3 hours ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Man I would pay you to have him on to rant what he wrote. And have derka on with him and let them argue. We want full jerry springer surly podcast. Fuck all this appropriate and right shit.

YES! Send them both booze before recording

[Guest]

1 hour ago, dcar00 said:

I picture him driving to the wet side of town and grabbing a 12 pack, slammin' 2 real quick, taking a shit in a brown bag and heading over to Beard's house All the Right Moves style. AMPIPE!

Pos rep for ATRM reference.  Howevah, i do not reside in LBK, which is no longer dry, BTW.

 

I'm getting a kick out of how some of y'all think Derka and i would be at each other's throats.  I mean, yeah, maybe 10 years ago.  Where are the points of contention in this discussion?  I haven't really even been argumentative in this thread, other to defend sharing a given POV.  I can't speak for him, but holy furk the dude knows UT basketball as well as anybody on the planet.  I respect the hell out of his perspective, as a fan who literally grew up inside the program.  Sure there are topics upon which we might disagree, but damn, ain't that all of us?

Edited April 8, 2021 by slorch

[Rockethorn1978 6071]

11 minutes ago, slorch said:

Pos rep for ATRM reference.  Howevah, i do not reside in LBK, which is no longer dry, BTW.

 

I'm getting a kick out of how some of y'all think Derka and i would be at each other's throats.  I mean, yeah, maybe 10 years ago.  Where are the points of contention in this discussion?  I haven't really even been argumentative in this thread, other to defend sharing a given POV.  I can't speak for him, but holy furk the dude knows UT basketball as well as anybody on the planet.  I respect the hell out of his perspective, as a fan who literally grew up inside the program.  Sure there are topics upon which we might disagree, but damn, ain't that all of us?

[ChiTownDoc 21112]

This place is at it's best when you guys hire (or don't hire) some amazing coach.  Also, when you fire (or don't) some shitty coach.  I don't care nearly as much about whatever the fuck happens to OU these days.  As long as you bastards bring this type of entertainment.  Just when you think you can't be more entertained...mix in some Slorch.  Holy shit.  Peak Surly. 

 

Moar please...

[Braff Zacklin 13481]

[Laxtonto 12055]

53 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

This place is at it's best when you guys hire (or don't hire) some amazing coach.  Also, when you fire (or don't) some shitty coach.  I don't care nearly as much about whatever the fuck happens to OU these days.  As long as you bastards bring this type of entertainment.  Just when you think you can't be more entertained...mix in some Slorch.  Holy shit.  Peak Surly. 

 

Moar please...

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Laxtonto

[Fletch 5800]

3 hours ago, slorch said:

That is being a bitch?

I answered the other poster's question.

 

Y'all are some hyper sensitive motherfuckers up in here.  Seriously.

 

"Beard didn't do Tech wrong..."

"well actually, it could be seen this way."

"oh that's all stupid..."

 

No it isn't.  and yes, i was absolutely willing to be on the podcast, confirmed with RGBIII and never got the call the night of MAR 31.  However, if you're just going to continue to take your shots at me for no reason, you can go fuck yourself.

Yeah I got the exact bull shit answer I expected out of you. I laughed my ass off at your first post

[Pato del Muerto 52397]

4 hours ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

Man I would pay you to have him on to rant what he wrote. And have derka on with him and let them argue. We want full jerry springer surly podcast. Fuck all this appropriate and right shit.

Full Jerry springer would include an interlude performance by pole assassin...

[Beau Vine 54053]

6 hours ago, Hiphopopotamos said:

He had 25 years as a Head Coach prior to going to work for Beard.

Lulz.  The only D1 head job he had was at UTPA.  He got fired for NCAA violations.  

[Uncle Nate 2097]

On 4/6/2021 at 4:01 PM, HookEm said:

I think most on here are unrealistic about the situation Beard had in Lubbock.  He had a GREAT situation there.  And while Tech isn't Kentucky, Beard was good enough to get them to the title game and if the ball bounces a little differently, he wins a National Title (and probably never leaves).  He was gradually improving the facilities, culture and recruiting.  Fan support was excellent.  This was a very hard decision for him.  He didn't hate Lubbock or he wouldn't have spent 15 years of his life there.

I think it is telling that he didn't give Tech a chance to make him an offer.  Because if they trot out a $10M / year offer (and they damn well might have done it), he was going to have to stay. 

What he had in Lubbock reminds me of dating a girl and actually being in love, having a long history and being reasonably happy, but knowing that ultimately someone out there is better for you.  Some people end up sticking around out of obligation, but always slightly regret not making a break when they had a chance.  Like in a movie where the guy says "if I go back in that apartment, I'm never leaving". 

That is exactly what would have happened if Beard gave Tech a chance to make their offer, because it would have been a Godfather offer.

I think this take nails it. 

[SizzleChest 8276]

[Uncle Nate 2097]

On 4/5/2021 at 8:07 PM, JesusSweatDuck said:

@Uncle Nate did I hit too close to home with Lubbock being full of a bunch or regards that couldn't get into TX St?  Own how shitty your fans are, you'rr one couch being set on fire from being as shitty as tOSU fans, but with less wins.

I was drunk and angry and you all were being arrogant assholes, which of course is what we all do as anonymous posters on internet message boards, and so I responded as any red-blooded American male would. I flipped you the bird. 

That’s what guys do. Don’t be thin skinned about it. I flip the bird to people I like and dislike equally. Right now you fuckers are being insulting to us. A little bit. So I responded. Don’t get so pissy about it. 
 

You can flip the bird back at me. I won’t cry about it. In the end I think we may have actually gotten the better end of the deal. Or I might be wrong. Who knows. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Uncle Nate

[Beau Vine 54053]

57 minutes ago, Uncle Nate said:

In the end I think we may have actually gotten the better end of the deal.

[CurlyDumps 4456]

1 hour ago, Uncle Nate said:

In the end I think we may have actually gotten the better end of the deal. Or I might be wrong. Who knows. 

Congrats on reaching the acceptance stage.

[Guest Lobo]

Is slorch not a UT guy?  I had confuse.  

Edited April 8, 2021 by Lobo

[Napoleon 8634]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Is slorch not a UT guy?  I had confuse.  

I believe that he attended the Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, USA.

But he is a regular on the ShaggyBevo->ShaggyTexas->SurlyHorns message board. (Don't know if he was around for HornFans or Austin360.)

[Rimbo 25881]

6 hours ago, RGBIII said:

Open and honest discussion from two different view points is what people want to hear

[shadow_operative 15932]

 

Arkansas-Little Rock was no.235 in Kenpom in 2015.

Edited April 8, 2021 by shadow_operative

[JesusSweatDuck 17780]

5 hours ago, Uncle Nate said:

I was drunk and angry and you all were being arrogant assholes, which of course is what we all do as anonymous posters on internet message boards, and so I responded as any red-blooded American male would. I flipped you the bird. 

That’s what guys do. Don’t be thin skinned about it. I flip the bird to people I like and dislike equally. Right now you fuckers are being insulting to us. A little bit. So I responded. Don’t get so pissy about it. 
 

You can flip the bird back at me. I won’t cry about it. In the end I think we may have actually gotten the better end of the deal. Or I might be wrong. Who knows. 

I was drunk too (those typos are impressive), but I still stand behind my statement of how shitty TX Tech fans are. GEABOD

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Lobo said:

Is slorch not a UT guy?  I had confuse.  

 

Texas Tech/ West Texas through and through. This just happens to be the best forum on the web, IMHO.

Edited April 8, 2021 by slorch

[texasstrong12 4668]

6 hours ago, shadow_operative said:

 

Arkansas-Little Rock was no.235 in Kenpom in 2015.

 

[GreenspointTexas 9570]

9 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

A lot a Tech fans are thinking the same thing right now actually. Talking themselves into the assumption that Adams was the real brains of the operation

[Rockethorn1978 6071]

10 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Full Jerry springer would include an interlude performance by pole assassin...

We can have them fight and futureman fist himself on the podcast and we get real time reaction. Let’s go for the greatest hour on podcast ever.

[Bevo14 8283]

8 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

A lot a Tech fans are thinking the same thing right now actually. Talking themselves into the assumption that Adams was the real brains of the operation

why they mad then?

[Pato del Muerto 52397]

22 minutes ago, Bevo14 said:

why they mad then?

Grief to anger to denial...then acceptance. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Pato del Muerto
Or something

[Machinator 32098]

 

[Braff Zacklin 13481]

Beard looks like he wants to punch Lowell at the beginning of the video.

Join the club, pal.

[Huckleberry 32753]

Sounds like Willie needs to get himself to the athletic offices.

[Machinator 32098]

Another contrarian perspective on Beard, this time from Darius Terrell at TFB:

Spoiler

Well, let’s not waste any time getting into what I want to talk about this week.

Texas message board fans that have been stomping their feet for six years and the rich handful (maybe handfuls) of donors that truly run the university got what they wanted.

Chris Beard is now the Head Coach of the Texas Longhorns Basketball program.

As I’m sure you all are aware of by now, the folks over in Lubbock have been very active in the public eye and vocal on social media about their thoughts about the move.

The funny thing is it shouldn’t have come as a huge shock to anyone out there. After all, Beard is the same guy that accepted a Head Coaching position at UNLV on March 27, 2016, only to back out of it and accept the Texas Tech job on April 15, 2016, after nearly three weeks of selling the Rebel administration and faithful on what he had in store for them.

The schedule hasn’t come out yet for the 2021-2022 basketball season, but when Texas heads to Lubbock for Chris Beard’s (and almost assuredly a few former Tech players) first return to United Supermarkets Arena there won’t be an empty seat in the building and you can bet your last dollar that it will be on primetime television. 

Must-see TV, baby!

But getting back to Beard and his background, I spent a decent amount of time this week taking a look at the programs that he’s coached at in an attempt to dig up whatever I could that could take me back to that time and try to figure out his “how”, referring to how he has had success at each of his stops. 

This is what I believe I found: 

Starting from the top, the Texas alum was an unpaid assistant to the program for the entirety of his undergraduate studies from 1991-1995. Tom Penders was his boss. He’d spend a year as a Graduate Assistant at Incarnate Word under Danny Kaspar (whom you can read about here.) in San Antonio before beginning a journey that saw him spend stints at Abilene Christian (1 season) and North Texas (2 seasons) as an assistant before getting his first crack at being a Head Coach in 1999 at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. 

In his lone season at Fort Scott, the team would win 19 games and make an appearance in the NJCAA Tournament. He was off to Seminole State Junior College in Oklahoma the following year where, with the help of a few guys (such as Ellis Kidd Jr.) that he recruited that would sign with Division-I programs following the season, they went 25-6 before being upset in the tourney.

From there, the first big move happened: He was hired as an Assistant Coach by Bob Knight and would work for the legendary coach for eight years before then working as the lead assistant for his son, Pat, for three seasons before they were eventually relieved of their duties at Tech after going 50-61 during that stretch and failing to make any type of postseason tournament appearances.

Where did Beard go after Tech? 

Well of course, he joined the newest addition to the semi-pro ABA (American Basketball Association) League at the time: The South Carolina Warriors! The Warriors went 29-0 in Beard’s lone season before losing in the ABA Finals to the Jacksonville Giants. The organization would cease to exist two years later. 

It was another wildly successful inaugural season for Beard, his first time being “the man in charge” in over a decade, so you know what that means: He got out of dodge while the iron was still hot. 

This time, the McMurry War Hawks of Abilene, Texas, were the lucky recipient of Mr. Beard and his talents. The War Hawks were making the move up to Division II from Division III and this guy Beard has worked one-year wonders at two JUCO stops and now in the ABA. He was definitely worth a shot.

He delivered in his first and yet again only season. McMurry went 19-10 (10-8 in conference) and went three rounds deep in the Division II Tournament. Nice.

On to Angelo State, another Division II program in West Texas about an hour and a half down the road from McMurry. I was happy to see that he stayed at San Angelo for two seasons this time, instead of just one. The Rams went 47-15 during his two seasons and made a run to the Division II “Sweet Sixteen” in his second year. Since his departure, the Rams have not missed a beat under coach Cinco Boone, who replaced Beard in 2015 (feel free to look for yourself).

He parlayed that effort into his first Head Coaching gig at Arkansas – Little Rock. Alma mater of one of the more underrated Lakers of all-time, Derek Fisher. Beard was wildly successful yet again, going 30-5. They won the Sun Belt Championship that year and also upset Purdue in Double Overtime as a 12-seed. 

This is great right? Not so fast, because Beard made sure to get out of Little Rock after this one season as well. 

WHY DOES HE NOT STAY AND BUILD SOMETHING SOMEWHERE?!?! 

The question kept picking at me the entire time I was tracking his timeline.

After examining the UALR Basketball roster, a few things became evident to me. 

First, Beard inherited a group that went 13-18 the previous season. However, he turned that roster completely over while retaining the program’s best player, All-Sun Belt Point Guard Josh Hagins, who is still playing professionally overseas right now and hit the game-winner against Purdue in the NCAA Tournament and a kid named Mareik Isom that had been struggling to stay healthy.

He brought in 6’11 Post Lis Shoshi, who transferred in from Howard College, where he was the JUCO Defensive Player of the Year. Shoshi is still overseas playing right now.

Marcus Johnson Jr. was the NTJCAC MVP at Hill College. Johnson was an All-Conference selection in the Sun Belt and is still playing professionally overseas.

Lastly, Mareik Isom should be a familiar name to my people reading this. He would end up transferring to Texas following this big season for UALR. He was a 6’9 floor-stretcher that was good enough to transfer up once he graduated. He is also still playing overseas.

The Lions weren’t lacking for talent before Beard arrived and he supplemented that talent in his lone year with other pieces.

BUT CAN HE BUILD A PROGRAM?!

UNLV was ready to find out. Wait … never mind.

Texas Tech came calling and Beard didn’t hesitate to reverse course and head south. He was tasked with replacing Tubby Smith, who left for Memphis and was the first coach to lead the Red Raiders back to the NCAA Tournament berth since Bob Knight left.

We all know that Beard did pretty well at Tech. That’s what has everyone excited about the hire, right? He amassed a 112-55 record over his five seasons in Lubbock. Let’s take a real look at each year he was there.

 

2016: 18-14 overall, 6-12 in conference, no postseason

2017: 27-10 overall, 11-7 in conference, Elite Eight appearance

2018: 31-7 overall, 14-4 in conference, NCAA Runner-Up

2019: 18-13 overall, 9-9 in conference, Tournament Cancelled

2020: 18-11 overall, 9-8 in conference, 2nd Round NCAA Appearance

 

In his first season as Head Coach in Lubbock, Beard inherited a team that went 19-13 the previous year and made an NCAA Tournament appearance. They had two underclassmen on the entire roster yet lost in the 1st Round of the Big XII Tournament to underdog and 10-seed Texas and failed to make the NCAA Tournament. 

Year two, the Raiders would return three starters (Senior Point Guard Keenan Evans, Senior Wing Niem Stevenson, and Senior Forward Zach Smith, who were all Tubby Smith recruits), while also adding Freshman Guard Jarrett Culver, Freshman Guard Zhaire Smith, Florida Transfer Brandone Francis (a Tubby Smith recruit), and got Redshirt Junior Center Norense Odiase (a Tubby Smith recruit) back from medical redshirt in 2016.

Tech surprised everyone that was unaware of how well stocked Smith left the cupboard prior to leaving, going 27-10 and making a run to the Elite Eight. Now a Senior, Keenan Evans was big-time as a Senior and the catalyst for the Red Raiders on the way to Second-Team All American honors. Freshman Zhaire Smith, who was a 3-star recruit out of Garland, starred in the perfect supplemental role to the veterans on the roster and was drafted 16th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns as a one-and-done. 

In Year three, Tech would only get stronger. Redshirt Senior Brandone Francis, Redshirt Senior Norense Odiase, and Sophomore Jarrett Culver would return as starters. Beard added Redshirt Senior Guard Matt Mooney, who was a 2-year starter at South Dakota and two-time 1st Team All-Summit League selection and finalist for the Lou Henson Award (given to the nation’s top mid-major player) prior to his arrival in Lubbock. He also added Redshirt Senior Post Tariq Owens, who had been a 2-year starter at St. Johns prior to arriving in Lubbock for a season. Mooney and Owens would fit seamlessly into the starting lineup to make the Red Raiders the most experienced team in the entire country heading into the season. That experience showed up in a major way on their run to the NCAA Championship Game and you would be a complete fool try to ignore or discount the significance of having a lineup full of 23/24-year-olds in today’s world of College Basketball. Sophomore Jarrett Culver was able to star in his role while surrounded by veteran players and parlayed his performance into being selected 6th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns.

Year Four, we start to see what Beard is really about in my opinion. All of Tubby Smith’s guys have now graduated and the stud transfers have also exhausted their eligibility. He’s had two of his guys get drafted high in the NBA Draft. Tech is now a real option for players that previously never would consider them out of high school. Everything is set up for the Red Raiders to become a “Basketball School” and take the next step.

Beard brings in the highest-rated recruiting class in school history in 2019. Guard Jah’Mius Ramsey was a 5-Star and McDonald’s All-American, Guard Kyler Edwards was a consensus top-75 recruit nationally, Guard Terrence Shannon was a consensus top-100 recruit nationally, Forward Tyreek Smith was a consensus 4-Star recruit, etc. The only transfer he was able to land this time that made a real impact was Virginia Tech Guard Chris Clarke, who would go on to average 5.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists during the season.

The Raiders were a bit of a disappointment. They would go 9-9 in Big XII play and tie for 3rd in the regular season. As the 5-seed, the were scheduled to play the 4-seed Texas Longhorns prior to the pandemic interrupting the season. 5-Star Jah’Mius Ramsey has a disappointing one-and-done campaign and ends up slipping to the 2nd Round of the 2020 NBA Draft, where he was selected 43rd overall by the Sacramento Kings.

Finally, I make it to this past season. Senior Guard Davide Moretti, who had developed into a contributor the prior season, appeared to catch Beard and his staff by surprise by choosing to opt to play professionally in Europe instead of returning to Lubbock. 

No sweat, Beard knows that he’s had his best success with older players. This time, he’s bringing in Georgetown transfer Guard Mac McClung, Wichita State transfer Guard Jamarius Burton, and VCU transfer Post Marcus Santos-Silva to supplement this highly-rated 2020 recruiting class that included 5-Star Guard Nimari Burnett and consensus national top-50 Guard Micah Peavy.

The Red Raiders would go 9-8 in Big XII play and tie for 6th in the conference regular season standings. They would also lose to Shaka Smart and Texas in the Big XII tournament again. But most importantly, they won a game in the NCAA Tournament over Utah State so nothing else really matters, right? 

What I found was what I had already believed prior to starting my research: Chris Beard has never successfully built and sustained a program at any level. 

He has made sure to capitalize any time that he has had a good season and parlayed that momentum into a better gig. He’s had his best success with veteran teams that he’s inherited and supplemented with a piece here or there. At Tech, he had wild success with mainly Tubby Smith’s recruits and a few grown men that joined the team for a season as transfers. As soon as that well of inherited experience dried up we saw Tech have the same struggles in the Big XII gauntlet that everyone else has had.

What fans should be excited about is that Beard has historically had a strong track record of success in his first year at new places. If Andrew Jones and Jericho Sims return that would be a very nice start. I fully expect to see a guy like Mac McClung and/or Micah Peavy in a Texas uniform next season.

Some recruiting names to file away for 2022 now that were heavy Texas Tech targets are 5-Star Guard Keyonte George (Lewisville, TX), 5-Star Guard Arterio Morris (Dallas, TX), 4-Star Wing Rylan Griffen (Richardson, TX), and 4-Star Post Kel’el Ware (Little Rock, AR). Ware was Beard’s first offer as Head Coach at Texas. 

Beard is being allowed to bring Assistant Ulric Maligi with him from Texas Tech. Shaka Smart attempted to hire Maligi four years ago and was told to look elsewhere by Texas administration. That fact is not lost on myself.

Maligi is a big name up here in DFW on the AAU Circuit and was the lead man in Emmanuel Mudiay and Keith Frazier’s recruitments. You can do your own research on what happened in those instances.

At the end of the day, Texas will now have much more success getting talent from the metroplex due to Maligi’s presence on staff.

Beard is also bringing back Chris Ogden and Rodney Terry. While many fans are celebrating this fact, I see it a bit differently. Neither of those guys has necessarily set the world on fire as Head Coaches and likely would have been looking for Assistant Coaching jobs within the next calendar year, anyway. They secured their paychecks for the next 4-5 years by making the move to return under Beard a year early. It’s not impressive at all. Honestly, it’s a bit alarming.

I should add that Mark Adams, Beard’s former assistant, is a hell of a defensive coach and has a ton of respect from his peers and players. My contacts in the profession believe that Tech made the right move by appointing him to Head Coach. 

I look forward to seeing how everything plays out over the next few years, but I’m sorry guys: If you do your research, you’ll find that there’s nothing in Chris Beard’s short history as a Head Coach at the Division I level that points to him being the savior of Texas Basketball. 

Best of luck.

 

[shadow_operative 15932]

4 hours ago, GreenspointTexas said:

A lot a Tech fans are thinking the same thing right now actually. Talking themselves into the assumption that Adams was the real brains of the operation

just like they talked themselves into the idea that not only was Beard going to stay, but that he preferred TTU to Texas, and Lubbock to Austin. all that gassing themselves up is what made them act like such little bitches when the inevitable happened. 

[texasstrong12 4668]

26 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Another contrarian perspective on Beard, this time from Darius Terrell at TFB:

  Reveal hidden contents

Well, let’s not waste any time getting into what I want to talk about this week.

Texas message board fans that have been stomping their feet for six years and the rich handful (maybe handfuls) of donors that truly run the university got what they wanted.

Chris Beard is now the Head Coach of the Texas Longhorns Basketball program.

As I’m sure you all are aware of by now, the folks over in Lubbock have been very active in the public eye and vocal on social media about their thoughts about the move.

The funny thing is it shouldn’t have come as a huge shock to anyone out there. After all, Beard is the same guy that accepted a Head Coaching position at UNLV on March 27, 2016, only to back out of it and accept the Texas Tech job on April 15, 2016, after nearly three weeks of selling the Rebel administration and faithful on what he had in store for them.

The schedule hasn’t come out yet for the 2021-2022 basketball season, but when Texas heads to Lubbock for Chris Beard’s (and almost assuredly a few former Tech players) first return to United Supermarkets Arena there won’t be an empty seat in the building and you can bet your last dollar that it will be on primetime television. 

Must-see TV, baby!

But getting back to Beard and his background, I spent a decent amount of time this week taking a look at the programs that he’s coached at in an attempt to dig up whatever I could that could take me back to that time and try to figure out his “how”, referring to how he has had success at each of his stops. 

This is what I believe I found: 

Starting from the top, the Texas alum was an unpaid assistant to the program for the entirety of his undergraduate studies from 1991-1995. Tom Penders was his boss. He’d spend a year as a Graduate Assistant at Incarnate Word under Danny Kaspar (whom you can read about here.) in San Antonio before beginning a journey that saw him spend stints at Abilene Christian (1 season) and North Texas (2 seasons) as an assistant before getting his first crack at being a Head Coach in 1999 at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. 

In his lone season at Fort Scott, the team would win 19 games and make an appearance in the NJCAA Tournament. He was off to Seminole State Junior College in Oklahoma the following year where, with the help of a few guys (such as Ellis Kidd Jr.) that he recruited that would sign with Division-I programs following the season, they went 25-6 before being upset in the tourney.

From there, the first big move happened: He was hired as an Assistant Coach by Bob Knight and would work for the legendary coach for eight years before then working as the lead assistant for his son, Pat, for three seasons before they were eventually relieved of their duties at Tech after going 50-61 during that stretch and failing to make any type of postseason tournament appearances.

Where did Beard go after Tech? 

Well of course, he joined the newest addition to the semi-pro ABA (American Basketball Association) League at the time: The South Carolina Warriors! The Warriors went 29-0 in Beard’s lone season before losing in the ABA Finals to the Jacksonville Giants. The organization would cease to exist two years later. 

It was another wildly successful inaugural season for Beard, his first time being “the man in charge” in over a decade, so you know what that means: He got out of dodge while the iron was still hot. 

This time, the McMurry War Hawks of Abilene, Texas, were the lucky recipient of Mr. Beard and his talents. The War Hawks were making the move up to Division II from Division III and this guy Beard has worked one-year wonders at two JUCO stops and now in the ABA. He was definitely worth a shot.

He delivered in his first and yet again only season. McMurry went 19-10 (10-8 in conference) and went three rounds deep in the Division II Tournament. Nice.

On to Angelo State, another Division II program in West Texas about an hour and a half down the road from McMurry. I was happy to see that he stayed at San Angelo for two seasons this time, instead of just one. The Rams went 47-15 during his two seasons and made a run to the Division II “Sweet Sixteen” in his second year. Since his departure, the Rams have not missed a beat under coach Cinco Boone, who replaced Beard in 2015 (feel free to look for yourself).

He parlayed that effort into his first Head Coaching gig at Arkansas – Little Rock. Alma mater of one of the more underrated Lakers of all-time, Derek Fisher. Beard was wildly successful yet again, going 30-5. They won the Sun Belt Championship that year and also upset Purdue in Double Overtime as a 12-seed. 

This is great right? Not so fast, because Beard made sure to get out of Little Rock after this one season as well. 

WHY DOES HE NOT STAY AND BUILD SOMETHING SOMEWHERE?!?! 

The question kept picking at me the entire time I was tracking his timeline.

After examining the UALR Basketball roster, a few things became evident to me. 

First, Beard inherited a group that went 13-18 the previous season. However, he turned that roster completely over while retaining the program’s best player, All-Sun Belt Point Guard Josh Hagins, who is still playing professionally overseas right now and hit the game-winner against Purdue in the NCAA Tournament and a kid named Mareik Isom that had been struggling to stay healthy.

He brought in 6’11 Post Lis Shoshi, who transferred in from Howard College, where he was the JUCO Defensive Player of the Year. Shoshi is still overseas playing right now.

Marcus Johnson Jr. was the NTJCAC MVP at Hill College. Johnson was an All-Conference selection in the Sun Belt and is still playing professionally overseas.

Lastly, Mareik Isom should be a familiar name to my people reading this. He would end up transferring to Texas following this big season for UALR. He was a 6’9 floor-stretcher that was good enough to transfer up once he graduated. He is also still playing overseas.

The Lions weren’t lacking for talent before Beard arrived and he supplemented that talent in his lone year with other pieces.

BUT CAN HE BUILD A PROGRAM?!

UNLV was ready to find out. Wait … never mind.

Texas Tech came calling and Beard didn’t hesitate to reverse course and head south. He was tasked with replacing Tubby Smith, who left for Memphis and was the first coach to lead the Red Raiders back to the NCAA Tournament berth since Bob Knight left.

We all know that Beard did pretty well at Tech. That’s what has everyone excited about the hire, right? He amassed a 112-55 record over his five seasons in Lubbock. Let’s take a real look at each year he was there.

 

2016: 18-14 overall, 6-12 in conference, no postseason

2017: 27-10 overall, 11-7 in conference, Elite Eight appearance

2018: 31-7 overall, 14-4 in conference, NCAA Runner-Up

2019: 18-13 overall, 9-9 in conference, Tournament Cancelled

2020: 18-11 overall, 9-8 in conference, 2nd Round NCAA Appearance

 

In his first season as Head Coach in Lubbock, Beard inherited a team that went 19-13 the previous year and made an NCAA Tournament appearance. They had two underclassmen on the entire roster yet lost in the 1st Round of the Big XII Tournament to underdog and 10-seed Texas and failed to make the NCAA Tournament. 

Year two, the Raiders would return three starters (Senior Point Guard Keenan Evans, Senior Wing Niem Stevenson, and Senior Forward Zach Smith, who were all Tubby Smith recruits), while also adding Freshman Guard Jarrett Culver, Freshman Guard Zhaire Smith, Florida Transfer Brandone Francis (a Tubby Smith recruit), and got Redshirt Junior Center Norense Odiase (a Tubby Smith recruit) back from medical redshirt in 2016.

Tech surprised everyone that was unaware of how well stocked Smith left the cupboard prior to leaving, going 27-10 and making a run to the Elite Eight. Now a Senior, Keenan Evans was big-time as a Senior and the catalyst for the Red Raiders on the way to Second-Team All American honors. Freshman Zhaire Smith, who was a 3-star recruit out of Garland, starred in the perfect supplemental role to the veterans on the roster and was drafted 16th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns as a one-and-done. 

In Year three, Tech would only get stronger. Redshirt Senior Brandone Francis, Redshirt Senior Norense Odiase, and Sophomore Jarrett Culver would return as starters. Beard added Redshirt Senior Guard Matt Mooney, who was a 2-year starter at South Dakota and two-time 1st Team All-Summit League selection and finalist for the Lou Henson Award (given to the nation’s top mid-major player) prior to his arrival in Lubbock. He also added Redshirt Senior Post Tariq Owens, who had been a 2-year starter at St. Johns prior to arriving in Lubbock for a season. Mooney and Owens would fit seamlessly into the starting lineup to make the Red Raiders the most experienced team in the entire country heading into the season. That experience showed up in a major way on their run to the NCAA Championship Game and you would be a complete fool try to ignore or discount the significance of having a lineup full of 23/24-year-olds in today’s world of College Basketball. Sophomore Jarrett Culver was able to star in his role while surrounded by veteran players and parlayed his performance into being selected 6th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns.

Year Four, we start to see what Beard is really about in my opinion. All of Tubby Smith’s guys have now graduated and the stud transfers have also exhausted their eligibility. He’s had two of his guys get drafted high in the NBA Draft. Tech is now a real option for players that previously never would consider them out of high school. Everything is set up for the Red Raiders to become a “Basketball School” and take the next step.

Beard brings in the highest-rated recruiting class in school history in 2019. Guard Jah’Mius Ramsey was a 5-Star and McDonald’s All-American, Guard Kyler Edwards was a consensus top-75 recruit nationally, Guard Terrence Shannon was a consensus top-100 recruit nationally, Forward Tyreek Smith was a consensus 4-Star recruit, etc. The only transfer he was able to land this time that made a real impact was Virginia Tech Guard Chris Clarke, who would go on to average 5.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists during the season.

The Raiders were a bit of a disappointment. They would go 9-9 in Big XII play and tie for 3rd in the regular season. As the 5-seed, the were scheduled to play the 4-seed Texas Longhorns prior to the pandemic interrupting the season. 5-Star Jah’Mius Ramsey has a disappointing one-and-done campaign and ends up slipping to the 2nd Round of the 2020 NBA Draft, where he was selected 43rd overall by the Sacramento Kings.

Finally, I make it to this past season. Senior Guard Davide Moretti, who had developed into a contributor the prior season, appeared to catch Beard and his staff by surprise by choosing to opt to play professionally in Europe instead of returning to Lubbock. 

No sweat, Beard knows that he’s had his best success with older players. This time, he’s bringing in Georgetown transfer Guard Mac McClung, Wichita State transfer Guard Jamarius Burton, and VCU transfer Post Marcus Santos-Silva to supplement this highly-rated 2020 recruiting class that included 5-Star Guard Nimari Burnett and consensus national top-50 Guard Micah Peavy.

The Red Raiders would go 9-8 in Big XII play and tie for 6th in the conference regular season standings. They would also lose to Shaka Smart and Texas in the Big XII tournament again. But most importantly, they won a game in the NCAA Tournament over Utah State so nothing else really matters, right? 

What I found was what I had already believed prior to starting my research: Chris Beard has never successfully built and sustained a program at any level. 

He has made sure to capitalize any time that he has had a good season and parlayed that momentum into a better gig. He’s had his best success with veteran teams that he’s inherited and supplemented with a piece here or there. At Tech, he had wild success with mainly Tubby Smith’s recruits and a few grown men that joined the team for a season as transfers. As soon as that well of inherited experience dried up we saw Tech have the same struggles in the Big XII gauntlet that everyone else has had.

What fans should be excited about is that Beard has historically had a strong track record of success in his first year at new places. If Andrew Jones and Jericho Sims return that would be a very nice start. I fully expect to see a guy like Mac McClung and/or Micah Peavy in a Texas uniform next season.

Some recruiting names to file away for 2022 now that were heavy Texas Tech targets are 5-Star Guard Keyonte George (Lewisville, TX), 5-Star Guard Arterio Morris (Dallas, TX), 4-Star Wing Rylan Griffen (Richardson, TX), and 4-Star Post Kel’el Ware (Little Rock, AR). Ware was Beard’s first offer as Head Coach at Texas. 

Beard is being allowed to bring Assistant Ulric Maligi with him from Texas Tech. Shaka Smart attempted to hire Maligi four years ago and was told to look elsewhere by Texas administration. That fact is not lost on myself.

Maligi is a big name up here in DFW on the AAU Circuit and was the lead man in Emmanuel Mudiay and Keith Frazier’s recruitments. You can do your own research on what happened in those instances.

At the end of the day, Texas will now have much more success getting talent from the metroplex due to Maligi’s presence on staff.

Beard is also bringing back Chris Ogden and Rodney Terry. While many fans are celebrating this fact, I see it a bit differently. Neither of those guys has necessarily set the world on fire as Head Coaches and likely would have been looking for Assistant Coaching jobs within the next calendar year, anyway. They secured their paychecks for the next 4-5 years by making the move to return under Beard a year early. It’s not impressive at all. Honestly, it’s a bit alarming.

I should add that Mark Adams, Beard’s former assistant, is a hell of a defensive coach and has a ton of respect from his peers and players. My contacts in the profession believe that Tech made the right move by appointing him to Head Coach. 

I look forward to seeing how everything plays out over the next few years, but I’m sorry guys: If you do your research, you’ll find that there’s nothing in Chris Beard’s short history as a Head Coach at the Division I level that points to him being the savior of Texas Basketball. 

Best of luck.

 

"Beard is also bringing back Chris Ogden and Rodney Terry. While many fans are celebrating this fact, I see it a bit differently. Neither of those guys has necessarily set the world on fire as Head Coaches and likely would have been looking for Assistant Coaching jobs within the next calendar year, anyway. They secured their paychecks for the next 4-5 years by making the move to return under Beard a year early. It’s not impressive at all. Honestly, it’s a bit alarming."

 

This is just stupidity. Almost every program in the country would want Ogden and Terry. They weren't hired to be head coaches at Texas. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by texasstrong12

[Chuckie Finster 22625]

29 minutes ago, Machinator said:

Another contrarian perspective on Beard, this time from Darius Terrell at TFB:

  Hide contents

Well, let’s not waste any time getting into what I want to talk about this week.

Texas message board fans that have been stomping their feet for six years and the rich handful (maybe handfuls) of donors that truly run the university got what they wanted.

Chris Beard is now the Head Coach of the Texas Longhorns Basketball program.

As I’m sure you all are aware of by now, the folks over in Lubbock have been very active in the public eye and vocal on social media about their thoughts about the move.

The funny thing is it shouldn’t have come as a huge shock to anyone out there. After all, Beard is the same guy that accepted a Head Coaching position at UNLV on March 27, 2016, only to back out of it and accept the Texas Tech job on April 15, 2016, after nearly three weeks of selling the Rebel administration and faithful on what he had in store for them.

The schedule hasn’t come out yet for the 2021-2022 basketball season, but when Texas heads to Lubbock for Chris Beard’s (and almost assuredly a few former Tech players) first return to United Supermarkets Arena there won’t be an empty seat in the building and you can bet your last dollar that it will be on primetime television. 

Must-see TV, baby!

But getting back to Beard and his background, I spent a decent amount of time this week taking a look at the programs that he’s coached at in an attempt to dig up whatever I could that could take me back to that time and try to figure out his “how”, referring to how he has had success at each of his stops. 

This is what I believe I found: 

Starting from the top, the Texas alum was an unpaid assistant to the program for the entirety of his undergraduate studies from 1991-1995. Tom Penders was his boss. He’d spend a year as a Graduate Assistant at Incarnate Word under Danny Kaspar (whom you can read about here.) in San Antonio before beginning a journey that saw him spend stints at Abilene Christian (1 season) and North Texas (2 seasons) as an assistant before getting his first crack at being a Head Coach in 1999 at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. 

In his lone season at Fort Scott, the team would win 19 games and make an appearance in the NJCAA Tournament. He was off to Seminole State Junior College in Oklahoma the following year where, with the help of a few guys (such as Ellis Kidd Jr.) that he recruited that would sign with Division-I programs following the season, they went 25-6 before being upset in the tourney.

From there, the first big move happened: He was hired as an Assistant Coach by Bob Knight and would work for the legendary coach for eight years before then working as the lead assistant for his son, Pat, for three seasons before they were eventually relieved of their duties at Tech after going 50-61 during that stretch and failing to make any type of postseason tournament appearances.

Where did Beard go after Tech? 

Well of course, he joined the newest addition to the semi-pro ABA (American Basketball Association) League at the time: The South Carolina Warriors! The Warriors went 29-0 in Beard’s lone season before losing in the ABA Finals to the Jacksonville Giants. The organization would cease to exist two years later. 

It was another wildly successful inaugural season for Beard, his first time being “the man in charge” in over a decade, so you know what that means: He got out of dodge while the iron was still hot. 

This time, the McMurry War Hawks of Abilene, Texas, were the lucky recipient of Mr. Beard and his talents. The War Hawks were making the move up to Division II from Division III and this guy Beard has worked one-year wonders at two JUCO stops and now in the ABA. He was definitely worth a shot.

He delivered in his first and yet again only season. McMurry went 19-10 (10-8 in conference) and went three rounds deep in the Division II Tournament. Nice.

On to Angelo State, another Division II program in West Texas about an hour and a half down the road from McMurry. I was happy to see that he stayed at San Angelo for two seasons this time, instead of just one. The Rams went 47-15 during his two seasons and made a run to the Division II “Sweet Sixteen” in his second year. Since his departure, the Rams have not missed a beat under coach Cinco Boone, who replaced Beard in 2015 (feel free to look for yourself).

He parlayed that effort into his first Head Coaching gig at Arkansas – Little Rock. Alma mater of one of the more underrated Lakers of all-time, Derek Fisher. Beard was wildly successful yet again, going 30-5. They won the Sun Belt Championship that year and also upset Purdue in Double Overtime as a 12-seed. 

This is great right? Not so fast, because Beard made sure to get out of Little Rock after this one season as well. 

WHY DOES HE NOT STAY AND BUILD SOMETHING SOMEWHERE?!?! 

The question kept picking at me the entire time I was tracking his timeline.

After examining the UALR Basketball roster, a few things became evident to me. 

First, Beard inherited a group that went 13-18 the previous season. However, he turned that roster completely over while retaining the program’s best player, All-Sun Belt Point Guard Josh Hagins, who is still playing professionally overseas right now and hit the game-winner against Purdue in the NCAA Tournament and a kid named Mareik Isom that had been struggling to stay healthy.

He brought in 6’11 Post Lis Shoshi, who transferred in from Howard College, where he was the JUCO Defensive Player of the Year. Shoshi is still overseas playing right now.

Marcus Johnson Jr. was the NTJCAC MVP at Hill College. Johnson was an All-Conference selection in the Sun Belt and is still playing professionally overseas.

Lastly, Mareik Isom should be a familiar name to my people reading this. He would end up transferring to Texas following this big season for UALR. He was a 6’9 floor-stretcher that was good enough to transfer up once he graduated. He is also still playing overseas.

The Lions weren’t lacking for talent before Beard arrived and he supplemented that talent in his lone year with other pieces.

BUT CAN HE BUILD A PROGRAM?!

UNLV was ready to find out. Wait … never mind.

Texas Tech came calling and Beard didn’t hesitate to reverse course and head south. He was tasked with replacing Tubby Smith, who left for Memphis and was the first coach to lead the Red Raiders back to the NCAA Tournament berth since Bob Knight left.

We all know that Beard did pretty well at Tech. That’s what has everyone excited about the hire, right? He amassed a 112-55 record over his five seasons in Lubbock. Let’s take a real look at each year he was there.

 

2016: 18-14 overall, 6-12 in conference, no postseason

2017: 27-10 overall, 11-7 in conference, Elite Eight appearance

2018: 31-7 overall, 14-4 in conference, NCAA Runner-Up

2019: 18-13 overall, 9-9 in conference, Tournament Cancelled

2020: 18-11 overall, 9-8 in conference, 2nd Round NCAA Appearance

 

In his first season as Head Coach in Lubbock, Beard inherited a team that went 19-13 the previous year and made an NCAA Tournament appearance. They had two underclassmen on the entire roster yet lost in the 1st Round of the Big XII Tournament to underdog and 10-seed Texas and failed to make the NCAA Tournament. 

Year two, the Raiders would return three starters (Senior Point Guard Keenan Evans, Senior Wing Niem Stevenson, and Senior Forward Zach Smith, who were all Tubby Smith recruits), while also adding Freshman Guard Jarrett Culver, Freshman Guard Zhaire Smith, Florida Transfer Brandone Francis (a Tubby Smith recruit), and got Redshirt Junior Center Norense Odiase (a Tubby Smith recruit) back from medical redshirt in 2016.

Tech surprised everyone that was unaware of how well stocked Smith left the cupboard prior to leaving, going 27-10 and making a run to the Elite Eight. Now a Senior, Keenan Evans was big-time as a Senior and the catalyst for the Red Raiders on the way to Second-Team All American honors. Freshman Zhaire Smith, who was a 3-star recruit out of Garland, starred in the perfect supplemental role to the veterans on the roster and was drafted 16th overall in the 2018 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns as a one-and-done. 

In Year three, Tech would only get stronger. Redshirt Senior Brandone Francis, Redshirt Senior Norense Odiase, and Sophomore Jarrett Culver would return as starters. Beard added Redshirt Senior Guard Matt Mooney, who was a 2-year starter at South Dakota and two-time 1st Team All-Summit League selection and finalist for the Lou Henson Award (given to the nation’s top mid-major player) prior to his arrival in Lubbock. He also added Redshirt Senior Post Tariq Owens, who had been a 2-year starter at St. Johns prior to arriving in Lubbock for a season. Mooney and Owens would fit seamlessly into the starting lineup to make the Red Raiders the most experienced team in the entire country heading into the season. That experience showed up in a major way on their run to the NCAA Championship Game and you would be a complete fool try to ignore or discount the significance of having a lineup full of 23/24-year-olds in today’s world of College Basketball. Sophomore Jarrett Culver was able to star in his role while surrounded by veteran players and parlayed his performance into being selected 6th overall in the 2019 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns.

Year Four, we start to see what Beard is really about in my opinion. All of Tubby Smith’s guys have now graduated and the stud transfers have also exhausted their eligibility. He’s had two of his guys get drafted high in the NBA Draft. Tech is now a real option for players that previously never would consider them out of high school. Everything is set up for the Red Raiders to become a “Basketball School” and take the next step.

Beard brings in the highest-rated recruiting class in school history in 2019. Guard Jah’Mius Ramsey was a 5-Star and McDonald’s All-American, Guard Kyler Edwards was a consensus top-75 recruit nationally, Guard Terrence Shannon was a consensus top-100 recruit nationally, Forward Tyreek Smith was a consensus 4-Star recruit, etc. The only transfer he was able to land this time that made a real impact was Virginia Tech Guard Chris Clarke, who would go on to average 5.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists during the season.

The Raiders were a bit of a disappointment. They would go 9-9 in Big XII play and tie for 3rd in the regular season. As the 5-seed, the were scheduled to play the 4-seed Texas Longhorns prior to the pandemic interrupting the season. 5-Star Jah’Mius Ramsey has a disappointing one-and-done campaign and ends up slipping to the 2nd Round of the 2020 NBA Draft, where he was selected 43rd overall by the Sacramento Kings.

Finally, I make it to this past season. Senior Guard Davide Moretti, who had developed into a contributor the prior season, appeared to catch Beard and his staff by surprise by choosing to opt to play professionally in Europe instead of returning to Lubbock. 

No sweat, Beard knows that he’s had his best success with older players. This time, he’s bringing in Georgetown transfer Guard Mac McClung, Wichita State transfer Guard Jamarius Burton, and VCU transfer Post Marcus Santos-Silva to supplement this highly-rated 2020 recruiting class that included 5-Star Guard Nimari Burnett and consensus national top-50 Guard Micah Peavy.

The Red Raiders would go 9-8 in Big XII play and tie for 6th in the conference regular season standings. They would also lose to Shaka Smart and Texas in the Big XII tournament again. But most importantly, they won a game in the NCAA Tournament over Utah State so nothing else really matters, right? 

What I found was what I had already believed prior to starting my research: Chris Beard has never successfully built and sustained a program at any level. 

He has made sure to capitalize any time that he has had a good season and parlayed that momentum into a better gig. He’s had his best success with veteran teams that he’s inherited and supplemented with a piece here or there. At Tech, he had wild success with mainly Tubby Smith’s recruits and a few grown men that joined the team for a season as transfers. As soon as that well of inherited experience dried up we saw Tech have the same struggles in the Big XII gauntlet that everyone else has had.

What fans should be excited about is that Beard has historically had a strong track record of success in his first year at new places. If Andrew Jones and Jericho Sims return that would be a very nice start. I fully expect to see a guy like Mac McClung and/or Micah Peavy in a Texas uniform next season.

Some recruiting names to file away for 2022 now that were heavy Texas Tech targets are 5-Star Guard Keyonte George (Lewisville, TX), 5-Star Guard Arterio Morris (Dallas, TX), 4-Star Wing Rylan Griffen (Richardson, TX), and 4-Star Post Kel’el Ware (Little Rock, AR). Ware was Beard’s first offer as Head Coach at Texas. 

Beard is being allowed to bring Assistant Ulric Maligi with him from Texas Tech. Shaka Smart attempted to hire Maligi four years ago and was told to look elsewhere by Texas administration. That fact is not lost on myself.

Maligi is a big name up here in DFW on the AAU Circuit and was the lead man in Emmanuel Mudiay and Keith Frazier’s recruitments. You can do your own research on what happened in those instances.

At the end of the day, Texas will now have much more success getting talent from the metroplex due to Maligi’s presence on staff.

Beard is also bringing back Chris Ogden and Rodney Terry. While many fans are celebrating this fact, I see it a bit differently. Neither of those guys has necessarily set the world on fire as Head Coaches and likely would have been looking for Assistant Coaching jobs within the next calendar year, anyway. They secured their paychecks for the next 4-5 years by making the move to return under Beard a year early. It’s not impressive at all. Honestly, it’s a bit alarming.

I should add that Mark Adams, Beard’s former assistant, is a hell of a defensive coach and has a ton of respect from his peers and players. My contacts in the profession believe that Tech made the right move by appointing him to Head Coach. 

I look forward to seeing how everything plays out over the next few years, but I’m sorry guys: If you do your research, you’ll find that there’s nothing in Chris Beard’s short history as a Head Coach at the Division I level that points to him being the savior of Texas Basketball. 

Best of luck.

 

This... is a terrible article. And it's not that I disagree with his conclusion (I do) but his rationale is dumb as hell.  

Previous Texas administrations wouldn't hire Maligi but Beard got it done.  Advantage: aggy

Edited April 8, 2021 by Chuckie Finster

[texasstrong12 4668]

I've been critical of Beard at times but some of these narratives from the anti-Beard crowd are just dumb as hell. 

For instance, this "Chris Beard's best seasons were with Tubby Smith recruits." 

The team that made the national championship game were almost all of Beard's guys. Culver (Beard recruit), Moretti (Beard recruit), Mooney (Beard Transfer), Owens (Beard Transfer), Edwards (Beard Recruit). Those were 5 of the 7 guys that got the most minutes on the team that made the national championship game and it included 4 starters. 

 

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

Beard and the Utep guy. You paid 4 million to Tech plus committed 35 million over 7 plus 2 million a year for a whos who of scumbags and incompetence. Well, Riley is solid dude but he will mesh in Austin like a meth addict at a Dell board meeting. 
 

Beard might win a 1st round game with Shaka’s team....Who couldnt? 
 

If I were yall, Id be asking for a fucking regime change, or just shut the program down. 
 

pfft. 

 

 

 

 

[texasstrong12 4668]

12 minutes ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Beard and the Utep guy. You paid 4 million to Tech plus committed 35 million over 7 plus 2 million a year for a whos who of scumbags and incompetence. Well, Riley is solid dude but he will mesh in Austin like a meth addict at a Dell board meeting. 
 

Beard might win a 1st round game with Shaka’s team....Who couldnt? 
 

If I were yall, Id be asking for a fucking regime change, or just shut the program down. 
 

pfft. 

 

 

 

 

Tech fans have been amusing during this entire process. You've gone from saying you love this guy and how great of coach he is to arguing he's incompetent and a scumbag. 

Just a few weeks ago. "Beard has been worth every penny invested in him. My guess is he stays in Lubbock. "

 

 

 

"

Edited April 8, 2021 by texasstrong12

[Burt Macklin 19000]

44 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

This... is a terrible article. And it's not that I disagree with his conclusion (I do) but his rationale is dumb as hell.  

Previous Texas administrations wouldn't hire Maligi but Beard got it done.  Advantage: aggy

 

31 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

I've been critical of Beard at times but some of these narratives from the anti-Beard crowd are just dumb as hell. 

For instance, this "Chris Beard's best seasons were with Tubby Smith recruits." 

The team that made the national championship game were almost all of Beard's guys. Culver (Beard recruit), Moretti (Beard recruit), Mooney (Beard Transfer), Owens (Beard Transfer), Edwards (Beard Recruit). Those were 5 of the 7 guys that got the most minutes on the team that made the national championship game and it included 4 starters. 

 

Yeah, I have some questions about Beard, especially his last two years at Tech, but the reasoning in Terrell’s article was flat out awful. None of his conclusions made sense and he got a lot of facts wrong, like ts12 points out about the Smith’s recruits nonsense.
 

His whole thing about Beard having so much success that he didn’t stay at bad jobs long means he can’t build a program was awful too. 

[Chuckie Finster 22625]

24 minutes ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Beard and the Utep guy. You paid 4 million to Tech plus committed 35 million over 7 plus 2 million a year for a whos who of scumbags and incompetence. Well, Riley is solid dude but he will mesh in Austin like a meth addict at a Dell board meeting. 
 

Beard might win a 1st round game with Shaka’s team....Who couldnt? 
 

If I were yall, Id be asking for a fucking regime change, or just shut the program down. 
 

pfft. 

 

 

 

 

This you?

On 3/30/2021 at 1:22 PM, Doyle Hargreaves said:

FWIW, I dont think Beard will leave Texas Tech. But if he did, it would MAYBE be for Texas or the NBA. 
Personally, I love the guy. Part of that stems from his buy in to the culture of West Texas and his love for Texas Tech and our players from decades past. 
 

Thats just it. I think if he had a desire to lead Texas. He is still going to be extremely torn and conflicted about how that will effect his relationships in West Texas. I think he is an exception to the rule in this respect. He is genuine and its a part of who he is and how he coaches. I think ultimately he is happy in Lubbock and unless there is something behind the scenes relationship wise with Tech admins or boosters, he stays. 

On 3/27/2021 at 8:25 AM, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Beard has been worth every penny invested in him. My guess is he stays in Lubbock. 

 

On 3/21/2021 at 2:29 AM, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Beard is the truth. Gets it. He also aint fucking leaving Texas Tech. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Chuckie Finster

[Sgt. Slaughter 2841]

23 minutes ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Beard might win a 1st round game with Shaka’s team....Who couldnt? 

Jokes on you, there aren’t any Shaka guys left. If we suck, we’re going to suck with guys hand-picked by Beard.

[texasstrong12 4668]

11 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

Yeah, I have some questions about Beard, especially his last two years at Tech, but the reasoning in Terrell’s article was flat out awful. None of his conclusions made sense and he got a lot of facts wrong, like ts12 points out about the Smith’s recruits nonsense.
 

His whole thing about Beard having so much success that he didn’t stay at bad jobs long means he can’t build a program was awful too. 

I think that's just life in the Big 12. It's loaded with great coaches and the round robin schedule makes it brutal. 

I won't be surprised if Beard has some 9-9 or 10-8 Big 12 seasons at Texas. But that's normally a tournament team capable of winning in March. Texas fans won't care either if it leads to multiple elite 8 appearances and few good Big 12 seasons like '18-19 at Tech. 

I actually think Beard is very similar to Schaefer. His teams are normally better in March than the regular season. Bottom line, win in March like he has (10-4 NCAA tournament record) and Texas fans won't give a shit about the other stuff. 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by texasstrong12

[SizzleChest 8276]

56 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

"Beard is also bringing back Chris Ogden and Rodney Terry. While many fans are celebrating this fact, I see it a bit differently. Neither of those guys has necessarily set the world on fire as Head Coaches and likely would have been looking for Assistant Coaching jobs within the next calendar year, anyway. They secured their paychecks for the next 4-5 years by making the move to return under Beard a year early. It’s not impressive at all. Honestly, it’s a bit alarming."

 

This is just stupidity. Almost every program in the country would want Ogden and Terry. They weren't hired to be head coaches at Texas. 

His football takes are not must see TV or anything, but this is the first basketball take of his I've seen.  

The salty undertones  made me think the Tech 247 guy that wrote the "sociopath" article edited this.  "No, you need to sound bitchier and more personally affronted in this paragraph, Darius!"

Write about shit that matters, like program culture, what his players and coaching peers say about him, and, uh, you know his W-L record and tourney performance.   I fucking hate Scott Drew (as do most coaches that have interacted with him), but the dude figured it out and won a Natty.  But everyone is saving their bitchiness for Beard because --aghast-- he wanted to leave Lubbock.  Fucking Lubbock!

[texasstrong12 4668]

1 minute ago, longhornmatt said:

This is probably correct, but let’s also not lose sight of the fact that Chris Beard is getting slammed for having two “down” years that saw Texas f’n Tech finish as a top 25 team.   These are two of the best years in Texas Tech basketball history.   

Yeah and that's really my point. A 9-9 and 10-8 Big 12 team is normally a fringe top 25 team. 

My biggest criticism of Beard has been his Big 12 record but when you look at the history in this conference who has had consistent success other than Bill Self? Scott Drew had 2 good Big 12 seasons in a row but it was nothing special before then. 

I'm totally cool with some meh Big 12 seasons sprinkled in with some good Big 12 seasons and tournament wins. 

 

[angelfacedmongoloid 80]

10 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Why won’t you stay and build Angelo State or Fort Scott Junior College?!?!   Have you no decency, sir!  

For that matter, why did he ever leave his high school job at McDowell’s?  Pay your dues, move up to washing lettuce, and one day you’ll be assistant manager and the big bucks will start to roll in!

And the knock on Beard at UALR was that he completely turned over the shitty roster that went 13-18 and brought in better players, keeping the best one, and then went 30-5?

[Tigersnake 670]

18 hours ago, ChiTownDoc said:

This place is at it's best when you guys hire (or don't hire) some amazing coach.  Also, when you fire (or don't) some shitty coach.  I don't care nearly as much about whatever the fuck happens to OU these days.  As long as you bastards bring this type of entertainment.  Just when you think you can't be more entertained...mix in some Slorch.  Holy shit.  Peak Surly. 

 

Moar please...

 

[Tigersnake 670]

17 hours ago, Uncle Nate said:

I was drunk and angry and you all were being arrogant assholes, which of course is what we all do as anonymous posters on internet message boards, and so I responded as any red-blooded American male would. I flipped you the bird. 

That’s what guys do. Don’t be thin skinned about it. I flip the bird to people I like and dislike equally. Right now you fuckers are being insulting to us. A little bit. So I responded. Don’t get so pissy about it. 
 

You can flip the bird back at me. I won’t cry about it. In the end I think we may have actually gotten the better end of the deal. Or I might be wrong. Who knows. 

[Revolution512 1482]

1 hour ago, texasstrong12 said:

I've been critical of Beard at times but some of these narratives from the anti-Beard crowd are just dumb as hell. 

For instance, this "Chris Beard's best seasons were with Tubby Smith recruits." 

The team that made the national championship game were almost all of Beard's guys. Culver (Beard recruit), Moretti (Beard recruit), Mooney (Beard Transfer), Owens (Beard Transfer), Edwards (Beard Recruit). Those were 5 of the 7 guys that got the most minutes on the team that made the national championship game and it included 4 starters. 

 

 

1 hour ago, texasstrong12 said:

"Beard is also bringing back Chris Ogden and Rodney Terry. While many fans are celebrating this fact, I see it a bit differently. Neither of those guys has necessarily set the world on fire as Head Coaches and likely would have been looking for Assistant Coaching jobs within the next calendar year, anyway. They secured their paychecks for the next 4-5 years by making the move to return under Beard a year early. It’s not impressive at all. Honestly, it’s a bit alarming."

 

This is just stupidity. Almost every program in the country would want Ogden and Terry. They weren't hired to be head coaches at Texas. 

Well he’s right, they would’ve been looking for jobs next year. I don’t see that as a knock, it’s called being smart. They’ll do very well here