Chris Beard to Texas

[Js1 85162]

Feels like someone is trying to get the contrarian view in early for a potential "told you so" later. 

[texasstrong12 4668]

10 minutes ago, Revolution512 said:

 

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

To argue "it's not impressive at all" is stupid. Guys like Ogden and Terry would have assistant job opportunities at schools all over the country. National reporters, like Jeff Goodman, have said they're incredible hires. 

If you don't think those hires are impressive you have no understanding of college basketball. 

I don't care if they were going to be fired in a year. They're still assistants that schools would love to have. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by texasstrong12

[texifornia 56595]

20 minutes ago, texasstrong12 said:

To argue "it's not impressive at all" is stupid. Guys like Ogden and Terry would have assistant job opportunities at schools all over the country. National reporters, like Jeff Goodman, have said they're incredible hires. 

If you don't think those hires are impressive you have no understanding of college basketball. 

I don't care if they were going to be fired in a year. They're still assistants that schools would love to have. 

It's like saying Kyle Flood is a shitty hire as an OL coach because Rutgers football sucked when he was head coach. It's a terrible line of reasoning.

[Guest Lobo]

9 hours ago, slorch said:

 

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

Yes, yes it is.  

I know you live in West Texas, Amarillo maybe?  And you were in the service (thank you).  But I just assumed you went to UT or cheered for UT from afar.  That part of the brain many posters have of encyclopedic knowledge of the history of posts of other anonymous posters...I don't have that...at all.  Shit, I can barely keep track of what people say to me in real life about themselves.  Glad to have you aboard. 

Second trip after a beach that I want to take the kids on this summer after herd immunity is to Palo Duro and have their grandparents head down from Western Kansas to meet us there.  I'm from a long line of fun Navy drinkers so if you want to meet up for drinks on me, I know I could use the reprieve already.  

[Guest]

2 hours 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. 

 

This.

One of Beard's biggest strengths is the ability to get the most out of players.  

[dogbreath 431]

1 hour ago, texasstrong12 said:

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. 

 

When was the last time a Texas team was better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning?  The Final Four team?  GTFO with any NIT finish.

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

1 hour 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 it's fair to wonder whether or not Beard will have sustained success given his nomadic history, but his reasoning and the entire point of his article was to reach a conclusion he had already arrived at before doing the research. Which he even admits to in the article. 

 

And I actually view Beard's ability to thrive when remaking a roster as a major plus and something that will lessen the likelihood of ever having a truly bad year sans major injuries. 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Catdaddyhorn

[texasstrong12 4668]

8 minutes ago, dogbreath said:

When was the last time a Texas team was better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning?  The Final Four team?  GTFO with any NIT finish.

Probably bad wording on my part but I'm not even sure it's as much about "being better" as much just style of play being more conducive to the NCAA tournament. 

Defensive minded teams with mental toughness are difficult to deal with in a tournament setting. Schaefer's team, for example, was pretty terrible to end the regular season. They did show some progress in the Big 12 tournament. But when the bright lights turn on with pressure that style of play isn't easy to deal with. 

[HookEm 2450]

Quote

He has made sure to capitalize any time that he has had a good season and parlayed that momentum into a better gig. 

Well, you know... except the time he made it to the National Title game.... He stuck around after that year.  

Take a look at Bill Self.  1 year at Kansas (assistant) --> 6 years at Okie State (assistant) --> 4 years at Oral Roberts --> 3 years at Tulsa --> 3 years at Illinois --> Kansas.  Guess what, good coaches upgrade continually until they reach the pinnacle.  

I also love how he gets no credit for having a better year after after losing an All-American point guard.  Most teams take a step back in that case.

That may be the worst article I have read in the last month. And I have read some stupid crap. 

[Brian Fantana 6672]

3 hours 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. 

 

The only legit gripe with Beard IMHO is our poor record closing out close (1-2 possession)/OT games. That was a very common theme on Tech message boards the last few years. Rest is mostly sour grapes.

Edited April 8, 2021 by Brian Fantana

[Pato del Muerto 52397]

24 minutes ago, HookEm said:

Well, you know... except the time he made it to the National Title game.... He stuck around after that year.  

Take a look at Bill Self.  1 year at Kansas (assistant) --> 6 years at Okie State (assistant) --> 4 years at Oral Roberts --> 3 years at Tulsa --> 3 years at Illinois --> Kansas.  Guess what, good coaches upgrade continually until they reach the pinnacle.  

I also love how he gets no credit for having a better year after after losing an All-American point guard.  Most teams take a step back in that case.

That may be the worst article I have read in the last month. And I have read some stupid crap. 

And since Texas is in no way the pinnacle, if he wins here there’s always the chance that a Duke or Kentucky come calling and he will have to weigh what he would have built here plus his apparent regard for austin and/or his alma mater against the chance to work at a basketball blue blood and all that entails. 

[Napoleon 8634]

3 hours 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.

 

I don't think that this is 100% wrong, but I would say:

"Beard hasn't proven that he can build a program, he's only proven that he can win."

For the last week or so, I've been thinking something:

"Chris Beard will not get players as highly rated as the players that Shaka Smart recruited, but he will do much better than Shaka with those lower rated players."

Pampered 5-stars & highly rated 4-stars are not going to like Beard's demanding coaching style and substitution patterns, but Beard will now be able to get more highly rated hustle players than he got at Tech. If there is a "lung-busting hustle his ass off" high 4-star, there's a possibility that Beard will get that guy to Austin. 

I don't think that Texas will have as many 1-and-done players as we did under Shaka and maybe more of our players will go to Europe or Asia to play pro basketball vs the numbers that Barnes & Smart put in the NBA, but our teams will win during the season and especially during the NCAA tournament, and I'm okay with that. (Not that my opinion matters to the team or the athletic department.)

I also think that Beard will churn through quite a few players, but those players won't go on to average double figures at other schools like Smart's transfers did. They'll leave because they don't want to put in the work.

I'm excited for the future.

[MoJames 8241]

Just now, Napoleon said:

I'm excited for the future.

It is so odd to feel this in both Football and Basketball. Been a while.

[Napoleon 8634]

3 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Beard lost his two leading scorers and 4 of his top 5 scorers from the Elite Eight team, plugged the roster with a bunch of random grad transfers, and then went to the national championship the next year.  

I said at the time, and still believe, it was the best single season coaching job I’ve seen in college basketball.  That Tech team should have taken a MASSIVE step back, and instead they almost won the national title.

There's never been a better time, nor a better coach to take over a UT basketball program with about 10 to 12 openings on the roster.

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Napoleon

[Teryor 4430]

1 hour ago, Napoleon said:

I don't think that this is 100% wrong, but I would say:

"Beard hasn't proven that he can build a program, he's only proven that he can win."

For the last week or so, I've been thinking something:

"Chris Beard will not get players as highly rated as the players that Shaka Smart recruited, but he will do much better than Shaka with those lower rated players."

Pampered 5-stars & highly rated 4-stars are not going to like Beard's demanding coaching style and substitution patterns, but Beard will now be able to get more highly rated hustle players than he got at Tech. If there is a "lung-busting hustle his ass off" high 4-star, there's a possibility that Beard will get that guy to Austin. 

I don't think that Texas will have as many 1-and-done players as we did under Shaka and maybe more of our players will go to Europe or Asia to play pro basketball vs the numbers that Barnes & Smart put in the NBA, but our teams will win during the season and especially during the NCAA tournament, and I'm okay with that. (Not that my opinion matters to the team or the athletic department.)

I also think that Beard will churn through quite a few players, but those players won't go on to average double figures at other schools like Smart's transfers did. They'll leave because they don't want to put in the work.

I'm excited for the future.

The pampered 4 and 5* narrative is a strawman, those types have been able to succeed in some of the best schools the past few seasons at Virginia/Gonzaga/Florida State off the top of my head where you aren't getting played just because of your ranking. And I'm sure I could pull up more examples if I did a bit more digging. Are some one and done types not going to buy in as much as others? Sure. But that's a matter of scouting and digging into guys from building relationships. And just so you're aware, virtually every P6 recruit thinks they're making it to the league, and way too many of the guys going to smaller schools think they're just going to transfer to high majors after a couple years and blow up or get to the NBA after going to Europe for a cup of coffee. That's just the mindset from having been around a fair amount of them.

[Rimbo 25881]

6 hours 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 like the kind of article I would write. Not because I agree with him; I don't. I'm trying to point out idiocy here: Because I don't know one goddamned thing about coaching basketball.

This guy's looking at tea leaves and shit because he doesn't know diddly-poo about how the game is coached/played/etc. Bullshit analysis.

[Js1 85162]

😂😂

 

 

[Catdaddyhorn 3444]

4 hours ago, Napoleon said:

I don't think that this is 100% wrong, but I would say:

"Beard hasn't proven that he can build a program, he's only proven that he can win."

For the last week or so, I've been thinking something:

"Chris Beard will not get players as highly rated as the players that Shaka Smart recruited, but he will do much better than Shaka with those lower rated players."

Pampered 5-stars & highly rated 4-stars are not going to like Beard's demanding coaching style and substitution patterns, but Beard will now be able to get more highly rated hustle players than he got at Tech. If there is a "lung-busting hustle his ass off" high 4-star, there's a possibility that Beard will get that guy to Austin. 

I don't think that Texas will have as many 1-and-done players as we did under Shaka and maybe more of our players will go to Europe or Asia to play pro basketball vs the numbers that Barnes & Smart put in the NBA, but our teams will win during the season and especially during the NCAA tournament, and I'm okay with that. (Not that my opinion matters to the team or the athletic department.)

I also think that Beard will churn through quite a few players, but those players won't go on to average double figures at other schools like Smart's transfers did. They'll leave because they don't want to put in the work.

I'm excited for the future.

Bamba, Jarrett Allen, and Greg Brown were really the only uber-tier players that Shaka got (and you can maybe argue that Andrew Jones was one). If anything the guys like Jahmius Ramsey and Nimari Burnett that Beard got are the type of 5 stars that can really impact a team in terms of winning in a single year because they're elite wing recruits.  

Edited April 9, 2021 by Catdaddyhorn

[Guest]

4 hours ago, longhornmatt said:

Beard lost his two leading scorers and 4 of his top 5 scorers from the Elite Eight team, plugged the roster with a bunch of random grad transfers, and then went to the national championship the next year.  

I said at the time, and still believe, it was the best single season coaching job I’ve seen in college basketball.  That Tech team should have taken a MASSIVE step back, and instead they almost won the national title.

The year of the Elite 8 appearance, Tech was picked 7th in the Big XII.

it could be argued either season, but it is not in doubt that he knows how to leverage grad transfers and first year players, while keeping veterans engaged.

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

Texas is a wonderful University. Nobody can deny. Beautiful, wonderful, positive...you guys are the shit. 
 

but. Lets get real. 
 

Beard aint taking yall past 1st round. Yall dont gaf. It is ok. 
 

perhaps, next time. Yall ought to do your due diligence. 

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

3 hours ago, Js1 said:

😂😂

 

 

This is spot on analysis. Seems like yall got it figured out. 
 

Go ahead and pencil you fuckers in the Elite Eight. Poop. Done. 
 

Texas is in the Elite Eight! Earned. It. 
 

it is happening! 

[Lerka Lerka 1086]

Salty

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

2 hours ago, slorch said:

The year of the Elite 8 appearance, Tech was picked 7th in the Big XII.

it could be argued either season, but it is not in doubt that he knows how to leverage grad transfers and first year players, while keeping veterans engaged.

Slorch. Give it up man. Beard plus Texas plus big time recruiting. 
 

They got it! First round?!? 
 

maybe. Fuck it, lets win!

Slorch...we had our time. Winning. Advancing. Fun. 
 

Its over now. They bought it. And...truth be told. They deserve it. They have suffered and toiled. 
 

Yep. I bet the next 3/4 years its gonna be back to back to back Natty’s. 
 

So slorch. I hope you join me in congratulating them. 

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

5 minutes ago, longhornmatt said:

Naw man. You guys are the smartest.go ahead. Win: take a bow. Its all yall.

[Rimbo 25881]

11 minutes ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Slorch. Give it up man. Beard plus Texas plus big time recruiting. 
 

They got it! First round?!? 
 

maybe. Fuck it, lets win!

Slorch...we had our time. Winning. Advancing. Fun. 
 

Its over now. They bought it. And...truth be told. They deserve it. They have suffered and toiled. 
 

Yep. I bet the next 3/4 years its gonna be back to back to back Natty’s. 
 

So slorch. I hope you join me in congratulating them. 

 

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

22 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

 

Baylor. Shit. You boys won the natty. Hell, yall prolly win 2-3 more. 
 

i Use to be a skeptic of the Lord. And the resurrection. 
 

But now that Baylor gotdamn won the whole thing. Bears before whores. Tap tap. Ass out hug. Tap.

yeah! 

 

 

 

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

Lets get crazy here.

 

obviously, Big 12 champs. No gotdamn doubt. 20 million better gotdamn buy a banner! A real one. Prolly already on the way. 
 

Big 12 coach of the year? Pfft. Fuck Baylor.... Beard

Big 12 POY? Texas men’s basketball. Errbody! 
 

Yep! Its all gotdamn gravy. Hunnert miles an hour on biscuit wheels boys! 
 

Prepare for the greatest sports ride of a lifetime!!!

 

Kinda jealous. But, its all good. Go go go! 

 

[Guest]

[SizzleChest 8276]

5 hours ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Texas is a wonderful University. Nobody can deny. Beautiful, wonderful, positive...you guys are the shit. 
 

but. Lets get real. 
 

Beard aint taking yall past 1st round. Yall dont gaf. It is ok. 
 

perhaps, next time. Yall ought to do your due diligence. 

[closetohumping 17413]

8 hours ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Texas is a wonderful University. Nobody can deny. Beautiful, wonderful, positive...you guys are the shit. 
 

but. Lets get real. 
 

Beard aint taking yall past 1st round. Yall dont gaf. It is ok. 
 

perhaps, next time. Yall ought to do your due diligence. 

Or we’ll just take your head coach again.  

[Js1 85162]

[elguapo 4583]

8 hours ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

Lets get crazy here.

 

obviously, Big 12 champs. No gotdamn doubt. 20 million better gotdamn buy a banner! A real one. Prolly already on the way. 
 

Big 12 coach of the year? Pfft. Fuck Baylor.... Beard

Big 12 POY? Texas men’s basketball. Errbody! 
 

Yep! Its all gotdamn gravy. Hunnert miles an hour on biscuit wheels boys! 
 

Prepare for the greatest sports ride of a lifetime!!!

 

Kinda jealous. But, its all good. Go go go! 

 

If you're going to get all drunked up and post some stupid shit at least make it funny or entertaining.

[gsoda3 3238]

Quote

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.

is he trying to imply maligi's dirty?

[Machinator 32098]

1 minute ago, gsoda3 said:

is he trying to imply maligi's dirty?

Pretty clear (and he's probably right).

[MoJames 8241]

 

[Chuckie Finster 22626]

Lets get crazy here.
 
obviously, Big 12 champs. No gotdamn doubt. 20 million better gotdamn buy a banner! A real one. Prolly already on the way. 
 
Big 12 coach of the year? Pfft. Fuck Baylor.... Beard
Big 12 POY? Texas men’s basketball. Errbody! 
 
Yep! Its all gotdamn gravy. Hunnert miles an hour on biscuit wheels boys! 
 
Prepare for the greatest sports ride of a lifetime!!!
 
Kinda jealous. But, its all good. Go go go! 
 

Well you’ve been spot on with the rest of your predictions in this thread.

[shadow_operative 15932]

well if he is dirty then he probably needs to get better at sealing the deal. pretty paltry haul for someone with such a reputation.

 

[texasstrong12 4668]

13 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

is he trying to imply maligi's dirty?

Maligi was an assistant during all that SMU mess. He's definitely dirty.

Howard was also a known bagman at Kansas. 

Sounds like we're finally getting serious about winning. 

 

[texasstrong12 4668]

5 minutes ago, shadow_operative said:

well if he is dirty then he probably needs to get better at sealing the deal. pretty paltry haul for someone with such a reputation.

 

A 5 star at SMU and top 40 recruits at Texas Tech. 

That's why he has that reputation. 

Also, those 247 profiles aren't always accurate. A big reason Tyson is coming to Texas is because of Ulric. 

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by texasstrong12

[HookEm 2450]

Quote

Chris Beard will not get players as highly rated as the players that Shaka Smart recruited, but he will do much better than Shaka with those lower rated players.

I disagree with this pretty strongly.  Beard is putting together a staff that is going to crush it on the recruiting trail.  If you look at Beard's time at Tech, he was recruiting MUCH better than their historic levels.  Meanwhile, Shaka was recruiting slightly better than Barnes (although it was starting to slip with him on the hot seat).

Now that the job is stable, I will be shocked if Beard isn't pulling in consistent top-10 classes.  

 

 

 

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

2 minutes ago, HookEm said:

I disagree with this pretty strongly.  Beard is putting together a staff that is going to crush it on the recruiting trail.  If you look at Beard's time at Tech, he was recruiting MUCH better than their historic levels.  Meanwhile, Shaka was recruiting slightly better than Barnes (although it was starting to slip with him on the hot seat).

Now that the job is stable, I will be shocked if Beard isn't pulling in consistent top-10 classes.  

 

 

 

Dude. Excellent graphs. Well done. Funny as fuck. Made my day! 

[HookEm 2450]

"Graphs are hard"  \Tech Grad

[Doyle Hargreaves 301]

Just now, HookEm said:

"Graphs are hard"  \Tech Grad

No foolin. I drove my new 4 door Polaris to the stock tank. Thats what you fucks call a pond. A Polaris is an ATV. j/s...
 

Took out my signed CCB elite 8 basketball I bought at the Chamber silent auction a couple of years back. Threw that fucker in the tank. 
pulled out my pistol grip 12 gauge. Unloaded it. Basketball obliterated. 
 

Felt bad for my catfish. So I dumped an entire Yeti full of Dog food in the tank. Sumbitches are gonna be fat as fuck. Love my catfish. A little bit of exploded basketball wont hurt em. Peace fuckers

[MoJames 8241]

1 minute ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

No foolin. I drove my new 4 door Polaris to the stock tank. Thats what you fucks call a pond. A Polaris is an ATV. j/s...
 

Took out my signed CCB elite 8 basketball I bought at the Chamber silent auction a couple of years back. Threw that fucker in the tank. 
pulled out my pistol grip 12 gauge. Unloaded it. Basketball obliterated. 
 

Felt bad for my catfish. So I dumped an entire Yeti full of Dog food in the tank. Sumbitches are gonna be fat as fuck. Love my catfish. A little bit of exploded basketball wont hurt em. Peace fuckers

[alphahorn 1637]

21 hours ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

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

 

 

 

 

 

Well, Shaka for one

[Beau Vine 54053]

22 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

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. 

There's a lot of stupidity in that column.   Imagine Beard not wanting to spend more time at McMurry College or Seminole State JC or in the CBA to *BUILD* a program!

[Horn Dog 9701]

3 hours ago, texasstrong12 said:

A 5 star at SMU and top 40 recruits at Texas Tech. 

That's why he has that reputation. 

Also, those 247 profiles aren't always accurate. A big reason Tyson is coming to Texas is because of Ulric. 

 

Wait.... are you telling me that Big 12 teams with insecure fan bases such as TTU are NOW going to be plenty motivated to play Texas ???  

Edited April 9, 2021 by Horn Dog

[CurlyDumps 4456]

One thing I've learned throughout this process is apparently we are Tech's biggest rival.

[HookEm 2450]

Not so fast my friend.

[immamac 42725]

1 hour ago, Doyle Hargreaves said:

No foolin. I drove my new 4 door Polaris to the stock tank. Thats what you fucks call a pond. A Polaris is an ATV. j/s...
 

Took out my signed CCB elite 8 basketball I bought at the Chamber silent auction a couple of years back. Threw that fucker in the tank. 
pulled out my pistol grip 12 gauge. Unloaded it. Basketball obliterated. 
 

Felt bad for my catfish. So I dumped an entire Yeti full of Dog food in the tank. Sumbitches are gonna be fat as fuck. Love my catfish. A little bit of exploded basketball wont hurt em. Peace fuckers

Someone get this man a fucking medal.