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Texas Basketball Recruiting Notes: Keep Austin Beard

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blacklab
blacklab

If Lance Armstrong can do it so can Texas Basketball!

RGBIII
RGBIII

Anyone heard from Beard hater @Bitterwhiteguy lately?  I made him dinner

texifornia
texifornia

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62883

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, westexhorn said:

so per one of your recent updates, are you gonna be spending time in the boards or did you pull off the biggest SPAC in wall street?

Just to answer your question, I think you can tell by the activity on this thread that I'm trending more towards pulling my pud than pulling something off, unfortunately. Not dead yet, but mostly dead. D-day is Monday for me.

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SydneyCarton

SydneyCarton 48203

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3 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Here's another one from yesterday from this guy. He runs down one of their star players for entering the portal and laboriously works through why the guy was a mediocrity and they'll be better off without him. The player, Kyley Edwards, inconveniently led the team in minutes played, assists per game, averaged 10pts and 5 rebounds, shot 42% from 3 point land and was second on the team in steals. He scored 12 points as a freshman in the national title game - but they're better off without this trash, just like the coach who just "absconded" to Austin. 

https://247sports.com/college/texas-tech/Article/Kyler-Edwards-Abandons-Ship-Chris-Beard-163095872/

He's used a couple of words in the two articles that I actually had to look up. I mean, I'm impressed with whatever thesaurus app he's using, but it is hilariously forced. "One of the most common reasons players transfer is a lack of playing time. That cannot have been Edwards’ gravamen. " Gravamen - right. I know what abscond means, but on the rare occasion someone's used it in conversation I've simultaneously added them the list of people I'd like to punch in the face repeatedly. @SydneyCarton , not coincidentally, incorporates both "gravamen" and "abscond" in his casual conversations on a daily basis.

I'm going to subscribe to their site just so I can read his shit. Maybe I'll use a tech-esque handle and square off with him in DonQuixote-Ignatius J Reilly-level sparring matches of the obliviously absurd. 

“My God, never has anyone been so totally and so literally stormed and besieged!”


Please. I've never heard of gravamen in my fucking life. But if you're not using abscond as a part of your daily lexicon you're doing it completely wrong, you cocktail-quaffing pseudo-pedant. 

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Burt Macklin

Burt Macklin 19053

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Posted
28 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I just read it again. It is unbelievable. The part about the "physical covenant" has made me laugh out loud, hard, twice now.

I'm looking this guy up. It has to be a deep troll from one of the better writers here or something. It reminds me of ThePeople'sElbow's nom de plume "Kevin Kubecheski" and the write-up comparing the ATM/UT recruiting classes after signing day in like 2003, where he posted it on Texags and acted serious. "TE: Neither program took a TE in this class. Advantage: Texas A&M" might have finally been surpassed here. It's fucking greatness. 

That article is a masterpiece of the depraved message board fanatic. Total loss of grip on reality mixed with delusions of grandeur, a massive inferiority complex, and flat out emotional instability reaching the level of psychosis. 
I’m not sure how many people in the entire country could reach his level and pen such a work of art. The only person that comes to mind is Taylor Hamm if Jimbo left aggy for a place like Texas or Alabama, and if that ever happens, I expect you to purchase a domain and provide him a platform to display his lunacy for all to see. 

10 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Here's another one from yesterday from this guy. He runs down one of their star players for entering the portal and laboriously works through why the guy was a mediocrity and they'll be better off without him. The player, Kyler Edwards, inconveniently led the team in minutes played, assists per game, averaged 10pts and 5 rebounds, shot 42% from 3 point land and was second on the team in steals. He scored 12 points as a freshman in the national title game - but they're better off without this trash, just like the coach who just "absconded" to Austin. 

https://247sports.com/college/texas-tech/Article/Kyler-Edwards-Abandons-Ship-Chris-Beard-163095872/

He's used a couple of words in the two articles that I actually had to look up. I mean, I'm impressed with whatever thesaurus app he's using, but it is hilariously forced. "One of the most common reasons players transfer is a lack of playing time. That cannot have been Edwards’ gravamen. " Gravamen - right. I know what abscond means, but on the rare occasion someone's used it in conversation I've simultaneously added them the list of people I'd like to punch in the face repeatedly. @SydneyCarton , not coincidentally, incorporates both "gravamen" and "abscond" in his casual conversations on a daily basis.

I'm going to subscribe to their site just so I can read his shit. Maybe I'll use a tech-esque handle and square off with him in DonQuixote-Ignatius J Reilly-level sparring matches of the obliviously absurd. 

The guy who casually drops coelenterate in his posting is unfamiliar with gravamen? 
 

200w.gif?cid=82a1493bads7f3mky4onc1oy58u 

 

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Handcruser

Handcruser 2805

Posted
Posted
Gillispie once forced a player to practice until he broke his legs, and then he made that player run bleachers with his broken legs.   He also terrorized secretaries, assistant coaches and student managers in his drunken fury before having to check into a mental health facility within a year.
Chris Beard once asked for extra butter at an event honoring Chris Beard.   He also did nothing to stop donors from making donations to the university.  And he left for a better job after putting in years of excellent work for us.
Who is the worse of these two men?  That I cannot say - except it’s obviously Chris Beard.  That sociopath probably has women starving in pits in his basement so he can make a suit out of their skin.   One day the FBI will return my calls about him and you will all see what kind of evil the University of Texas has corrupted in him!  You will rue the day, Longhorns!  You have broken our physical covenant with your wickedness, and now you will suffer our wrath!   You better not set foot North of Brady ever again, for our vengeance is swift and merciless and very dusty and allergenic!

That’s beautiful. Really, really beautiful.
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closetojumping

closetojumping 62883

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

That article is a masterpiece of the depraved message board fanatic. Total loss of grip on reality mixed with delusions of grandeur, a massive inferiority complex, and flat out emotional instability reaching the level of psychosis. 
I’m not sure how many people in the entire country could reach his level and pen such a work of art. The only person that comes to mind is Taylor Hamm if Jimbo left aggy for a place like Texas or Alabama, and if that ever happens, I expect you to purchase a domain and provide him a platform to display his lunacy for all to see. 

The guy who casually drops coelenterate in his posting is unfamiliar with gravamen? 
 

200w.gif?cid=82a1493bads7f3mky4onc1oy58u 

 

Listen, we all learned about coelenterates in biology classes at some point. Maybe we all didn't start calling pussies that in school when we needed a less boring synonym, but hey. I read a ton and always have. I feel like I've never encountered the word "gravamen", but I have a feeling it's a go-to for you at professor/alumni parties on campus at Harvey Mudd or Swarthmore or wherever you've currently received tenure for your "Cryptozoology" or "Interrogating Masculinity" course teachings. 

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52616

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Posted
47 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I'm going to subscribe to their site just so I can read his shit. Maybe I'll use a tech-esque handle and square off with him in DonQuixote-Ignatius J Reilly-level sparring matches of the obliviously absurd. 

I mean, how could you not?

 

also, abscond is a great word in the right context, which is to say used according to its definition.  When someone tries to sneak away or disappear undetected with something of value, there is no better or more descriptive word. I can see why the likes of you or brisket wouldn’t like it though, with its nod to brevity by using one word to convey all that information. 

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RGBIII

RGBIII 22840

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Posted
1 hour ago, longhornmatt said:

Gillispie once forced a player to practice until he broke his legs, and then he made that player run bleachers with his broken legs.   He also terrorized secretaries, assistant coaches and student managers in his drunken fury before having to check into a mental health facility within a year.

Chris Beard once asked for extra butter at an event honoring Chris Beard.   He also did nothing to stop donors from making donations to the university.  And he left for a better job after putting in years of excellent work for us.

Who is the worse of these two men?  That I cannot say - except it’s obviously Chris Beard.  That sociopath probably has women starving in pits in his basement so he can make a suit out of their skin.   One day the FBI will return my calls about him and you will all see what kind of evil the University of Texas has corrupted in him!  You will rue the day, Longhorns!  You have broken our physical covenant with your wickedness, and now you will suffer our wrath!   You better not set foot North of Brady ever again, for our vengeance is swift and merciless and very dusty and allergenic!

Turns out this Beard guy is Jeffery Dahmer reincarnated because he asked for extra butter once lol holy shit! That article needs to live in infamy forever wow! I’m going to read it live on next weeks podcast, everyone has to hear this shit 

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62883

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20 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I mean, how could you not?

 

also, abscond is a great word in the right context, which is to say used according to its definition.  When someone tries to sneak away or disappear undetected with something of value, there is no better or more descriptive word. I can see why the likes of you or brisket wouldn’t like it though, with its nod to brevity by using one word to convey all that information. 

There's something about brevity that really inspires the unexceptional.

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62883

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39 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

No, there’s something about brevity that doesn’t hide the unexceptional.  
 

Brevity is the soul of wit- W Shakespeare

Oh, Duck.

1) whoosh

2) It's an odd position to mock the volume within someone's posts while simultaneously having 4x the volume of the target's posts. I dig the carrying forward of this thread's theme of unintentional absurdity though.

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Mo Horn

Mo Horn 8855

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23 hours ago, utdlc said:

Soon after news broke of Beard's departure from Lubbock, junior shooting guard Kyler Edwards announced his intentions to leave the program. No indications have been given of Edwards' next move. Other Red Raiders that I am watching closely for a potential transfer are freshman shooting guard Micah Peavy and freshman small forward Chibuzo Agbo. With Texas needing to fill multiple spots via the transfer portal, I expect Beard and Texas to go all-out after any Red Raider that decides to transfer.

He was asked during the presser whether he'd be open to any Tech players transferring and he didn't answer the question. Maybe he just forgot that part of the question, or maybe he just didn't want to answer it. 

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Dijon Robinson

Dijon Robinson 1511

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6 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

He was asked during the presser whether he'd be open to any Tech players transferring and he didn't answer the question. Maybe he just forgot that part of the question, or maybe he just didn't want to answer it. 

Probably consciously avoided the question seeing that any answer could be walking the fine line on tampering

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UDontKnow

UDontKnow 10450

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

He was asked during the presser whether he'd be open to any Tech players transferring and he didn't answer the question. Maybe he just forgot that part of the question, or maybe he just didn't want to answer it. 

Had Beard even acknowledged the question, Tech probably runs to the NCAA complaining about tampering. That entire town is a toxic cesspool right now.

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maninblack

maninblack 7974

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16 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

He was asked during the presser whether he'd be open to any Tech players transferring and he didn't answer the question. Maybe he just forgot that part of the question, or maybe he just didn't want to answer it. 

He didn't want to answer it because it's a yes. He'd prefer to take that steamer on them without rubbing their face in it.

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Bevo

Bevo 13601

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Posted
2 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Listen, we all learned about coelenterates in biology classes at some point. Maybe we all didn't start calling pussies that in school when we needed a less boring synonym, but hey. I read a ton and always have. I feel like I've never encountered the word "gravamen", but I have a feeling it's a go-to for you at professor/alumni parties on campus at Harvey Mudd or Swarthmore or wherever you've currently received tenure for your "Cryptozoology" or "Interrogating Masculinity" course teachings. 

Good college choices. I have a friend from Swarthmore (with MD/PhD from Stanford) who is incredibly arrogant about his education - nah, really about everything - and he is always keen to tell me about the Nobel prize winners from there and how much more difficult his education was than at Harvard where his brother attended. I give him a hard time, but unfortunately, he is one of the brightest guys that I know. He can go into a room with the CEO of Pfizer and the VP of R&D and no one will question him: The dude has some confidence.

 

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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8397

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Posted
5 hours ago, UDontKnow said:

Seriously, there is a reason we call them Tceh Tards.

I think it is Tech, all of their fans, and all of Lubbock that live in a world of delusion. Tech might see us as their ultimate rival, but we certainly never have.

That story about extra butter just exudes pettiness. Beard is nowhere close to being in the same league as Gillispie and any stretch to compare the two is farcical.

How about acknowledging that this entirely a business? I don't recall Tech telling Beard to go back to UNLV to honor his contract and that it was wrong to ditch them after only 10 days.

Tech should act like they have been there. Oh wait, they haven't.

 

Get your grades up, or get your guns up!

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runthebone

runthebone 8047

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Posted
2 hours ago, Bevo said:

Good college choices. I have a friend from Swarthmore (with MD/PhD from Stanford) who is incredibly arrogant about his education - nah, really about everything - and he is always keen to tell me about the Nobel prize winners from there and how much more difficult his education was than at Harvard where his brother attended. I give him a hard time, but unfortunately, he is one of the brightest guys that I know. He can go into a room with the CEO of Pfizer and the VP of R&D and no one will question him: The dude has some confidence.

 

Well, your friend and his brother both applied to Harvard...

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Irieguy

Irieguy 1059

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Posted
7 hours ago, closetojumping said:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

That is perhaps the single greatest article I have ever read. It’s hilariously absurd. I may read it daily. Hahahahahahahaha

Same.  It’s so enjoyable to realize there are Tech 24/7 readers that truly believe there is a single restaurant in America that limits the amount of butter you can get. What tubes to believe that story is remotely possible. 

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Bevo14

Bevo14 8380

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9 hours ago, Ricky's one-hitter said:

This is amazing. Via @Longhornfrenzy

  Hide contents

Tech 247 mod is butthurt


Chris Beard: Following in Billy Clyde Gillispie's Footsteps41


JoeYeager

Chris Beard and Billy Clyde Gillispie did not get along. In 2011, Beard was an assistant coach for Gillispie at Texas Tech. During one interchange between Beard and Gillispie, the two very nearly came to blows and had to be separated by athletic director Kirby Hocutt. Gillispie went on to coach the Red Raiders during the 2011-12 season. Beard left Lubbock to coach in the ABA for a season.

Gillispie was fired during that season. His team was bad enough. But far worse was Gillispie’s behavior. His maltreatment of players, assistant coaches and staff was the stuff of legend. Gillispie was a sadistic abuser. He forced his players to practice for so long that one of them, Kader Tapsoba, developed stress fractures in his legs, and despite the injuries, was required to run bleachers.

Gillispie was also a megalomaniac. He came, quite literally from dirt. The son of a poor cattle truck driver in Abilene and then Graford, Texas, Gillispie rose through the coaching ranks to become the head coach at Kentucky, arguably the most prestigious coaching position in basketball, college or pro.

The meteoric ascendence was apparently too much for him to handle. For example, soon after being hired by Kentucky he picked a fight with a television corporation that covered the Wildcats. In essence, he refused to conduct interviews, which were considered entirely de rigeur, with that corporation. Gillispie and the TV outlet butted heads until he decided to cut a deal. If the corporation agreed to purchase a massive quantity of expensive suits of Gillispie’s choice, Gillispie would participate in interviews. The corporation agreed and spent many thousands of dollars on Gillispie’s wardrobe. When Gillispie was fired from Kentucky, the movers responsible for cleaning out Gillispie’s palace reported that his closets were filled with unworn suits.

Clearly, something snapped in Gillispie’s mind while he was at Kentucky. It is easy to surmise that, having worked his way from nothing to the pinnacle of the game of basketball, Gillispie deified himself. He lost touch with reality and viewed himself as a maker of his own laws rather than as a mere human being subject to the laws of society. Ultimately, this irrationality proved Gillispie’s downfall. After having led Texas A&M to the Sweet Sixteen in 2007, Gillispie’s career moved into retrograde at Kentucky and then Texas Tech. During his lone year at Tech, he checked himself into the Mayo Clinic for physical and mental health problems and resigned. His next coaching stop was at Ranger College, and he’s now the head coach at Tarleton. A far cry from Kentucky.

The past of Chris Beard, formerly head coach at Texas Tech and now at Texas, is not quite so checkered. Not yet, anyway. There have been no allegations of abusive behavior, and he has never been fired for any sort of wrongdoing. However, in light of Beard’s unutterably callous resignation from Texas Tech to take the head coaching position at arch-rival Texas, there are signs that Beard may be more like Gillispie than is supposed. And he may ultimately suffer a similar fate.

Beard’s early life is obscure. It’s a subject he has never discussed in any detail publicly. We know he was born in Marietta, Georgia, but spent most of his youth in The Woodlands and Irving, Texas.

Beard’s background may not have been as hardscrabble as Gillispie’s, but it is clear that he didn’t come from privilege. Beard has said on more than one occasion that “guys like me get only one chance.” He was implying that, unlike the golden boys of the profession, he didn’t have a network of high-placed backers to help him in the case of setbacks.

Beard was fond of referring to himself and his team as “street dogs,” in contrast to pampered and precious “pet shop dogs.” Again, he portrayed himself as a denizen of the lower ranks.

Beard also recounted how, as a young boy, he saved his nickels and dimes so he could attend a basketball camp at Texas Tech conducted by former Red Raider coach Gerald Myers. Such an action does not indicate that Beard came from wealth.

So, Beard presumably comes from a socioeconomic background not all that different from Gillispie, and he arguably climbed to even greater heights. Beard has yet to land a coaching position as prestigious as the Kentucky posting, but unlike Gillispie, Beard coached in the national title game, coming up one defensive stop short of winning a natty for Texas Tech.

Did this vertiginous ascent from obscurity to fame affect Beard psychologically as it seems to have affected Gillispie? There is reason to believe so.

Soon after the 2019 tournament run, Texas Tech held a party in United Supermarkets Arena to celebrate the stupendous season. ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla was master of ceremonies. Fraschilla related an interesting anecdote about Beard. He said that, soon after the title game, he was at a gala event for coaches in which Beard was in attendance. All of the luminaries were in some sort of buffet line. Beard had his food but demanded extra butter. The server replied that there was a limit on butter, no exceptions. According to Fraschilla, Beard replied: “Don’t you know who I am? I just led Texas Tech to the national championship game, and I can’t get extra butter?” The server responded, “And I’m the butter guy and you still get only one pad!”

Those in attendance tittered nervously. This story didn’t gibe with their image of Beard as the common man people’s coach. On the contrary, it reeked of extreme arrogance and egocentrism. This was not the Chris Beard they thought they knew.

Since that marvelous season, Beard really hasn’t been quite the same. He received a lavish contract reserved for only the royalty of the coaching profession. With generous subventions from Dustin Womble and many others, Beard oversaw the creation of an opulent new practice facility that outstrips any other in the college game. And “The Womble” was bedizened with a mammoth mural of Chris Beard himself. Whatever the Emperor of West Texas wanted, the Emperor of West Texas got.

During the past season, Beard repeatedly made the bizarre claim that, if the Red Raiders made the NCAA tournament, it would be Texas Tech’s fourth straight tourney appearance. But that clearly was not the case. The previous NCAA tournament had been cancelled, and had it not been cancelled, there was absolutely no certainty that Tech would have received an at-large berth. The general consensus was that the Red Raiders were squarely on the bubble. Here was a case of an Emperor trying to will history into existence. It was a textbook case of megalomania.

But the massive contract, the construction of the Womble Palace and the prerogative to reinvent Texas Tech basketball history as he saw fit, were not enough. A little more than a week after Texas coach Shaka Smart decamped to Marquette, Beard did the same to Texas.

Beard had been at Texas Tech, in one capacity or another, for 16 years. He improbably led the Red Raiders to an Elite Eight and then the national title game. Texas Tech, Lubbock and all of West Texas fell in love with Beard. Some people felt so strongly about Beard that they donated millions of dollars to the construction of The Womble with the understanding that this building would be a physical covenant between Texas Tech and Beard. Like a wedding band, this facility would bind Beard and Texas Tech together for the long haul. And Beard understood this subtext as well as anybody.

Nevertheless, when the coaching opportunity arose at Texas, the ultimate enemy of Texas Tech, Beard took a roto-tiller to the roots he had established in West Texas. He forsook and severed every single of the multifarious personal relations he had established in his time at Texas Tech. He abandoned the former players he recruited to become Red Raiders. And he pulled out an ice pick and stabbed in the back the hundreds of thousands of fans who adored him and supported him unconditionally.

It was an act of shocking disregard for the feelings of others. It was not only cruel, it was utterly thoughtless. It was as if all of the people who poured their heart and soul (and money) into Beard and his basketball program, meant absolutely nothing to him.

There is a psychological term for those who view other human beings as mere tools for their own gratification and aggrandizement. The term is sociopath. Whether or not Beard fits the clinical definition of a sociopath, I cannot say. But what I can say with complete certainty is that his behavior in accepting the Texas job was sociopathic.

And this brings us back to Billy Clyde Gillispie. Gillispie, presumably because he could not effectively process his own dirt-to-diamonds story, developed a megalomania in conjunction with his preexisting sadism, that led to his own downfall and nearly his self-destruction.

Chris Beard is manifesting a similar pattern. After the pinnacle of nearly winning the national championship, the quality of his next two basketball teams diminished dramatically. Two years ago, the Red Raiders finished 18-13 and may not have made the NCAA tournament had it not been cancelled. Last season, Tech finished 18-11 and was bounced by Arkansas from the Big Dance in the second round. Over the course of those two seasons, the Red Raiders recorded a 18-17 mark in Big XII play. Not bad, but hardly the stuff of coaching genius.

It is entirely possible that Beard’s mental condition has reduced his functioning as a coach and as a person. If that is so, we have already seen the best of Beard, and will now witness his decline. I do not believe he will disintegrate as Gillispie did for the simple reason that he is more mentally stable than Gillispie. But I am convinced he will never reach the heights in Austin that he did in Lubbock. And if Beard’s coaching career does decline, that will be only a modest recompense for him having kicked his great good fortune in the teeth

 

Quote

Some people felt so strongly about Beard that they donated millions of dollars to the construction of The Womble with the understanding that this building would be a physical covenant between Texas Tech and Beard. Like a wedding band, this facility would bind Beard and Texas Tech together for the long haul. And Beard understood this subtext as well as anybody.

 

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62883

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Posted
6 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

You win, sir. That's quite possibly the best characterization of CTJ's Surly persona.

Ha. He caught a quote I re-purposed from one of the finest characters in film history. Grossly misunderstood and unappreciated in his own time. 

I like to think of myself as more of De Niro’s Sam the American in Ronin on Surly. However, I can get behind the Robert California premise. 

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RGBIII

RGBIII 22840

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Ha. He caught a quote I re-purposed from one of the finest characters in film history. Grossly misunderstood and unappreciated in his own time. 

I like to think of myself as more of De Niro’s Sam the American in Ronin on Surly. However, I can get behind the Robert California premise. 

image.gif.9e7429c79908a5f36eec9f6755a89494.gif

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MuellerHorn

MuellerHorn 4368

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Ha. He caught a quote I re-purposed from one of the finest characters in film history. Grossly misunderstood and unappreciated in his own time. 

I like to think of myself as more of De Niro’s Sam the American in Ronin on Surly. However, I can get behind the Robert California premise. 

 

The well placed De Niro predilection continues. I support it.
 
Fandom lists these as Sam's central traits: High-strung, Level-Headed, Brave, Protective, Wise, Honest, Well-Meaning, Caring, Loyal, Serious (formerly), Diplomatic.
 
I'll let the maniacs of Surly decide for themselves.
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HenryJames

HenryJames 66188

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Posted
19 hours ago, closetojumping said:

Here's another one from yesterday from this guy. He runs down one of their star players for entering the portal and laboriously works through why the guy was a mediocrity and they'll be better off without him. The player, Kyler Edwards, inconveniently led the team in minutes played, assists per game, averaged 10pts and 5 rebounds, shot 42% from 3 point land and was second on the team in steals. He scored 12 points as a freshman in the national title game - but they're better off without this trash, just like the coach who just "absconded" to Austin. 

https://247sports.com/college/texas-tech/Article/Kyler-Edwards-Abandons-Ship-Chris-Beard-163095872/

He's used a couple of words in the two articles that I actually had to look up. I mean, I'm impressed with whatever thesaurus app he's using, but it is hilariously forced. "One of the most common reasons players transfer is a lack of playing time. That cannot have been Edwards’ gravamen. " Gravamen - right. I know what abscond means, but on the rare occasion someone's used it in conversation I've simultaneously added them the list of people I'd like to punch in the face repeatedly. @SydneyCarton , not coincidentally, incorporates both "gravamen" and "abscond" in his casual conversations on a daily basis.

I'm going to subscribe to their site just so I can read his shit. Maybe I'll use a tech-esque handle and square off with him in DonQuixote-Ignatius J Reilly-level sparring matches of the obliviously absurd. 

This him?

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/library/about/staff/yeager-joseph/index.php

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62883

Posted
Posted

 

4 hours ago, HenryJames said:

This him?

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/library/about/staff/yeager-joseph/index.php

 

3 hours ago, SydneyCarton said:

Yup. That’s exactly what I’d expect a Tech librarian to look like. 

Holy shit. This guy is a librarian at the school he’s unhealthily obsessed with? He’s got to be setting off all kinds of serial killer profile alarms. 

We need to call this guy at that number and interview him about his review of Chris Beard and record it. I doubt it would take long for him to venture into his theories about Beard being into ritualistic sacrifice or running an underaged prostitution ring. 

“Well, look, since it sounds like you’re getting the same reads on this guy as I am, I’ll go ahead and tell you a few things I simply couldn’t write about publicly without the Beard-led underground crime ring coming after me. For one, it is my considered and informed belief that Chris Beard has been running a fencing initiative in west Texas for Texas Tech female athletic used uniforms and undergarments. They’ve been having inventory problems on that end since Beard and I arrived around the same time. It has to be a Texas Tech employee obsessed with athletics. For two, it’s a well-known fact that Chris Beard has been sneaking into public libraries after hours for years, and it’s at that point in which we believe he’s been masturbating into books and historical documents about Texas Tech athletics and its storied history. Finally, it is my suspicion that Chris Beard is in cahoots with a one Mike Leach for the single-minded purpose of subverting Texas Tech athletics in an effort to prevent our prophesized ascent into multi-sport NCAA primacy.”

The story about Beard being “denied butter” and going all “do you know who I am!!?!” is perhaps the single greatest thing I have ever read, specifically because this guy and his audience believes it. 

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52616

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

 

 

Holy shit. This guy is a librarian at the school he’s unhealthily obsessed with? He’s got to be setting off all kinds of serial killer profile alarms. 

We need to call this guy at that number and interview him about his review of Chris Beard and record it. I doubt it would take long for him to venture into his theories about Beard being into ritualistic sacrifice or running an underaged prostitution ring. 

“Well, look, since it sounds like you’re getting the same reads on this guy as I am, I’ll go ahead and tell you a few things I simply couldn’t write about publicly without the Beard-led underground crime ring coming after me. For one, it is my considered and informed belief that Chris Beard has been running a fencing initiative in west Texas for Texas Tech female athletic used uniforms and undergarments. They’ve been having inventory problems on that end since Beard and I arrived around the same time. It has to be a Texas Tech employee obsessed with athletics. For two, it’s a well-known fact that Chris Beard has been sneaking into public libraries after hours for years, and it’s at that point in which we believe he’s been masturbating into books and historical documents about Texas Tech athletics and its storied history. Finally, it is my suspicion that Chris Beard is in cahoots with a one Mike Leach for the single-minded purpose of subverting Texas Tech athletics in an effort to prevent our prophesized ascent into multi-sport NCAA primacy.”

The story about Beard being “denied butter” and going all “do you know who I am!!?!” is perhaps the single greatest thing I have ever read, specifically because this guy and his audience believes it. 

@immamac @RGBIII

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cafe society

cafe society 2876

Posted
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On 4/2/2021 at 9:06 AM, Ricky's one-hitter said:

This is amazing. Via @Longhornfrenzy

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Tech 247 mod is butthurt


Chris Beard: Following in Billy Clyde Gillispie's Footsteps41


JoeYeager

Chris Beard and Billy Clyde Gillispie did not get along. In 2011, Beard was an assistant coach for Gillispie at Texas Tech. During one interchange between Beard and Gillispie, the two very nearly came to blows and had to be separated by athletic director Kirby Hocutt. Gillispie went on to coach the Red Raiders during the 2011-12 season. Beard left Lubbock to coach in the ABA for a season.

Gillispie was fired during that season. His team was bad enough. But far worse was Gillispie’s behavior. His maltreatment of players, assistant coaches and staff was the stuff of legend. Gillispie was a sadistic abuser. He forced his players to practice for so long that one of them, Kader Tapsoba, developed stress fractures in his legs, and despite the injuries, was required to run bleachers.

Gillispie was also a megalomaniac. He came, quite literally from dirt. The son of a poor cattle truck driver in Abilene and then Graford, Texas, Gillispie rose through the coaching ranks to become the head coach at Kentucky, arguably the most prestigious coaching position in basketball, college or pro.

The meteoric ascendence was apparently too much for him to handle. For example, soon after being hired by Kentucky he picked a fight with a television corporation that covered the Wildcats. In essence, he refused to conduct interviews, which were considered entirely de rigeur, with that corporation. Gillispie and the TV outlet butted heads until he decided to cut a deal. If the corporation agreed to purchase a massive quantity of expensive suits of Gillispie’s choice, Gillispie would participate in interviews. The corporation agreed and spent many thousands of dollars on Gillispie’s wardrobe. When Gillispie was fired from Kentucky, the movers responsible for cleaning out Gillispie’s palace reported that his closets were filled with unworn suits.

Clearly, something snapped in Gillispie’s mind while he was at Kentucky. It is easy to surmise that, having worked his way from nothing to the pinnacle of the game of basketball, Gillispie deified himself. He lost touch with reality and viewed himself as a maker of his own laws rather than as a mere human being subject to the laws of society. Ultimately, this irrationality proved Gillispie’s downfall. After having led Texas A&M to the Sweet Sixteen in 2007, Gillispie’s career moved into retrograde at Kentucky and then Texas Tech. During his lone year at Tech, he checked himself into the Mayo Clinic for physical and mental health problems and resigned. His next coaching stop was at Ranger College, and he’s now the head coach at Tarleton. A far cry from Kentucky.

The past of Chris Beard, formerly head coach at Texas Tech and now at Texas, is not quite so checkered. Not yet, anyway. There have been no allegations of abusive behavior, and he has never been fired for any sort of wrongdoing. However, in light of Beard’s unutterably callous resignation from Texas Tech to take the head coaching position at arch-rival Texas, there are signs that Beard may be more like Gillispie than is supposed. And he may ultimately suffer a similar fate.

Beard’s early life is obscure. It’s a subject he has never discussed in any detail publicly. We know he was born in Marietta, Georgia, but spent most of his youth in The Woodlands and Irving, Texas.

Beard’s background may not have been as hardscrabble as Gillispie’s, but it is clear that he didn’t come from privilege. Beard has said on more than one occasion that “guys like me get only one chance.” He was implying that, unlike the golden boys of the profession, he didn’t have a network of high-placed backers to help him in the case of setbacks.

Beard was fond of referring to himself and his team as “street dogs,” in contrast to pampered and precious “pet shop dogs.” Again, he portrayed himself as a denizen of the lower ranks.

Beard also recounted how, as a young boy, he saved his nickels and dimes so he could attend a basketball camp at Texas Tech conducted by former Red Raider coach Gerald Myers. Such an action does not indicate that Beard came from wealth.

So, Beard presumably comes from a socioeconomic background not all that different from Gillispie, and he arguably climbed to even greater heights. Beard has yet to land a coaching position as prestigious as the Kentucky posting, but unlike Gillispie, Beard coached in the national title game, coming up one defensive stop short of winning a natty for Texas Tech.

Did this vertiginous ascent from obscurity to fame affect Beard psychologically as it seems to have affected Gillispie? There is reason to believe so.

Soon after the 2019 tournament run, Texas Tech held a party in United Supermarkets Arena to celebrate the stupendous season. ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla was master of ceremonies. Fraschilla related an interesting anecdote about Beard. He said that, soon after the title game, he was at a gala event for coaches in which Beard was in attendance. All of the luminaries were in some sort of buffet line. Beard had his food but demanded extra butter. The server replied that there was a limit on butter, no exceptions. According to Fraschilla, Beard replied: “Don’t you know who I am? I just led Texas Tech to the national championship game, and I can’t get extra butter?” The server responded, “And I’m the butter guy and you still get only one pad!”

Those in attendance tittered nervously. This story didn’t gibe with their image of Beard as the common man people’s coach. On the contrary, it reeked of extreme arrogance and egocentrism. This was not the Chris Beard they thought they knew.

Since that marvelous season, Beard really hasn’t been quite the same. He received a lavish contract reserved for only the royalty of the coaching profession. With generous subventions from Dustin Womble and many others, Beard oversaw the creation of an opulent new practice facility that outstrips any other in the college game. And “The Womble” was bedizened with a mammoth mural of Chris Beard himself. Whatever the Emperor of West Texas wanted, the Emperor of West Texas got.

During the past season, Beard repeatedly made the bizarre claim that, if the Red Raiders made the NCAA tournament, it would be Texas Tech’s fourth straight tourney appearance. But that clearly was not the case. The previous NCAA tournament had been cancelled, and had it not been cancelled, there was absolutely no certainty that Tech would have received an at-large berth. The general consensus was that the Red Raiders were squarely on the bubble. Here was a case of an Emperor trying to will history into existence. It was a textbook case of megalomania.

But the massive contract, the construction of the Womble Palace and the prerogative to reinvent Texas Tech basketball history as he saw fit, were not enough. A little more than a week after Texas coach Shaka Smart decamped to Marquette, Beard did the same to Texas.

Beard had been at Texas Tech, in one capacity or another, for 16 years. He improbably led the Red Raiders to an Elite Eight and then the national title game. Texas Tech, Lubbock and all of West Texas fell in love with Beard. Some people felt so strongly about Beard that they donated millions of dollars to the construction of The Womble with the understanding that this building would be a physical covenant between Texas Tech and Beard. Like a wedding band, this facility would bind Beard and Texas Tech together for the long haul. And Beard understood this subtext as well as anybody.

Nevertheless, when the coaching opportunity arose at Texas, the ultimate enemy of Texas Tech, Beard took a roto-tiller to the roots he had established in West Texas. He forsook and severed every single of the multifarious personal relations he had established in his time at Texas Tech. He abandoned the former players he recruited to become Red Raiders. And he pulled out an ice pick and stabbed in the back the hundreds of thousands of fans who adored him and supported him unconditionally.

It was an act of shocking disregard for the feelings of others. It was not only cruel, it was utterly thoughtless. It was as if all of the people who poured their heart and soul (and money) into Beard and his basketball program, meant absolutely nothing to him.

There is a psychological term for those who view other human beings as mere tools for their own gratification and aggrandizement. The term is sociopath. Whether or not Beard fits the clinical definition of a sociopath, I cannot say. But what I can say with complete certainty is that his behavior in accepting the Texas job was sociopathic.

And this brings us back to Billy Clyde Gillispie. Gillispie, presumably because he could not effectively process his own dirt-to-diamonds story, developed a megalomania in conjunction with his preexisting sadism, that led to his own downfall and nearly his self-destruction.

Chris Beard is manifesting a similar pattern. After the pinnacle of nearly winning the national championship, the quality of his next two basketball teams diminished dramatically. Two years ago, the Red Raiders finished 18-13 and may not have made the NCAA tournament had it not been cancelled. Last season, Tech finished 18-11 and was bounced by Arkansas from the Big Dance in the second round. Over the course of those two seasons, the Red Raiders recorded a 18-17 mark in Big XII play. Not bad, but hardly the stuff of coaching genius.

It is entirely possible that Beard’s mental condition has reduced his functioning as a coach and as a person. If that is so, we have already seen the best of Beard, and will now witness his decline. I do not believe he will disintegrate as Gillispie did for the simple reason that he is more mentally stable than Gillispie. But I am convinced he will never reach the heights in Austin that he did in Lubbock. And if Beard’s coaching career does decline, that will be only a modest recompense for him having kicked his great good fortune in the teeth

 

This Tech moderator doesn't go by the moniker of "Q", does he?

 

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