Beard exudes positivity before 1st season
AUSTIN — A replica “BELIEVE” poster from the popular show “Ted Lasso” is taped across the door at eye level, so one can't possibly miss it.
Not that one would overlook a yellow rectangle with bold blue lettering plastered against the walnut-colored entrance leading into the Nancy & Shelton Boyton Coaches Lounge tucked inside the Longhorns' practice facility.
Chris Beard knows how some might construe the Lasso-ism. Corny at best, insincere at worst.
When asked about the sign and the inspiration, the new coach of Texas men's basketball sinks a little deeper into one of the lounge's tanned leather lounge chairs to talk about Apple TV'S fictional fish-out-of-water coach who kills 'em with an almost tactical kindness.
“Man, I just think there's a place in today's world for positivity,” Beard said last week during a sit-down with the Express-news. “When you start the show, it's a little bit fluffy and corny. But then, when you hang in there, it's not. Like that's just who he is. And the foundation of our whole culture is thankfulness. To me, you can't be negative when you understand how lucky you are.”
Beard considers himself pretty lucky these days.
Two decades ago, he was figuring out how to win at Fort Scott (Kan.) Community College. Ten years later, he was a temporary college hoops castaway coaching the semi-professional South Carolina Warriors of the American Basketball Association to a league championship appearance. Today, he's an Associated Press national coach of the year winner and the new coach of Texas men's hoops, a job he'll earn $5 million per year to perform.
Beard's also finally back where it all began. The 1995 Texas grad once served as a student assistant to Tom Penders, who coached the Longhorns to 208 wins and three Southwest Conference titles from 1988-98.
But Texas hasn't claimed a conference championship since 2008 and hasn't won an NCAA Tournament game since 2014. And it wasn't until last season, the program's 24th season in the Big 12, that it finally earned a conference tournament title banner.
That win over Oklahoma State
earned the Longhorns a No. 3 seed, a distinction worth zilch to 14th-seeded Abilene Christian, which stifled former coach Shaka Smart’s team in a stunning 53-52 first-round upset. That final score sparked a chain reaction with massive ripples — Smart accepted a job at Marquette and Beard decamped from Lubbock to Austin, in the process alienating a region that begged him to stay.
One fan site proclaimed, “Chris Beard proved to be nothing but a fraud.” Local television stations published myriad stories about “heartbroken” fans in the shellshocked region. And Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocuttsaid he didn’t “totally understand” while grumbling about Beard providing “no opportunity” for the Red Raiders to counter Texas’ offer of $35 million over seven years.
“I’m really not in the world of the hate,” Beard said, again channeling Lasso. “I hear things from time to time, but you know, it was a difficult decision to leave something that we had built and something that was really important to all of us.”
Here, Beard paused for about two breaths before continuing on.
“But it was an easy decision to accept this next challenge, the next opportunity,” Beard said. “So a chance to coach at Texas in the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, with this brand and the history and tradition of this program, it was just the next opportunity. It had nothing to do with the previous place. It had everything to do with the opportunity here.”
Texas has been squandering opportunities for about a decade now. It’s like the Longhorns have been sitting atop an gargantuan untapped oil deposit, one Beard hopes to tap to turn this team into a “Monday night program,” his preferred phrasing for a national championship contender.
Athletic director Chris Del Conte isn’t pounding the table and demanding the program’s first national title in Year 1 of the new regime. But the expectations will be astronomical after Beard and his cadre of accomplished lieutenants — assistants Rodney Terry, Jerrance Howard and Ulric Maligi, managing director Chris Ogden and special assistant Bob Donewald Jr. — ransacked the NCAA transfer portal for its best and brightest.
Texas landed maybe the most coveted transfer in the land in Marcus Carr, a lethal All-big Ten first-team guard who averaged 19.4 points, 4.9 assists, 4.0 rebounds for Minnesota last season. Utah transfer forward Timmy Allen is versatility incarnate. Center Tre Mitchell gobbled boards (7.2 per game) and put up big points (18.8 per game) for Umass. And that’s not even half of the incoming production.
In total, Texas’ seven transfers averaged 89.1 points, 36.5 rebounds, 16.9 assists, 6.7 steals and 4.5 blocks per game last season. They’ll join veteran guards Courtney Ramey, Andrew Jones, Brock Cunningham and Jase Febres to form one of the most complete teams in the nation.
Blending those newcomers with guys who spent years playing for Shaka Smart is, Beard admitted, an ongoing process. But so far, so good.
“I think we’ll end up being one of the most experienced teams in college basketball in terms of games played and some of our guys,” said Beard, who will carry a 142-60 coaching record into this season. “But then, on the other hand, we’re like the most inexperienced experienced team in college basketball. We know it’s going to be a process. But the guys are trying really hard. Our internal chemistry has been good, and we’re proud of this first team we’re going to put on the floor. This team won’t have an asterisk or excuses.”
Toward the end of our 40-minute conversation, Beard delves into his off-court life. “Pretty simple guy,” he said. Loves hanging out with his three daughters. Loves spending time with his fiancée, Randi Trew. Loves Lasso.
Beard even started showing a “Lasso clip of the week” to the guys. He said everybody in the organization is watching it, or at least they’re supposed to be. Because Beard wants them be thankful, wants them to find the positives, and most of all, he wants them to believe.