The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beard’s long road back to Texas Tech pays off
Coach has made No. 10 Red Raiders Big 12 contenders.
LUBBOCK,TEXAS— ChrisBeard spent a decade as an assistant coach at Texas Tech for the Knights, first Bobby and then Pat.
When that ended with a head coaching change by the Red Raiders after the 2010-11 season, Beard never thought about whether he would ever get back to Lubbock — or even Division I basketball. He just loved coaching.
“The decision to take a year off or try to do some media stuff, it never really entered my mind,” Beard said. “I just remember like always being immersed in the job we had.”
First there was a season leading a South Carolina expansion team in the semipro American Basketball Association that won its first 29 games before losing in the ABA finals. There were stops at two lower-division schools in Texas the next three years before a magical 30-win season at Arkansas-Little Rock that included an upset of Purdue in the 2016 NCAA Tournament.
“He didn’t take the easy road,” Texas Tech Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt said. “... I admired his journey, followed his journey.”
And that led to Beard’s sudden and awkwardly timed reunion nearly two years ago with the No. 10 Red Raiders (18-4, 6-3 Big 12), who before last month hadn’t been ranked that high in more than two decades. They are only a game behind No. 7 and perennial Big 12 champion Kansas halfway through the conference schedule, and already with their first victory ever at Allen Fieldhouse.
After the Red Raiders lost to Butler in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, Hocutt and others in the travel party waiting to go home huddled around their phones in an airport and watched the end of Little Rock’s double-overtime win over Purdue.
Hocutt didn’t know then he would be looking for a new coach just a few weeks later, when Tubby Smith left after only three seasons to go to Memphis.
“Tubby’s situation happened quickly and out of the blue, but we knew that there was, at the top of our list, one individual who made perfect sense for us,” said Hocutt, who became Tech’s AD only a short time before firing Pat Knight.
Except there was one slight issue. Smith’s departure came after Beard had just accepted a five-year contract to be UNLV’s new coach.
“I wish the timing would have been different, but life gives you different opportunities at different times,” Beard said. “... Texas Tech is a school that I have an association with, a past with. Obviously it’s the Big 12 Conference, a chance to compete for a national championship if you’re relative in your league.”