Texas Tech Basketball: Head coach Chris Beard’s fast track to stardom

Beard spurns UNLV to return to Lubbock as the head coach

Beard was riding high and sure to be one of the most sought-after coaches in the summer of 2016, and he was, by more than one school.

A little over a week after Little Rock’s season ended, it appeared Beard had found his next landing spot, having accepted the head coaching job at UNLV, who had fired Dave Rice in the middle of the season. Things were in place for Beard to turn around the once storied Mountain West program, and he said as much during his April 8th press conference, but over the next week, Tubby Smith left Texas Tech for Memphis and the Red Raiders swooped in and took UNLV’s man before the ink could dry on the contract.

On April 15th, Beard was announced as the next head coach at Texas Tech with Beard citing the 10-plus years he spent under Bobby and Pat Knight at the school as a driving factor in his decision, and now Texas Tech may see that course of events as the biggest stroke of luck in the history of their men’s basketball program.

Beard has now spent three years in Lubbock, the longest he has spent at any stop and in those three years he has made Texas Tech, a national force in college basketball. His first season in 2016-17 was a bit of a struggle as they went just 6-12 in the Big 12 and 18-14 overall. Even though the wins and losses didn’t translate as much as Beard had hoped during his first year, the defense was still there as Texas Tech opponents averaged just 67 points per game while shooting 43% from the field.

Two years ago, Beard’s imprint on the program really began to take hold. That year, Texas Tech finished 27-10 and 2nd in the Big 12, falling to West Virginia in the semifinals of the conference tournament. They took advantage of an at-large berth to the Big Dance, advancing all the way to the Elite Eight before falling to eventual national champ Villanova. The season could have been even more fruitful for Texas Tech, as just two of the 10 losses came by more than 10 points, a January defeat at Iowa State and the loss to Villanova.  Defensively, the Red Raiders were one of the best teams in the country, allowing just under 65 points per game and only 10 teams in the country allowed opponents to shoot lower than the 40.1% Texas Tech allowed.

So, how would Beard handle expectations coming off such a successful season? Turns out he and the Red Raiders would handle them just fine. They began the season 10-0 and ranked No. 12 in the country when they faced off with No. 2 Duke at Madison Square Garden. Texas Tech held their own for 34 minutes but was outscored 16-3 over the game’s final 6:25, falling 69-58. After a three-game losing skid in January, Beard’s team would finish the year with a regular-season Big 12 title, ending the longstanding Kansas reign but would fall to West Virginia for the second year in a row in the conference tournament.

They would enter the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed and an even better defensive team than the one that reached the Elite Eight the season prior, finishing the year as the No. 3 defense in the country, allowing 59.6 points per game and only Houston allowed teams to shoot a lower percentage than Texas Tech’s 37%. In the West Region, they knocked off Northern Kentucky, Buffalo, and the top two seeds, Michigan and Gonzaga on the way to their first Final Four, surrendering just 57 points per game. In the national semifinal, they held Michigan State to just 51 points en route to a meeting with another defensive stalwart, Virginia, with the national title in the balance. The game turned into an instant classic, but Beard and the Red Raiders would fall just short in the first national title game to go to overtime since 2008 and on the 30th anniversary of Michigan’s overtime win over Seton Hall.

In just seven short years as a head coach, Beard has gone from a small fledgling Division II program in Texas, to the precipice of the pinnacle of the sport at the highest level. That is the definition of a skyrocketing trajectory, and defense is the name of that rocket.