Indiana Basketball: 5 candidates to replace Archie Miller as head coach
By Joey Loose
Chris Beard
It’s easy to put together a list of head coaching candidates for any school, especially if you suspend your reality. For example, your favorite mid-major isn’t going to land that recently fired power conference head coach nine times out of ten (unless you’re High Point and Tubby Smith is desperate). Not all the names on this list will realistically consider the Indiana job, but Beard seems like a candidate who could.
Beard has exploded onto the college basketball scene in recent years after a long career (mostly in Texas) coaching junior colleges and serving under Bobby Knight at Texas Tech. In his first D1 head coaching job, he won 30 games at Little Rock and upset 5-seed Purdue in the NCAA Tournament. That success led him back home to Texas Tech, where he led the Red Raiders to the national title game in 2019, a year after a surprise run to the Elite Eight. Beard is a winner and has proven himself more than just about any other coach in college basketball.
Texas Tech has been great in the Big 12 since Beard’s arrival and has clearly shined on the national stage. Would Beard leave that success to take on a bigger challenge at Indiana? He’s had a knack for jumping quickly between jobs, having even been the head coach at UNLV briefly between Little Rock and Texas Tech. Taking Bob Knight’s other program to higher heights would be quite the accomplishment for Beard and would give him a new challenge, though it’s still hard to know if he’d make the move.