Texas Tech Basketball: 9 candidates to replace Chris Beard as head coach
By Joey Loose
After five seasons, Chris Beard is departing Texas Tech Basketball for the Texas job, leaving quite the hole behind with the Red Raiders. A graduate of Texas, Beard’s coaching career has already been impactful and impressive. He’s spent much of the last three decades bouncing between programs, serving as a D1 assistant and a Junior College head coaches at multiple schools.
Among the highlights of his career was a decade under Bob Knight and son Pat at Texas Tech, and his impressive season leading Little Rock to 30 wins and an NCAA Tournament upset win.
Beard took over at Texas Tech in 2016, having previously spent just a few weeks at UNLV. His impact with the Red Raiders was instant, leading the program to the Elite Eight in just his second season. In 2019, he led Texas Tech not only to their first Final Four but to a close-fought national championship game loss to Virginia. His five years with the Red Raiders have produced profound success, especially compared to the time before his involvement with the program.
His departure for Texas will certainly leave a sour taste in the mouth of Red Raiders fans. However, Beard has greatly improved this program in the last five years, even if he is leaving for one of Texas Tech’s rivals. Simply put, the Red Raiders have been part of three straight NCAA Tournaments, which is something that simply didn’t happen often before Beard’s arrival. He left this program in great shape and it’s an attractive job for whoever is chosen to succeed him.
Another Big 12 job has opened up and there will certainly be a number of intriguing candidates for the job. Beard laid the pieces for future success, but it’s all going to depend on what that coach does with the opportunity. The Red Raiders employed Bobby Knight and Tubby Smith and did very little with those outstanding coaches on the sidelines; nabbing a big name to succeed Beard won’t mean that continued success is guaranteed.
The Big 12 remains one of college basketball’s tightest and most competitive conferences and the Red Raiders need to nail this hire. Someone with a Texas background will almost certainly be a requirement, but the Red Raiders could go in any number of directions. We’ll be examining all kinds of names that could take this job and lead this program into the future. Without any more delay, let’s get right into the candidates, which are listed here alphabetically.