NCAA Basketball: Top 10 head coaching hires from 2021 offseason

2: Chris Beard – Texas Longhorns

Chris Beard was named the 25th head coach in Texas Longhorns men’s basketball program history.

Beard, 48, comes from Texas Tech where he compiled an overall record of 112-55 and led the Red Raiders to five straight winning seasons. Beard’s resume consists of the 2019 AP National Coach of the Year as well as two Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year awards.

Prior to Texas Tech, he has served as the head coach for five other programs including, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Angelo State University, McMurry University, Seminole State College, and Fort Scott Community College.

Beard inherited a Texas Tech program that was coming off consistent losing seasons prior to the Chris Beard era. He was able to turn the program around and we can expect him to do the same with the Texas Longhorns and take them to the next level.

1: Hubert Davis – North Carolina Tar Heels

Hubert Davis, UNC alumnus, will have big shoes to fill as he will succeed Hall of Famer Roy Williams and become the next head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels.

He is an alumnus of UNC where he played under legendary coach Dean Smith.

Davis’s hire as the newest head coach made college basketball and Tar Heel history. He is a first-time college head coach and will be the first-ever Black head coach in Tar Heel program history.

He left his career as an ESPN college basketball analyst to join Roy Williams’ staff on the Tar Heels. Davis, 50,  has spent the last nine seasons as an assistant coach in Chapel Hill.

In the last nine seasons, the Tar Heels played in eight NCAA tournaments and went 228-95. They would advance the Final Four and National Championship games in 2016 and 2017. They would then go on to win the National Championship game in 2017.

Davis is familiar with the Tar Heel culture and knows a thing or two about winning. UNC will look to him to lead one of the most successful programs in college basketball.