NCAA Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Chris Beard as Texas HC

After spending just over one season as the head coach, Chris Beard has been fired with cause by Texas Basketball. The Longhorns will be looking for a new leader for their basketball program, a program that will depart the Big 12 for the SEC in just two years. Beard had been hired in 2021 and brought high expectations, but has seen his time with the Longhorns and his coaching career burst into flames.

Beard was arrested a few weeks ago after a domestic dispute with a family matter and Texas has finally distanced itself from him. The program has played the last six games under interim coach Rodney Terry, but can now focus on the long-term and making the best coaching hire after the season ends. Beard had been a successful coach at every stop, taking Little Rock to the second round of the Big Dance and getting Texas Tech to their first-ever title game, but it was stuff off the court that brought this marriage to a halt.

The Longhorns get an early jump on the coaching carousel, but this is already a special job. This is a Big 12 school with nearly unlimited resources, and the Longhorns have plenty of boosters biting at the chance for Texas to be a national power again. This program had struggled quite a bit under Shaka Smart before Beard had things trending in a great direction once again. Now, Texas needs to make the right hire when thrown into a second coaching search in three offseasons.

In all likelihood, the Longhorns will be looking to make a splash, clearly intending to bring the best coach possible to Austin to helm this program. Though a hire won’t come until the offseason, and certainly not within the next few months, we’ve taken a closer look at a number of early potential candidates for the Longhorns. These coaches all may fit the potential of what Texas is looking for to keep their program among the best in the Big 12 and in the nation and to swiftly push them past what’s happened under Beard. Let’s get right into some of these names.