Kentucky Basketball: 20 candidates to replace John Calipari as Head Coach

Chris Beard

Born in Georgia, Beard has really bounced all over the place throughout a successful coaching career. He was a student assistant while at Texas in the 90’s, was a longtime aide to Bob Knight at Texas Tech, and has been head coach at eight different colleges. If Kentucky wants the hot name with experience then Beard is going to get serious looks.

After success at the junior college level, Beard broke through into the D1 ranks at Little Rock, taking those Trojans to a Tourney upset in his first season. He then built real success at Texas Tech, taking the Red Raiders to the national title game in 2019. Two years later Beard bolted for his alma mater, but was fired after less than two seasons at Texas for domestic violence allegations. Those charges dismissed, he was given a chance at Ole Miss this season and the Rebels were solid in a tough SEC.

We don’t yet know the verdict for his time at Ole Miss, but Beard has been a winner everywhere he’s gone. While certainly not one of the first calls for Kentucky, he’s proven he can win games on the biggest stage and has been to a Final Four more recently than Calipari. However, he did recently reject the same Arkansas job Calipari just took in order to stay in Mississippi, but would it be different with Kentucky?