Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Texas Tech basketball: Why Tech is a better fit for Chris Beard than UT

By Matthew Conner

LUBBOCK, TEXAS - JANUARY 25: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gestures during the first half of the college basketball game against the Kentucky Wildcats on January 25, 2020 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
LUBBOCK, TEXAS - JANUARY 25: Head coach Chris Beard of the Texas Tech Red Raiders gestures during the first half of the college basketball game against the Kentucky Wildcats on January 25, 2020 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. (Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next

Though many people around the nation are ignorant to the fact, the Texas Tech job is a better fit for Chris Beard than the Texas job is, and here’s why.

The college basketball coaching carousel is spinning and the Big 12 has become a huge player in this year’s chaos.  Unfortunately, that’s put Chris Beard and Texas Tech in the middle of the discussion.

Friday, it was confirmed that Shaka Smart would be leaving Texas after six years in charge to take over at Marquette.  While the Golden Eagles have a proud basketball program, this move is a complete parachute jump with Smart looking for a safe place to land knowing that he was on the hottest of seats in Austin after his No. 3 seeded Horns dropped their first-round game to No. 14 seed Abilene Christian in the NCAA Tournament.

So naturally, everyone in the college basketball world immediately speculated that Chris Beard would be the Horns’ first target to fill Smart’s shoes.  And we will dive deeper into that situation in a moment.

But in case you have checked out on the college basketball world since Texas Tech’s run in the NCAA Tournament came to an end, there have been a couple of other significant coaching developments which have begun to reshape the Big 12 landscape in recent weeks.

Shortly after the Big 12 Tournament, Iowa State fired head coach Steve Prohm after he too had spent six years on the job.  And his replacement, T.J. Otzelberger from UNLV, is already in place.

Otzelberger is a former Cyclone assistant under Prohm and he went 20-6 in Mountain West play over the last two years with the Running Rebels.  Now, he’s got to figure out how to turn around a program that won only two games in the 2020-21 season.

But yet another domino was soon to fall in the Big 12 as earlier this week, Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger announced his retirement.  As a college coach, Kruger took five universities to the NCAA Tournament and surpassed the 650-win milestone.

However, all anyone in Raiderland cares about right now is whether Chris Beard will be wooed away from the South Plains by Texas, his alma mater.  But when you break down the decision that he may have before him, it starts to become clear that Texas Tech is the better fit.  Here’s why.

Home/Texas Tech Basketball