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

Texas Tech has better facilities

Basketball is perhaps the only sport in which Texas Tech has a facilities advantage over Texas.  And in the world of recruiting as well as in an effort to keep current players happy, facilities make a huge difference.

This year, the Texas Tech basketball program has been putting the finishing touches on the $30 million Womble Practice Facility.  It is a state-of-the-art building and, make no mistake, though he’s not an architect, Beard essentially designed the building to suit his wants and needs.

The Womble was Beard’s baby and now that it’s open and home to his program, it gives him one of the finest facilities in America to recruit to.  Texas has not made that type of investment in its basketball program in quite some time, if ever.

And don’t fall for the narrative that the new arena being built in Austin is going be a huge win for the UT program.  While it will be nicer than the Erwin Center, the drawback is that it won’t belong to the university.

Rather, a third-party has financed and constructed the building, not the University of Texas.  Therefore, the school has merely leased the arena for enough dates to have its men’s and women’s games there each year plus a few practices.

In other words, whoever is the next coach in Austin won’t have any say over when his team can get into the arena they play their games in.  Doesn’t that paint quite a different picture of what that facility will bring to UT hoops?

Right now, you could put Texas Tech’s arena and practice facility combo up against any in the nation.  Texas doesn’t have that type of setup and that would be a huge difference for Beard to adjust to should he jump ship.