An absolutely amazing hire arrived for the Texas basketball program on April 1 as they replaced former head coach Shaka Smart with Chris Beard. The former Texas Tech Red Raiders fifth-year head coach Beard took his program in Lubbock to new heights over the course of the last half-decade or so, and looked like the candidate that topped the wish list for Texas.
What caused the head coaching job for Texas to come about so abruptly was their former sixth-year head coach Smart bolting from Austin back on March 26 to take the same job with the Marquette Golden Eagles. Smart wound up replacing the former Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski, who was let go roughly two weeks ago from the program.
Smart and the three-seed Longhorns wound up falling short in agonizing fashion in the Round of 64 back on March 20 at the hands of head coach Joe Golding and the upset-minded 14-seed Abilene Christian Wildcats. Texas fell short to ACU two weekends ago to find themselves exiting March Madness early by just a one-point margin on last-second free throws made by junior Wildcats big man Joe Pleasant.
That loss to ACU in the Round of 64 put Smart on the hot seat again entering this offseason. Despite winning the first Big 12 Tournament crown in program history and having a mostly successful regular season, the Longhorns still entered the offseason on a disappointing note.
But that disappointment should be able to turn around fast after the April 1 hiring of Beard. Here’s a look at three reasons why the Longhorns got an absolute home run hire for their next hoops head coach in Beard.
Track record of postseason success
Something Longhorns fans are starving for on the hardwood after six seasons under Smart as head coach of the program is some degree of postseason. If you want to count the Big 12 Tournament title for Smart and the Longhorns in the season that was, than that does count as a significant postseason accomplishment.
Otherwise, Smart was largely inept for the Longhorns in the postseason during his six years at the helm as head coach. He held an NCAA Tournament record of 0-3 during his six seasons on the Forty Acres, all of which came to pretty mediocre teams. Texas lost to the likes of the seven-seed Nevada Wolfpack, 11-seed Northern Iowa Panthers, and 14-seed Abilene Christian, during Smart’s tenure.
Beard found a lot more postseason success during his five years as the Texas Tech head coach than Smart did in six years in Austin. Texas Tech made it to the National Championship Game to round out the 2018-19 season, and who knows what he could’ve done last season had the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic not ended the season before the NCAA Tournament even began.
Texas Tech did also win one more game in the NCAA Tournament than the Longhorns did this season. Granted the Red Raiders were close to knocking off the three-seed Arkansas Razorbacks in the Round of 32 last week.
Beard made it to the NCAA Tournament in all but one season during his six years as a college hoops head coach now between his time with Texas Tech and Arkansas-Little Rock.
Known success in the Big 12
A risk that you make when you pick up a head coach that comes from the background of one that Smart did at a mid-major program is the potential of it not working out on the big stage in a power conference like the Big 12. And that’s exactly what happened as Smart was not able to find much postseason success or Big 12 prominence during his time in Austin.
Smart looked like a great hire at the time coming from a VCU Rams program that he very much elevated. And he might be able to do the same with the Golden Eagles starting next season.
But it was getting time for the Longhorns to take their hoops program in a different direction than Smart, hence why the hire of Beard is so important. Texas is getting a coach that has found a lot of success right out of the gates in the Big 12. Texas Tech was a program that Beard took to new heights both in the Big 12 and complete college hoops landscapes.
During his five years with the Red Raiders, Beard registered a record of 112-55 (.671 winning percentage). And his winning percentage during his six years as a Division I college basketball coach is even above .700.
Beard never got a Big 12 Tournament or regular season title under his belt at Texas Tech, but he might have the resources to do that now with Texas. The Longhorns were in the thick of things for the regular season title in the Big 12 and won the conference tournament crown this year.
Recruiting and player retention
A big looming concern for the Longhorns this offseason is going to be their ability to retain most of the talent and production from the roster from the 2020-21 team. Texas is already looking like they’ll lose the likes of senior versatile standout guard Matt Coleman, senior big man Jericho Sims, sophomore breakthrough power forward Kai Jones, and maybe freshman power forward Greg Brown.
Jones has already declared for the NBA Draft following the abrupt end to his sophomore campaign. And it looks like Coleman and Sims will be taking their talents to the next level despite the NCAA’s ruling to let them come back and keep one more year of eligibility. Texas has also seen senior big man Royce Hamm and sophomore shooting guard/wing Donovan Williams enter the NCAA Transfer Portal since Smart’s departure.
Texas might be able to lessen the roster attrition early this offseason now that they’ve made a very prominent head coach hiring in Beard, and they did it very soon after Smart took the head coaching job at Marquette. The success on the recruiting trail might not take too much of a dip in the near future either.
One early storyline to watch for Beard and the Longhorns on the recruiting trail for the 2021 class is the potential that he could get back the commit/signing of the talented four-star IMG Academy shooting guard Tamar Bates. The former highest-rated commit/signee in the Longhorns 2021 class request a release from his letter of intent earlier this week.