Texas Basketball: Hocutt frustrated with Chris Beard leaving Texas Tech

Big news arrived for the Texas basketball program on April 1 with the addition of former Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Chris Beard in the same role in Austin. Texas replaced the now former head coach Shaka Smart with Beard on the morning of April 1, and this definitely wasn’t a joke.

Smart hit the hot seat for the Longhorns following an early exit in March Madness. Texas fell short as a three-seed in the Round of 64 at the hands of the upset-minded 14-seed Abilene Christian Wildcats and head coach Joe Golding. ACU beat Texas by just a one-point margin in the Round of 64 back on March 20.

Beard looked like he was the top head coaching candidate on the wish list for Texas athletic director Chris del Conte and the rest of the athletic administration/regency. Texas needed to make a big splash coaching hire, and that’s exactly what they got in the two-time Big 12 Coach of the Year Beard.

But clearly only one side was going to be happy with the way this hire went down. Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt reportedly (per Brian Davis of the Austin American-Statesman on Twitter on April 1) expressed his frustration with the way this went down with Beard landing with the Longhorns.

Problems Tech had with Texas basketball’s hire of Chris Beard

Hocutt’s problem had to do with the lack of ability for the Red Raiders to counteroffer the Longhorns pitch to hire Beard. He stated “I don’t totally understand it” and that there was “no opportunity” for the Red Raiders to send Beard a counteroffer.

This is a valid point from Hocutt, but one that doesn’t really matter in the end. If Beard was ready to leave Lubbock, then this was going to happen no matter what. The part of the report from Davis that shows that Beard was ready for a “new challenge” is very telling of where he was at with the Red Raiders.

Beard was brought aboard with the Longhorns following five solid years with the Texas Tech program. He brings a career Division I head coaching record of 142-60 (.703 winning percentage) to the table from his five years at Texas Tech and his one year at Arkansas-Little Rock.

Now replacing the departed Smart, Beard has an established track record of coaching success in the Big 12. He’ll be replacing Smart after the former sixth-year Texas head coach bolted to take the head coaching job with the Marquette Golden Eagles back on March 26.

Smart and the Longhorns finished up the 2020-21 season with a record of 19-8 (11-6 Big 12) following their upset loss to ACU back on March 20. Despite the mostly successful regular season and first Big 12 Tournament crown in program history, the Longhorns still wound up entering the offseason last week on a disappointing note.