Chris Beard’s history with NCAA Tournament should give Texas optimism

Following a loss to head coach Bill Self and the No. 6 Kansas Jayhawks on the road last weekend, first-year head coach Chris Beard and No. 21 Texas basketball capped the regular season on a tough note. Texas wrapped up their regular season slate on the road against Kansas last weekend, which amounted to a 70-63 loss in overtime at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.

That loss to the Jayhawks saw Beard and the Longhorns finish up the regular season with a record of 21-10 (10-8 Big 12). Texas also wrapped up the regular season on a two-game losing streak dating back to a loss to the Baylor Bears in the final game for this program at the Frank Erwin Center on Feb. 28.

This was definitely not the ideal way for Beard and the Longhorns to finish out his first regular season as this team’s head coach.

Yet, there are still a lot of opportunities that lie ahead for Beard and his squad entering the postseason.

Texas is about to get its run started in the Big 12 Tournament as a four-seed. On March 10, Beard and the Longhorns will face head coach Jamie Dixon and the five-seed TCU Horned Frogs in their first game of the Big 12 Tournament.

If Texas can make a decent run in the Big 12 Tournament, that would give them some sustained momentum entering Selection Sunday and the NCAA Tournament. Texas still likely has a shot to get a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament if they win one or two games in the Big 12 Tournament. And a three-seed could be possible if the Longhorns win the Big 12 Tournament crown for the second year in a row.

Texas basketball fans should be optimistic about their postseason chances with Chris Bearda

While it would be nice to see the Longhorns win the Big 12 Tournament crown for the second year in a row, the real goal is for Texas to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. It was all well and good for former Texas head coach Shaka Smart to win the Big 12 Tournament last season. But that largely went all for naught after Texas was bounced in the Round of 64 in one of the bigger upsets of the 2021 postseason by the 14-seed Abilene Christian Wildcats.

Moreover, one of the big reasons why the Longhorns hired Beard away from the Texas Tech Red Raiders to replace Smart as head coach last offseason was the fact that he had some postseason success during his time in Lubbock. Beard has a career NCAA Tournament record of 10-4. And he came an overtime away from winning a National Championship with Texas Tech.

Even more encouraging is the fact that Beard never was bounced in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament in his four appearances in his head coaching career in the Big Dance.

Last season, Texas Tech was bounced in the Round of 32 by the three-seed Arkansas Razorbacks by a narrow two-point margin. And that was a Texas Tech that come into the NCAA Tournament with a six-seed. They were competing with essentially every team they faced in the postseason last year.

If you compare that to the postseason track record of Smart, you can see some stark contrasts. Smart holds a career NCAA Tournament record of 7-8 in eight appearances as a Division I head coach. And if you take out Smart’s Final Four run in 2011 with the VCU Rams, his record in the NCAA Tournament shrinks to just 2-7.

Meanwhile, Beard still has a winning record in the NCAA Tournament in his head coaching career if you remove that special run Texas Tech had to the National Championship Game a few years ago.

All in all, Longhorns basketball fans should be really excited about what lies ahead in the postseason for this team with Beard leading the way. This is a very experienced team that the Longhorns have this season and that should lead to heightened results in the postseason.

If Beard and the Longhorns do get a win in the NCAA Tournament this year, it would be the program’s first since the 2013-14 season. Texas beat the 10-seed Arizona State Sun Devils that postseason before being bounced in the Round of 32 by the two-seed Michigan Wolverines.