Texas Basketball: 3 head coaching candidates the Longhorns should avoid

Joe Golding, UTEP head coach

Of the three candidates on this list that aren’t great fits at Texas, the one that sticks out the most to me that I found on a shortlist elsewhere is the second-year UTEP Miners head coach Joe Golding. Coaches Database released a list of possible head coaching candidates for del Conte and the Longhorns to replace Beard, which included Golding in the mix.

Here’s what this piece from Coaches Database had to say regarding Golden’s potential candidacy for the Texas job.

"He didn’t get the UT job, obviously, but did end up leaving his alma mater to take over at UTEP following Terry’s departure. Golding has done a tremendous job so far, winning 20 games in his first season and potentially heading for a similar record in year two."

Golding is currently in his second year as UTEP’s head coach. And while he did get off to a nice start at UTEP last season, notching 20 wins in his first year at the helm, it looks like the Miners are hovering around mediocrity once again.

In fact, the results that Golding is producing at UTEP look very similar to what Terry did during his time as the program’s head coach in the last decade or so.

The one positive that does come with Golding as a potential coaching candidate for a job opening in a major conference is that he did great things during his time leading the Abilene Christian Wildcats. In the last two seasons where the tourney was actually held, ACU made it to the “Big Dance” both years.

I do want to mention that I give Golding a ton of credit for what he built during his eight seasons at Abilene Christian. He built a winner at ACU, which included a pretty insane upset when the Wildcats were a 14-seed in 2021 against three-seeded Texas in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament.

But the fact of the matter is that there are better candidates out there for Texas than Golding. He doesn’t have the track record of major conference success that Texas would be looking for. And the results definitely aren’t there this season for Golding at UTEP.