Chris Beard is a brilliant coach that has led the Texas Longhorns to an 82-41 record during his tenure. In recent years, however, there have been some cracks in this success story as well as key losses away from home and road games against weaker opponents.
Chris Beard is the head coach of the Texas Longhorns. He has led his team to a number of impressive victories, including an undefeated season in 2016-2017. The talented coach has been at the helm for one of college basketball’s best teams.
AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — Chris Beard has to get something off his chest.
Beard answers queries about whether his squad, which is dominated by skilled transfers, would avoid chemistry difficulties this season as he goes into a mid-October practice with his players already sat in chairs in front of a giant television screen.
“That’s the story,” Beard says to his crew. “Are you guys fed up with it? Because I’m fed up with it.”
He next plays a 90-second clip of Austin Rivers from May of last year, when the Denver Nuggets guard was questioned about a possible larger role in the NBA playoffs due to injuries.
“I’m going to play hard as hell every minute I’m in there, no matter where they play me, when they play me, start, don’t start, here, there,” Rivers said. “You want to be this, you want to be that man; in high school, I was that guy. I aspired to be a member of the All-Star team. I still believe I’m capable of becoming that. But it isn’t my duty in this situation.”
Beard’s message to his squad was clear: everyone needed to get used to playing a different role than they did last season, and it wasn’t the first time he’d delivered it.
Beard pulled in probably the strongest transfer class in the portal era in his first three months at Texas, adding six of the top 30 transfers and a top-30 prospect to a squad that returned four players from a Big 12 tournament champion and NCAA tournament 3-seed.
However, none of those players are expected to play the same role or achieve the same statistics as they did last season, raising doubts about whether it will work.
Guard Marcus Carr stated, “It’s normal.” “We’re a first-year squad, and none of the players have ever played together before. They’ll have concerns about chemistry and other things. However, not everyone has access to our procedures.”
So, throughout the summer, Beard has been attempting to get his message out to his players, with the Rivers video being the most recent effort — and it seems to be working.
“Everyone around us wants to win a national title,” said forward Christian Bishop. “That is the most important thing. We won’t be able to match our averages from last year, but we’re all prepared to make sacrifices in order to win.”
BEFORE BEARD LEFT When Shaka Smart left Texas Tech for Marquette in early April, he understood he was inheriting a squad that was in turmoil. Matt Coleman and Jericho Sims were seniors who had finished their collegiate careers, Kai Jones and Greg Brown were slated to join the NBA draft, and other role players from the previous season were expected to transfer.
Beard has emphasized repeatedly throughout his coaching career, whether at Angelo State, Little Rock, or Texas Tech, that he does not approach his first year as a coach believing it would be a rebuilding year.
Devin Askew, a Kentucky transfer,
Allen remarked, “He knew he wanted to acquire certain men, and I trusted him to accomplish it.” “I may have inquired as to who was returning, and that was the end of it. I know he’ll do whatever it takes to bring them here with us because he’s the greatest coach in the nation. He did an excellent job of creating an army to surround us.”
Bishop continued, “Coach said we had to recruit as many people as we can.” “To win, we need a lot of excellent players.”
In the early weeks of preseason practice, unselfishness has been a significant emphasis, both in terms of thinking and attitude toward playing time and sharing the ball on the court. Given where the majority of these guys were last season, it has to be.
Carr averaged 19.4 points and 4.9 assists as a third-team All-Big Ten guard; Allen was named first-team All-Pac-12 after averaging 17.2 points and 3.9 assists; Mitchell was named first-team All-Atlantic 10 after averaging 18.8 points and 7.2 rebounds; Disu had 15.0 points and 9.2 rebounds; Bishop started every game for a Sweet 16 team and averaged 11.0 points; and Askew was a former five-star recruit
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“This is now the industry norm,” Beard adds. “You are capable of doing this task. Are you prepared to do that every time?”
Beard is likely to utilize it a lot in the next weeks and months.
Texas is potential of winning a national championship this season, since it has more proven collegiate talent than everyone else in the country. Beard’s year-one transfer experiment will be judged successful based on whether the Longhorns are ready to buy in and coalesce behind a single objective.
Beard said, “The entire choice was centered on attempting to be a champion.” “There’s a distinction to be made between excellent and great. There’s a distinction to be made between great and champion. When you’re striving to be a champion, you’re going to put yourself in a position where things might go wrong, and I believe the danger here is too many players and a lack of synergy. However, I will never live my life or coach in such a manner that I will have regrets.”
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