Chris Beard Fired At Texas. Crank Up The Carousel Early!
This could get interesting
So the Chris Beard era is over at Texas after just 42 games, and rightly so.
Beard, as you probably know, was arrested on felonious domestic violence charges after an altercation with his fianceé and Texas officially fired him Thursday.
The courts will sort out the legal issues. The rest of it is pretty interesting, to say the least.
Currently Rodney Terry, who was previously a Beard assistant, is interim head coach, but Texas is a huge job and UT has always paid top dollar for coaches, so it’s going to be wide open unless he makes a Final Four type run.
John Calipari’s name has already come up. He has managed Big Blue Nation as well as anyone, but the Kentucky job is a nightmare for a coach and has been for a long time. The fans are unbelievably demanding and difficult when things don’t go well, and they have not been going well for a while now. If you think they’ve forgotten (or forgiven) the loss to Saint Peter’s, think again. The 9-16 Covid year?
Think again.
The NIT season?
Maybe if they hadn’t lost in the first round. It’s all cumulative at this late date.
It might be a major relief to Cal to get out of there before things get any stickier and at some point, any sane person would get sick of it. UK pursued Lute Olson before he took the Arizona job and he knew what that would mean. He found Iowa to be a fishbowl. Kentucky would be dramatically worse.
Aside from Calipari, you’d think they would have to make calls to Baylor’s Scott Drew, though that seems like a long shot. He’s Mr. Clean though and UT would probably like that aura about now. If nothing else, Drew could milk it for a raise.
Kelvin Sampson would probably kill at UT but he’s got Houston at a Final Four level now and he’s 67. That means a hard limit on his time in Austin.
UConn’s Danny Hurley is a guy we’d call, but he’s not going to leave the tri-state area and almost certainly not for somewhere as far south as Texas. He’s bonded deeply to his region.
Eric Musselman? Why not? Texas could afford to pay him and it’s a nicer life in Austin than it is in Fayetteville, Arkansas, population 95,230.
It’s probably too early, but we’d look at Orlando Tang. He’s done an astonishing job at K-State so far. Next best thing to his former boss Drew.
We’d also certainly call Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd. He’s proven that he’s immensely capable. with UCLA and USC leaving the Big Ten soon, and Texas heading to the SEC, it might be smart to move now.
Finally, it continues to amaze us that Northwest Missouri State’s Ben McCollum’s name never comes up in big job searches or, as far as we know, any D-1 job searches at all. Yes, it’s a D-II school. Yes, people wonder if the offense would translate.
But to all of that we say this: since 2016-17, the man is 206-14. He’s got four national championships in six years and would have probably have had five other than the tournament being canceled in 2019-20 - and even that year, with all the craziness that happened to everybody due to Covid, he finished 31-1.
It’s just amazing to us that his name never even comes up. He’s meeting the Wooden Standard! Who does that? Maybe there’s something about him that puts people off, like Gregg Marshall, or maybe he’s deliriously happy where he is. We think you have to at least make the call. Why in the world wouldn’t you?
But let’s go back to Calipari. He has a lifetime contract at Kentucky and we think the current buyout is about $46 million.
UK could always waive it if they were just ready for a change, but let’s assume that’s in place.
And then let’s assume that, even though he’s now 63, he’s ready for a change.
What happens at Kentucky if he leaves for Texas? Who would be arrogant and foolish enough to take that job and all the hassles it entails?
That really screams Musselman. He’s shown that he can recruit and build a program. We saw it at Nevada and now at Arkansas. Injuries have hurt his team but there’s no doubt that he’s capable. He’s also one of the few people who might be strong enough to ride that tiger.
Just for fun, consider what would happen to the following coaches if they took that job:
- Xavier’s Sean Miller. It would eat him alive.
- Virginia’s Tony Bennett. The fans would hate the offense and demand Final Fours every year. Bennett is too low key for all of that. He’d check out after a couple of years.
- Hurley again. One of the most high-strung coaches in America. Remember he had to take time off at Seton Hall as a player due to emotional stress and, probably, depression. Kentucky would eat him alive.
- UCLA’s Mick Cronin. Makes sense, but why would he move from UCLA to UK? Well, maybe Big Ten travel? The SEC is at least a little more compact.
- Bill Self? He’d do well anywhere, but why leave Kansas for Kentucky? He has all of their advantages and few of their problems.
Finally, it won’t happen this month and possibly not for a season or two, but how long until Chris Beard is rehabbed enough to work again?
It’s almost certainly going to happen. It happened with Rick Pitino. It happened with Sean Miller. It happened with football coach Bobby Petrino more than once.
If you can win, someone will hire you.
How about this for a weird but plausible scenario?
Calipari takes the Texas job and the Kentucky search immediately focuses, quietly but intently, on Beard.
Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart introduces him in April, perhaps after Beard serves a modern day penance in rehab, and says “I am delighted to welcome Chris Beard to Kentucky. Chris is a Hall of Fame caliber coach who has won at the highest levels and he is committed to leading our student-athletes and our program to greater heights. He brings passion and energy and shares our desire to keep building a winning program that will make our Big Blue Nation proud.
“We’re convinced he’s a different guy than he was at Texas. In my book, as a guy who lives in a glass house, I’m not throwing rocks when you have demonstrated that you are a different person.”
The first paragraph there is from Rick Pitino’s introduction at Iona. The second paragraph is from Petrino’s introduction at Missouri State.
There are some obvious slight modifications but you get the idea. You can cut and paste the intro for nearly any tainted coach. It’s just a question of time until someone declares Chris Beard 2.0 is suitable to coach again.