‘I wouldn’t trade my coaching path’: Chris Beard’s journey from Myrtle Beach to Final Four
Just a little over seven years ago, Chris Beard routinely phoned in his team’s results to his local newspaper in Myrtle Beach, seeking any publicity his fledgling team could come by.
Now the head coach at Texas Tech, he is one of the biggest attractions at the Final Four in Minneapolis.
“It’s really cool, but it’s totally Chris Beard. Nothing is under him,” said Christian Academy of Myrtle Beach boys basketball coach Colin Stevens, who played for Beard with the now-defunct ABA South Carolina Warriors here in 2011-12. “He would so go out there and coach some fourth-grade kids on an AAU team because he didn’t have anything else to do on a Saturday morning. He just loves basketball, he loves competing.”
Beard’s atypical coaching path has been one of the biggest stories of the NCAA tournament, the lore growing with each Red Raiders win. Now in Monday’s championship game, the man who in a little over seven years navigated from an upstart ABA team to Division III, Division II, a mid-major and now Texas Tech is essentially a rock star.
“I tell the guys to never forget where they come from and be you, and [that’s] certainly a part of my journey that’s being documented now, and I’m proud of it,” Beard said Thursday. “I wouldn’t trade my coaching path for anything. Whether it be the junior college or ABA or small college, very, very blessed to be here and feel like I represent a lot of people on this stage that have coached at schools that are really good coaches that have coached great players and never had the chance under these lights.
“I hope coaches around there find some satisfaction in this.”
A trip to the beach
When Beard arrived on the Grand Strand, his name was unrecognizable to most. Beard’s greatest claim to fame at the time was having worked as an assistant under Bobby Knight and later his son, Pat Knight, at Texas Tech.
However, in the summer of 2011 Pat Knight was out as Red Raiders coach, which ultimately meant Beard would be out a job as well. At the same time, Tony Bennett, who is based in Indianapolis, was the original GM and later the owner of the Warriors and was in the process of looking for a coach through basketball connections he’d gained since his time as a walk-on at Purdue.
Talking with some folks, including now-Purdue coach Matt Painter, Bennett found out Beard was available as it was too late for him to find another college job, and soon Beard was on his way to the beach.
“It was just good timing for everybody,” Bennett said. “I knew right away it was a great match. We were kind of the same kind of people as far as basketball goes, so it was a no-brainer.”
Soon, they began searching for players, beginning with former Coastal Carolina standouts. For one, Stevens was intrigued by the stature of coach this upstart team was beginning with.
“This dude was just an assistant at Texas Tech, he’s been around Bobby Knight, he’s been around coaching, this is really interesting,” Stevens said of his initial thoughts upon Beard’s arrival. “You know, how does this guy wind up coaching an ABA team?”
As Stevens learned more about the man who would become his coach, he realized Beard simply refused to be away from coaching basketball.
“He lost his position at Texas Tech and he came to the ABA because he wasn’t not going to coach that year,” said Stevens, who also runs F2 Basketball and Manzer Basketball, professional and youth developmental programs, respectively. “He didn’t want to be a broadcaster. He didn’t want to be doing this or doing that. He loved getting into the details of putting a team together and winning.”
Through basketball connections, Beard put together a team that was a mix of former Coastal Carolina players, like Stevens, Jack Leasure, Joseph Harris and others, and players from other Division I squads who were looking for a place to play. Altogether, the upstart team finished the regular season 27-0 before ending at 29-2 via a 2-0 loss to the Jacksonville Giants in the ABA’s best-of-three finals.
After one season on the Grand Strand, Beard left to return to the college game, landing a job at Division III McMurry in Texas. where he spent one season before getting the job at Division II Angelo State, also in the Lone Star State. He spent two years at Angelo State before landing a job at Arkansas-Little Rock, which he led to a 30-5 record, an NCAA tournament berth and a first-round upset of Purdue.
Beard later accepted the head coaching job at UNLV before bolting about a week later when Texas Tech’s position opened.
Through it all, Beard considers that 2011-12 Warriors squad the best team he’s ever coached, according to an NBC Sports article.
“Just a few years ago, I was in the ABA or D-II, and that’s the special part about this. I don’t take that lightly,” Beard said. “I even talked to my team about it.”
The man, the myth, the legend
Those who know Beard describe him as a guy with a good sense of humor and a great storyteller.
The stories — whether completely true or embellished — include situations such as buying a car on the side of the road and then traveling to Myrtle Beach from Texas and sleeping in his car somewhere along the line.
In fact, Fox Sports’ Aaron Torres in 2018 tweeted that Beard had indeed slept in his car while coaching in the ABA. Former Warriors players and Bennett believe that to be a bit of an exaggeration, but added that just about anything was possible with the fun-loving coach.
“I don’t know, man. I wouldn’t be surprised,” Stevens said of Beard having slept in his car. “He came up with all kinds of stories. What I do know is he told us that on his way out here he bought a Hyundai that he was driving, he bought it on the side of the road on the way here or something. He had a different lifestyle, man, and it all revolved around hoops.”
Bennett called the story of Beard sleeping in his car “more of an exaggerated joke” while noting that the Warriors’ staff and players also joked about late checks and other stereotypes associated with a league such as the ABA. Nowadays at Texas Tech, Beard holds weekly tongue-and-cheek “fireside chats” in which he hosts another basketball personality in talking about off-the-wall topics.
“Chris is great at telling stories and joking around and he’s really fun that way,” Bennett said. “He has a great personality. Like, if you ever talked to him about Bobby Knight, he has great Bobby Knight stories.”
Stevens said Beard would always preach improvement to his team, using the saying “let’s get better.” The coach even uttered the words days after the Warriors would blow an opponent out by 70-some points, Stevens said.
“That’s certainly stuck with me and some of the other guys,” Stevens said. “He’s a unique cat and it’s really cool to see him doing well. We’re definitely rooting for him and Texas Tech. He’s got a fan club here.”
‘Success is in the dirt’
For all the hoopla about his journey and quirks, one thing is clear about Beard: The man can flat out coach.
He’s done it at every level, after all.
“One of his sayings is ‘the success is in the dirt,’ like you’ve got to get yourself dirty and work hard,” Stevens said. “Nothing is above him.”
The Red Raiders are 30-6 this season and 75-30 in three seasons with Beard at the helm. Prior, Beard went 19-10 at McMurry, posted a 47-15 overall record in two years at Angelo State and finished 30-5 at Little Rock.
“He’s a heck of a coach,” Stevens said. “You can tell as tough as he is as a coach, he also makes these great relationships with his players, who respect him a lot and know ultimately that he cares about them. I mean, he’s won everywhere, right?”
Basketball is life for Beard, Steven said, adding that the coach enjoys the game from the biggest wins to the minutia preached during practice.
“He loves the details. He loves getting things right and he holds a high standard. And then he gets everybody else to buy in, all the players to buy in to that high standard,” Stevens said. “He does it in a very unique way that guys buy in. I mean, Texas Tech is a very good team this year, but they’re not the most talented team he’s had and he’s not even been there that long. But they just all buy in.”
While this year’s Red Raiders team is known as one of the defense-first squads in the NCAA tournament, Beard’s success in the high-scoring ABA — which includes a 4-point shot — is evidence of a coach with versatility.
“He’s fair but he’s hard. He makes them work hard,” Bennett said. “He demands excellence on defense and then he’s really creative on offense. He just has a lot of great qualities that lead to a coach being great and that’s why he’s successful right now.”
Texas Tech, ranked ninth in the AP Poll, defeated No. 5 Michigan State 61-51 in the national semifinals Saturday and will face No. 2 Virginia in the championship game Monday night. The Red Raiders defeated Northern Kentucky, No. 15 Buffalo, No. 8 Michigan and No. 4 Gonzaga en route to the Final Four.
Regardless of Monday’s result, Beard is proud to serve as an example to other coaches making their way — no matter where they are beginning their ascent.
“For that young coach out there like me that sat in the open practices for 22 years and dreamed about being there, don’t give up. Keep at it,” Beard said. “This game’s bigger than any of us. This game isn’t about your predecessors. It’s basketball, man. If you keep doing it, it will give you a chance at some point. Don’t give up.”
The Raleigh News & Observer’s Luke DeCock contributed to this report from the Final Four in Minneapolis.
This story was originally published April 5, 2019 at 7:49 PM with the headline "‘I wouldn’t trade my coaching path’: Chris Beard’s journey from Myrtle Beach to Final Four."
