LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech head coach Pat Knight announced this afternoon that Chris Beard has been promoted to associate head coach for the men’s basketball program.
“I’m pleased to announce that Chris Beard has been promoted to the position of associate head coach at Texas Tech. This advancement for Chris is certainly well earned and well deserved. He has done an outstanding job in our program and it shows the confidence and trust I place in his abilities and his work ethic,” declared Pat Knight.
Chris Beard begins his eighth season at Texas Tech University, after a wealth of successful coaching and recruiting experience from the NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NAIA, and Junior College levels.
“I really value having the lifetime opportunity to work with Coach Bob Knight for seven years. I’m very grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to be on his staff here at Texas Tech. I’m equally excited to work with Coach Pat Knight and I appreciate him giving me this new opportunity,” Beard stated.
Before joining Coach Bob Knight’s staff at Texas Tech, Beard was the head basketball coach at Seminole State College in Oklahoma during the 2000-2001 season. His SSC team posted a 25-6 record and was nationally ranked in the NJCAA poll throughout the year, finishing the season ranked #14 in the country.
In the 1999-2000 season, Beard was the head basketball coach at Fort Scott Community College, leading the Greyhounds to their best season in over a decade with a 19-12 record and regional tournament bid in the Kansas Jayhawk Conference. In two seasons as a head coach, Beard accumulated a 44-18 record and advanced to two post-season regional tournaments. Equally impressive, eighteen of Beard’s players received four-year university scholarship offers, including nine to NCAA Division I schools.
During the 1997-1999 seasons, Beard was an assistant coach at the University of North Texas under head coach Vic Trilli. UNT’s 1998 and 1999 recruiting classes both received national attention.
Beard was an assistant coach at Abilene Christian University in 1996-97 under head coach Shannon Hays. As recruiting coordinator, he helped sign a recruiting class that was nationally ranked among NCAA Division II schools. ACU finished the season with a 15-12 record and advanced to the Lone Star Conference post-season tournament.
In 1995-1996, Beard was a graduate assistant coach at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas under head coach Danny Kaspar. He helped lead UIW to a 20-9 season and the Heart of Texas Conference Championship.
Beard is a 1995 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology. During his stay in Austin, he worked as a student assistant for head coach Tom Penders. Beard completed his master’s degree in education from Abilene Christian University in 1998.
Born in Marietta, Georgia and raised in Irving, Texas, Chris Beard graduated from McCullough High School in The Woodlands, Texas, where he played for Coach Terry Priest. Chris and his wife, Leslie, live in Lubbock with their three daughters, Avery (8 years) and Ella (5 years), and Margo (1 year).