Chris Beard to Remain with Texas Tech Red Raider Basketball

New Texas Tech Red Raider Basketball Head Coach, Billy Gillispie, has made his first hire for his assistant coaches positions.  Chris Beard, who served as an assistant for Pat and Bob Knight will be retained.

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From TexasTech.com

CHRIS BEARD RETAINED ON TEXAS TECH MEN’S BASKETBALL STAFF

Beard has nine years experience with the Red Raiders and will serve on Billy Gillispie’s first staff

LUBBOCK, Texas – Chris Beard, who spent the last nine years as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Texas Tech, has been retained by new head coach Billy Gillispie and will continue to serve the program in the same role.

“I am really excited to have Chris Beard as a part of my first staff here at Texas Tech,” said head coach Billy Gillisipie.  “I have known him for a long time and have the highest respect for him and what he has accomplished both here at Tech and at the junior college level.”

Beard joined the Red Raider basketball program in 2001 as an assistant under hall of fame coach Bob Knight and was promoted to associate head coach under Pat Knight in 2008.

Since his arrival at Texas Tech, the Red Raiders have advanced to the post season five times and won 21-plus games in five of the last nine seasons.

During his nine seasons with the Red Raiders, Texas Tech has had eight players All-Big 12 Conference players: Andy Ellis, Kasib Powell, Andre Emmett, Ronald Ross, Jay Jackson, Martin Zeno, John Roberson, and Alan Voskuil.

Before joining the Texas Tech staff in 2001, 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, he 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, Chris accumulated a 44-18 record and advanced to two post-season regional tournaments. Equally impressive, eighteen of his players received four-year university scholarship offers, including nine to NCAA Division I schools.

During the 1997-1999 seasons, he 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 1996-1997 under head coach Shanon 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 Heart of Texas Conference Championship.

He 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, he 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, Ella, and Margo.

--TECH--