Updated March 8: Chris Beard is rising as the front-runner for the males’s basketball head teaching job at Ole Miss, based on ESPN, citing sources. Beard was fired from his place at the University of Texas following a Dec. 12, 2022 arrest.
Chris Beard’s teaching profession will finish when he desires it to, not when another person decides it for him. In America, allegedly biting and strangling a girl in your house isn’t sufficient to maintain coach off the sidelines — even when your former employer nonetheless stands by the choice to fireside you for trigger even after the preliminary expenses had been dropped.
According to a report from ESPN, Beard is the leading candidate for the males’s head basketball teaching job at Ole Miss, as either side have been in touch. Beard was fired as the University of Texas males’s basketball coach in January as a consequence of a December arrest for a home incident together with his fianceé.
“He just snapped on me and became super violent,” learn the affidavit from Randi Trew — Beard’s fiancée. “He choked me, threw me off the bed, bit me, bruises all over my leg, throwing me around, and going nuts.”
“Coach Beard is 100 percent innocent of these charges,” his lawyer Perry Minton, advised the Austin American-Statesman, after the arrest.
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Weeks later, she was singing a unique tune.
“Chris and I are deeply saddened that we have brought negative attention upon our family, friends, and the University of Texas, among others. As Chris’ fiancée and biggest supporter, I apologize for the role I played in this unfortunate event. I realize that my frustration, when breaking his glasses, initiated a physical struggle between Chris and myself,” she shared in the assertion.
“Chris did not strangle me, and I told that to law enforcement that evening. Chris has stated that he was acting in self-defense, and I do not refute that. I do not believe Chris was trying to intentionally harm me in any way. It was never my intent to have him arrested or prosecuted. We appreciate everyone’s support and prayers during this difficult time,” she defined.
After the expenses had been dropped, Beard provided an announcement:
“I am pleased with the announcement that the charges against me have been dismissed,” Beard stated. “While I always had faith and confidence in the truth and this outcome, it has been extremely challenging to wait patiently and not publicly respond. I’m sorry and deeply remorseful to my family, friends, all my players and staff both most recent and past, and everyone at my alma mater The University of Texas.”
Beard’s profession is way from over
But, as anticipated, Beard’s profession is way from over. There are totally different units of guidelines for males like Beard, particularly in the case of teaching — particularly in faculty basketball.
Beard burst onto the nationwide scene when he took Texas Tech to the nationwide championship sport in 2019. In a season that many will bear in mind for being highlighted by a Duke staff that featured Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish, and Tre Jones, it was Beard’s underdog Red Raiders that had been just a few possessions away from successful a nationwide title in the program’s first-ever Final Four look, as they fell to Virginia in extra time. Since then, Beard has been one in every of the hottest names in faculty basketball. After two extra profitable seasons in Lubbock, UT employed him to carry their program again to glory. It labored.
But, this column isn’t about Texas basketball. It’s about how historical past has proven us that Beard received’t be out of labor lengthy.
College basketball is such a surprise that it owns this whole month — March. No different sport can preserve America’s consideration span for that lengthy. However, faculty basketball can also be a sport by which head coaches have a ton of energy. And if you happen to’re good — and white — followers and athletic administrators will drink copious quantities of an elixir known as “Oh, that thing was completely overblown. Give the guy another chance,” which is able to give them handy amnesia a couple of coach’s alleged sins whereas additionally permitting them to recollect how useful that very same coach is in the case of successful video games.
Here’s an inventory of faculty basketball head coaches who nonetheless someway have jobs, had been capable of preserve theirs after a scandal, or will probably be employed once more sooner or later.
𑇐 Greg Gard (Wisconsin) — A yr after firing a employees member for utilizing the N-word (which led to one in every of the staff’s few Black gamers transferring), Gard nearly had a staff mutiny on his fingers. He adopted that up by beginning a brawl with Juwan Howard and Michigan throughout a postgame handshake line and got here out of it wanting like a sufferer. He’s nonetheless employed.
𑇐 Greg McDermott (Creighton) — Last yr the Bluejays’ head coach will need to have been falling asleep to Django Unchained as he did his greatest reenactment of a slave proprietor. “Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I can’t have anybody leave the plantation,” McDermott advised his staff. The college suspended him for 5 seconds and shortly put the state of affairs in the rearview. He’s nonetheless employed.
𑇐 Gregg Marshall (Wichita State) — In 2020 we discovered that the Shockers coach is a maniac — as a former assistant described him — after it was alleged that he choked one in every of his assistants, punched a participant, body-slammed one other, and made enjoyable of a 3rd athlete’s Native American heritage. There was a prolonged investigation, however Marshall didn’t get fired. Instead, he simply resigned and obtained a contract settlement of $7.75 million.
𑇐 Mark Few (Gonzaga) — Last yr TMZ launched a video of the Zags’ head coach from when he was arrested for a DUI. Few was drunk and irritated and acted as if the police had been beneath him. The footage reveals Few refusing to do subject sobriety exams, as he claimed they’re “totally subjective.” He pled responsible to misdemeanor DUI, was suspended for just a few video games, and the state of affairs instantly blew over. He’s nonetheless employed.
𑇐 Will Wade (LSU) — LSU’s former coach was caught on an FBI wiretap discussing how he paid gamers. Everybody heard it and he nonetheless went to work every single day. LSU suspended, then in the end fired Wade after NCAA violations got here down towards him and his program, in a transfer that advised that LSU was going to disregard federal proof till the NCAA determined to punish the college. He’s not employed, however don’t be stunned when he will get employed once more.
𑇐 Sean Miller (Xavier) — Earlier this week it was introduced that Miller wasn’t going to be sanctioned by the NCAA’s Independent Resolution Panel from the fallout of what occurred when he was at Arizona. Miller and Arizona had been a part of the FBI’s investigation into the sport, and it was alleged that he was paying DeAndre Ayton out of his personal pocket. Miller has persistently denied paying gamers. As you may see, Miller is teaching at Xavier like nothing occurred.
𑇐 Rick Pitino (Iona) — Pitino has had allegations and violations towards him since he was an assistant coach at Hawaii in the 1970s. He’s nonetheless teaching.
And final however not least, Mark Adams — the man who changed Beard at Texas Tech — is underneath suspension for “racially insensitive” feedback as he advised one in every of his gamers that there’s “always a master and a servant.”
There’s a lot extra to Beard’s story that we’ll by no means know. However, a college wanting to rent him in the aftermath of what allegedly occurred at Texas was as predictable as a Tyler Perry manufacturing.
The mixture of Chris Beard’s expertise and whiteness was at all times going to save lots of his profession. Why? Because, sadly sufficient, somebody at Ole Miss — or some place else — will rent him as a result of they care extra about his suffocating defenses than the undeniable fact that he allegedly tried to suffocate his fianceé.
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