Texas men’s basketball faces former coach Chris Beard – The Daily Texan

The start of 2023 was a tumultuous time for Texas men’s basketball. Former head coach Chris Beard was fired and assistant coach Rodney Terry took over the interim position.

What followed was one of Texas’ best March Madness runs in recent years. With just a few months as the team’s head coach, Terry led the Longhorns to the Elite Eight.

On December 12, 2022, Beard was arrested for assault by strangulation against his wife. Beard was subsequently suspended without pay from the University of Texas and later fired on January 5.

Trew, Beard’s wife, later walked back her statements, apologizing for what she had caused and claiming that Beard had acted in self-defense after she broke his glasses. The criminal complaint was dismissed.

Just three months later, Beard took over as manager of the Mississippi Rebels men’s basketball team, where he has been for a year and a half.

With Texas moving to the Southeastern Conference, the Longhorns will face Ole Miss for the first time since Beard took over. But Terry isn’t worried.

“Chris Beard and I go back a long time,” Terry said on the website SEC Media Day. “You’re talking about 25 years of friendship, one of my really, really close friends in the industry. I wouldn’t have this opportunity here in Texas if he wasn’t kind enough to bring me back to Texas.”

Beard hired Terry as an assistant coach in 2021, but had previously served as an assistant coach at Texas under former head coach Rick Barnes for nine years, from 2002 to 2011.

“(I) had a chance to come back and start a second stint at Texas, hoping that we get a chance to build a national championship team, a team that gets to play on Monday nights,” Terry said.

Despite the controversial events, Terry and Beard maintain a close relationship and try to talk about opponents other than each other. Texas and Mississippi will face off on January 29th in Oxford.

The SEC is a major conference in this sport and expectations are high. Texas is currently five spots ahead of Ole Miss in the AP poll, at Nos. 19 and 24, respectively, but a lot can change in the next few months.

“Coaches have taken their teams to the Final Four,” Terry said. “And there have been great players in this league and obviously a lot of really good, intimate environments to play in that will be great venues.”