When Chris Beard was at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, he was a bit of a loner.
He had friends – many of them – but was known to turn up off the beaten path alone, to catch a cold.
He might be an introvert living in an extroverted world. If that’s the case, he’ll do very well.
When he was an assistant coach at Texas Tech and worked for Bob Knight, the two of them just took off and drove two hours south to a barbecue area Knight loved.
So far, Beard has proven that he learned a lot of basketball from Knight, no doubt on the way to the BBQ.
He’s active on the sidelines, but there has been no sign of ever throwing a chair slam the scorer’s phone or a dog publicly curse a player.
Yes, to motivate his Trojans to win the Sun Belt tournament, he hit a blackboard with his fist and broke his hand, but this one The trick worked and UALR got the bid. In their first game the Trojans defeated Purdue, who lost to North Texas No. 13 on Friday.
Bart and the Red Raiders are a big problem for the University of Arkansas in today’s NCAA tournament game.
Eric Musselman and Beard share a philosophy of defense. You will personally invite any player who does not give everything in defense to sit on the bench with them.
From the opening peak to the final buzzer, Beard is focused on controlling the pace. He wants to take the normal pace of the razorbacks away.
For the last five minutes Beard had crouched in front of his bench studying the boilermaker. At that very moment he got up and took over the game.
He released Josh Hagins and the Trojans pecked away at the top. With time running out and the boilermakers all over him, Hagins nearly reverted to the NCAA tournament logo and emptied a 35-foot three-pointer to send it into overtime when the Trojans defeated Purdue 15-13 / p> This game resulted in Beard getting the UNLV job, which lasted about a week. The players wanted former UNLV player and current assistant coach Stacey Augmon to get the job.
When Texas Tech called, Beard couldn’t pack his bags fast enough, even though the Red Raiders offered him $ 150,000 less.
Also, his two daughters were in Texas and they were always as important to him as basketball.
In his second season, he led the Red Raiders to the Elite Eight. The next year he took them to the championship game and was recognized as an excellent teacher of the game.
Musselman knows this, and he knows the Red Raiders spent all Saturday defending isolation basketball, which the Razorbacks are doing very well
Within minutes of the Hogs’ win over Colgate, Musselman’s attention was fully focused on Texas Tech, and he was realizing how different today’s game would be.
He mentioned the smaller one , faster line-up that drove the Raiders into the ground might change because Texas Tech is a different challenge.
Coaching won’t be the difference tonight. Both are great, although it’s easier to rock a team to slow down than to speed it up.
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Wally Hall is the senior sports editor of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. A graduate of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock after an honorable discharge from the US Air Force, he is a member and past president of the Football Writers Association of America, a member of the US Basketball Writers Association, past president and current executive committee, and a board member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and voters for the Heisman Trophy. He has been named Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year ten times and has been inducted into the Arkansas Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame.
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– >> Musselman-Beard Matchup fascinating
– >> Beard-Musselman a fascinating matchup
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