BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – If the Indiana basketball teaching search was merely about hiring the very best coach, Rick Pitino could also be on the prime of the listing. However there are different components that slender down the choices.
For Pitino, the possible disqualifier is that he’s 72 years previous. If Indiana was on the lookout for a short-term, win-now choice, Pitino can be a superb alternative. There’s no denying his teaching credentials.
Pitino has St. John’s ranked No. 10 within the nation in his second season, together with two nationwide titles and 7 Last 4 appearances with Windfall, Kentucky and Louisville. He additionally took Iona to the NCAA Match twice.
However as Indiana appears to return to its glory days of the twentieth century and get out of the teaching carousel that’s resulted in 5 coaches since 2000, it’s possible on the lookout for a youthful choice. Pitino appeared on Friday’s episode of Pardon My Take, a sports activities comedy podcast on Barstool Sports activities, and mentioned the Indiana job.
Pitino was requested if he, or anybody in his world, has been contacted by Indiana about its open head teaching place.
“No. Nobody. I’ve had plenty of contacts with skilled groups proper now from Europe who’re dying to have me again,” Pitino stated, laughing, on the 1:14:20 mark of the podcast.
He proceeded to place himself in Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson’s footwear and gave a suggestion for the Hoosiers’ subsequent coach.
“Can I offer you my choose?” Pitino stated. “Okay, so I’ll have some individuals upset at me. If I used to be the AD at Indiana – and am I pleasant with this particular person? Sure I’m. Do I’ve plenty of respect for this particular person? Sure I do – however I’d instantly, not even interview anyone else, and rent one of many premier coaches in all of faculty basketball. And that is Chris Beard from Ole Miss.
“I wouldn’t even take into consideration one other particular person. He’s excellent for that job. He’s a tricky, hard-nosed [coach]. The years I used to be sitting out, I obtained pleasant with him as a result of he requested me to – he didn’t know me, I didn’t know him – to come back out and converse to his workforce. He was at Texas Tech, and I went out and spoke to him, however I watched two days of observe. And I all the time choose a coach by his practices, and I’ve to inform you, these are a few of the finest practices and conferences along with his workforce that I’ve ever witnessed.”
“So I’m a big fan of Chris Beard, and I feel he would kill it at Indiana. He’d have them within the prime 5 to seven yearly. Keep in mind, he introduced Texas Tech to the championship sport, and will have received it if that younger man didn’t hit that, from Virginia, that nook shot, nice shot that he did it. So [Beard] is a famous person, prime three coach, in my estimation. I’d by no means rent myself for that job, for Indiana, as a result of I belong at St. John’s.”
Beard is in his second season at Ole Miss, which is ranked No. 24 within the nation at 19-7 total and tied for sixth within the SEC standings at 8-5. The Rebels went 20-12 total and 7-11 in Beard’s first season, lacking the NCAA Match. Barring a collapse, he’ll coach Ole Miss to its first back-to-back 20-win seasons since 2016-17, following a 74-79 run with three dropping seasons beneath Kermit Davis.
Earlier than turning into a head coach, Beard was an affiliate head coach at Texas Tech from 2001-11 beneath former Corridor of Fame Indiana coach Bob Knight, who was the Purple Raiders’ head coach from 2001-08. Knight’s son, Pat, was additionally an assistant from 2001-08, earlier than taking on for his father as Texas Tech’s head coach from 2008-11.
Beard has spoken a number of instances previously about Knight’s affect on his teaching profession, most lately throughout a halftime interview on ESPN as Ole Miss led Kentucky, 54-31.
“That is Bob Knight. Victory favors probably the most aggressive workforce, and the workforce that makes the fewest errors,” Beard stated.
Beard made a reputation for himself nationally when he led No. 12 seed Arkansas Little-Rock to a double-overtime upset victory over No. 5 seed Purdue within the 2016 NCAA Match. One 30-5 season in Little Rock landed Beard the Texas Tech job, the place he reached the 2018 Elite Eight and was the 2019 nationwide runner-up. The Purple Raiders went 112-55 total and 49-40 within the Large 12 with three NCAA Match appearances and one convention title in 5 seasons.
A rising star within the teaching world at the moment, Beard left Texas Tech for the Texas job in 2021. The Longhorns went 22-12 with a fourth-place Large 12 end in his first season and misplaced within the NCAA Match Spherical of 32 as a No. 6 seed to No. 3 seed Purdue.
However after a 7-1 begin to his second season, Texas suspended Beard with out pay in December 2022 and fired him in January 2023. Beard was charged with assault by strangulation/suffocation – household violence, a 3rd diploma felony, in line with an Austin Police Department release.
Beard’s fiancée Randi Trew told police the night time of the arrest that Beard, “choked me, bit me, bruises throughout my leg, throwing me round, and going nuts.” Trew later stated in a statement that she initiated a bodily battle, and that Beard didn’t strangle her and was performing in self-defense. In February 2023, the third-degree felony cost was dismissed.
Ole Miss employed Beard the next season, and athletic director Keith Carter stated the college was extraordinarily thorough in its evaluate of Beard.
“These allegations we take very, very significantly, clearly,” Carter said. “And it is so essential that we gained a transparent understanding of that state of affairs. What we discovered was that the preliminary stories weren’t an correct reflection of the occasions that occurred. We had multi-level conversations with a lot of individuals surrounding that night time, and coach Beard was extraordinarily clear in our discussions with him.”
Indiana would possible carry out an identical background test, if it had been to think about hiring Beard.
