After the news of Marcus Santos-Silva choosing to transfer to Texas Tech, Aaron Dickens and Chris Level were joined by Texas Tech head basketball coach Chris Beard.
Coach, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. What have you been up to for the last month and a half?
“Man, not much. How about you guys?”
Watching a lot of bad television. What about you? Have you seen any bad TV at home?
“Uh, let’s see, man. Watched Ozark, but I fall asleep a lot. I wake up, I don’t ever rewind it. Seems like a lot goes on in that show in a short time period so I can never really know what’s going on. I watched the Tiger King with Randi. I still don’t really understand what was going on there. I watched the Sunday night deal with Pippen and Rodman and Jordan and those guys. That’s awesome. Two hours flies in five minutes for me on Sundays.”
Is it fun to relive that era of what was totally different basketball, it seemed like, as we’re getting a glimpse of what was behind the scenes there Sunday night?
“Yeah, exactly, like, so with Kobe Bryant’s tragic passing and all, it always kind of brought his times, his championships, and I think at one time that was once my coaching career kind of started when I was a Kobe guy. And then, you know, growing up it was Magic and Bird’s start, but then really my lifetime, if you have to pick where I really fell in love with basketball, it was obviously the Jordan days. I actually saw him play live in the late 80s in an arena in Dallas. My dad went and bought those good seats and went in there saw him play live then. We didn’t have cable television when I was a kid. We got it, I guess, when I was around high school or so. With Jordan, WGN, the games were always on regular TV. So, you never missed a game. So, not just Jordan but all these great teams he played with Paxson and Kerr, DJ Armstrong. Those are a couple guys that I grew up wanting to be because I knew I wasn’t Jordan.”
Speaking of the NBA, Jahmi’us Ramsey declares for the draft and will go through the process. How excited are you for him as he moves forward in that process?
“Oh, super excited, I mean, that’s what our program’s all about. You come in, you sacrifice, you play unselfish championship basketball and individual greatness can come from that. I think we might be one of the best examples in modern times or recent times. The championship team was Matt and Tariq playing NBA minutes this year, Norense being in the G-league and Brandone, and everybody’s flourishing because the team won. So, it’s always a victory. With Jahmi’us, I loved coaching him. You know, I tell people, you know, you always hear players talking about coaches. They want a coach that keeps their word. They want a coach that delivers. They want a coach that’s consistent. Well, as coaches, that’s what you want too. When I think about my time with Ramsey starting the very first home calls and official visits, when he committed, when he came in the summer, I mean, Jahmi’us basically kept his word to me. He always did exactly what he told me he was going to do. He told me he was going to come in here, be a team guy and work really hard and take coaching, have the courage to be great as a freshman, and he really delivered. Took care of his academic part of the agreement. So, I’m pulling for me. I think he’s going through the process the right way, got a lot of respect for him and family, his circle of people. As a college coach, I’m just trying to assist, trying to help him in any way I can, but ultimately the victory for me is if he makes the right decision for himself, and I’ll support that 100 percent, whether he decides now is the time, or whether he comes back to college for another year. He earns the right to make that decision, and I support it.”
How surreal was this situation in Kansas City? You were in the locker room, we’re out doing pregame. Your team is out there warming, and the world hasn’t been the same since. It’s such a strange end to a season because there really wasn’t any kind of end. My heart breaks for guys like Clarke, Holyfield and guys like that, but it was just very strange. Is that hard to process, kind of getting over and through that, kind of focusing on the next challenge?
“Yeah, it’s just crazy right? Can’t really compare it to anything that we’ve ever been through. I mean, these players and us coaches, no one’s ever been through something like this before. Me, specifically, I think back on my emotions, you know, the hold deal where there weren’t going to be fans at games. I really don’t think that really phased me, and we were so locked in trying to win a championship. We needed to win three games in three days. We thought we could do it. It really didn’t until when, you know, they said, ‘hey, no game.’ Then, my emotions, I immediately felt for the seniors because hopefully Lord willing the rest of us will get to coach another game, play in another game, but you feel for those seniors. And so, that’s kind of where my emotions went directly and, you know, the next thing is just sadness that we weren’t able to play. I think a lot of times kind of what gets lost is what’s really important. I think what we’re all going through right now is the adversity of the virus as people, you know, not just Americans, not just Lubbock, just everybody. I think back into this we’ll all have a greater appreciation for the things that are important, whether it be going to a restaurant, visiting family, being able to go shopping which I don’t miss at all. This has been great for me and Randi. Anyways, I’m not a big shopper. Back to basketball, when they said there would be no game, I walked out to the floor, said I wanted to see Joe Larosa, the great legendary official that’s called Big 12 games for a long time. I think he’s a really good official. He’s an old NBA guy, called the Magic and Larry games and stuff. So, I knew that this was going to be his final game in the Big 12 tournament. I don’t even think he was going to call the NCAA tournament, and I knew we had him on the game if I’m not mistaken. So, I actually went to the floor to find him to thank him for everything he did for college basketball. When I got out there, just kind of surreal moment looking at the court and it just being empty. I think the biggest emotion I had was wanting to play the game. I wanted to play the game, and I really haven’t had that pure of emotion in a long time because normally that’s about the stress trying to win the game, but at this deal, I just wanted to play. I compare it to when I was a kid. I remember you’d be out at the park, and then you’d call next game. You’d be sitting there all night waiting to play. Finally, it was your game up and the lights went out. So, everybody would go home, just the sadness, man I didn’t get to hoop today. That’s kind of my biggest emotion. Just really sad for the players and for the coaches that we weren’t able to compete.”
Tell me about the new court. Are you excited about that? I know every so many years you got to get that refinished and all that, but a bit of a change. You got some black paint around the edges and kind of take me through that real quick.
“Yeah, my thing I think the floor has had some different, you know, designs over the years, and they're all good. My personal opinion is just, it's just my opinion, I'm only one card in the game, but I thought the state of Texas was associated with some of the other schools in our state. I never really thought, I don't really ever associate that state of Texas with the Double-T, so in my personal opinion, I know some people agree some people disagree, you can't make everybody happy, but I think it's good to get back to a cleaner, more traditional look. I think the Double-T pops and I hope our fans like it, and if they don't, you know, if anybody you know doesn't like it to just send Mark Adams an email. I really don’t want to hear about it (laughter breaks out).”
Chris, walk us through Brian Burg to GSU. What was that like for you, how proud are you as a head coach?
“Yeah, that’s big. That’s just as big as graduation Saturday or cutting the nets down for a championship or watching the guys sign a pro contract. We ask a lot of our coaches on our staff. In return, we support guys better in their careers and goals, head coaches, so really proud. We've had three guys in last five years get division I head coaching jobs just super appreciative everybody in the program contributing. That's a team victory starting with Kirby and Tony, just all the way down to the coaches supporting guys. My relationship with Brian Burg’s well documented going to friends, and it's hard to work with friends in this business. It doesn't always work out. It puts a lot of strain on a friendship, but Burg especially the first guy called when I got the Little Rock, job super appreciative of his five years in our program, and sacrifices work, his loyalty too. Special guy. He’s going to do great things as a head coach, but I felt really proud when he got that opportunity. He’s more than earned it.”
Yeah, and I know we’re all Georgia Southern fans now, Coach, and that’s extremely well-said. Burg’s a special guy, and I’ll tell you he reminds me or you as an assistant coach, which is about the highest praise I can give him.
Take me through trying to recruit now virtually: FaceTime, Zoom, or whatever virtual… how has that been, and how much fun have you had with that or how challenging is that?
“It’s been challenging for everybody, I’m sure, more-so than the next guy for me because it’s just not my world. First time somebody said Zoom, I had no idea what it was. I do have a little bit of experience FaceTiming because I pick up three daughters every night. There’s all sorts of stuff going on with this technology I never knew existed. So, on the back side of this, maybe we’ll be a little bit better, but it’s been challenging. One thing that I don’t think anybody forecasted would be these players are actually making decisions quicker than in the normal traditional process because in the old way, if you’re going to take three or four visits, that means at the minimum you’re going to take three or four weeks to make your decision because the visits are normally on the weekend. Now with no visits, a lot of these kids and their families, they’re getting after it pretty hard and making decisions within a week or two. So, it’s been challenging just like all things. There’s some good to it though. I literally feel like that I’ve been able to develop relationships with a couple of these players in the non-traditional way. I’ve been on the phone a lot more than maybe than we used to. We’re able to kind of do all of the same things; we just can’t get face-to-face. We put these players on like FaceTime and walk them around the facilities and basically do like an official visit, but it’s virtual, if that makes sense.”
You’re obviously big on mental toughness. Has this whole situation, the way the season was kind of ended abruptly, the routine thing changed and altered, all the inconveniences for the last month and a half has been kind of the ultimate test of four to one?
“Yeah, I think so, especially with some of our players that haven’t been able to go home and see their families, our international guys and couple of our other guys. I’ve always said that basketball is just kind of small part of this whole deal and there’s things that’re a lot more important. Obviously when you’re dealing with things like this, it’s much, much more important than athletics. But yeah, I do think you got to be pretty mentally tough right now to stay motivated and get after it from a player’s standpoint. You know, I could tell you that we’ve got a couple guys that have been very, very impressive during these times that basically haven’t taken a day off since we got back from Kansas City until today. We’re going on two months now. So, and I think some other guys have been challenged a little bit. I think when something gets taken away from you, it either fuels fire even stronger and it motivates you to be even better, or you know you can sit around and feel sorry for yourself. I know here at Texas Tech you guys know what we’re doing.”
Kind of take us through Jamarius Burton a little bit.
“Yeah, we’re excited about all our new guys, specifically with JB to answer your question. I think he’s special. I don’t like to put a lot of pressure on these players coming in, but I’m confident on this and I think when we talked about taking a transfer guard to get us a little bit of experience and age and kind of balance the classes out and the chemistry, this is the guy whose name just kept coming up. It wasn’t just me. We watched a lot of film, more than normal since we can’t go on the road. Literally guys just coming out in my office saying what about this, what about this. We all kind of agreed that this was the best guard we’ve saw in college basketball that was going to transfer. The obvious is he played at a great program at Wichita State, where he’s been coached, had demands placed on him, and he’s excelled for the better players in that league. He’s got real numbers, real experience. The next line of eval is obvious with his talent. He can play different positions, he’s athletic, plays on both ends of the floor, but then when the recruiting process started, you know what just jumped off the charts for the intangibles. He’s got a love for the game, a desire to be great, a discipline about him, a toughness about him, very similar in recruiting Matt Mooney. Some of the things JB was talking about earlier in our conversation. So, we’re excited. I think he’s going to be a big-time impact player. The plan as of now is to redshirt that year and even work on his body a little bit more, and then you’re looking at a starter when he becomes eligible. And so, that’s the plan as of today.”
(On the virtual Wreck ‘Em tour) What can fans expect when they tune in? Do you have a speech prepared or is this kind of ad lib?
“I’m much better on the ad lib. I think they might’ve sent me an email on what to expect. I was much more interested in recruiting today. We got a big morning around here.”
Yes you did…
“I’ve always wondered I know the rule is you can’t say anything. I’ve always kind of wondered what the consequence is, you know? Would it be worth just one time to kind of throw it out there? I don’t know… today’s not that day. I’m not doing that, but I always kind of wondered that.
Before we let you go, you said you mentioned Tiger King. I do have one question to ask you. The lady that was featured, that Carole Baskin, you think she had anything to do with her husband’s disappearance and all? Yes or no?
“Yes!”
Truth-teller.
Coach, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. What have you been up to for the last month and a half?
“Man, not much. How about you guys?”
Watching a lot of bad television. What about you? Have you seen any bad TV at home?
“Uh, let’s see, man. Watched Ozark, but I fall asleep a lot. I wake up, I don’t ever rewind it. Seems like a lot goes on in that show in a short time period so I can never really know what’s going on. I watched the Tiger King with Randi. I still don’t really understand what was going on there. I watched the Sunday night deal with Pippen and Rodman and Jordan and those guys. That’s awesome. Two hours flies in five minutes for me on Sundays.”
Is it fun to relive that era of what was totally different basketball, it seemed like, as we’re getting a glimpse of what was behind the scenes there Sunday night?
“Yeah, exactly, like, so with Kobe Bryant’s tragic passing and all, it always kind of brought his times, his championships, and I think at one time that was once my coaching career kind of started when I was a Kobe guy. And then, you know, growing up it was Magic and Bird’s start, but then really my lifetime, if you have to pick where I really fell in love with basketball, it was obviously the Jordan days. I actually saw him play live in the late 80s in an arena in Dallas. My dad went and bought those good seats and went in there saw him play live then. We didn’t have cable television when I was a kid. We got it, I guess, when I was around high school or so. With Jordan, WGN, the games were always on regular TV. So, you never missed a game. So, not just Jordan but all these great teams he played with Paxson and Kerr, DJ Armstrong. Those are a couple guys that I grew up wanting to be because I knew I wasn’t Jordan.”
Speaking of the NBA, Jahmi’us Ramsey declares for the draft and will go through the process. How excited are you for him as he moves forward in that process?
“Oh, super excited, I mean, that’s what our program’s all about. You come in, you sacrifice, you play unselfish championship basketball and individual greatness can come from that. I think we might be one of the best examples in modern times or recent times. The championship team was Matt and Tariq playing NBA minutes this year, Norense being in the G-league and Brandone, and everybody’s flourishing because the team won. So, it’s always a victory. With Jahmi’us, I loved coaching him. You know, I tell people, you know, you always hear players talking about coaches. They want a coach that keeps their word. They want a coach that delivers. They want a coach that’s consistent. Well, as coaches, that’s what you want too. When I think about my time with Ramsey starting the very first home calls and official visits, when he committed, when he came in the summer, I mean, Jahmi’us basically kept his word to me. He always did exactly what he told me he was going to do. He told me he was going to come in here, be a team guy and work really hard and take coaching, have the courage to be great as a freshman, and he really delivered. Took care of his academic part of the agreement. So, I’m pulling for me. I think he’s going through the process the right way, got a lot of respect for him and family, his circle of people. As a college coach, I’m just trying to assist, trying to help him in any way I can, but ultimately the victory for me is if he makes the right decision for himself, and I’ll support that 100 percent, whether he decides now is the time, or whether he comes back to college for another year. He earns the right to make that decision, and I support it.”
How surreal was this situation in Kansas City? You were in the locker room, we’re out doing pregame. Your team is out there warming, and the world hasn’t been the same since. It’s such a strange end to a season because there really wasn’t any kind of end. My heart breaks for guys like Clarke, Holyfield and guys like that, but it was just very strange. Is that hard to process, kind of getting over and through that, kind of focusing on the next challenge?
“Yeah, it’s just crazy right? Can’t really compare it to anything that we’ve ever been through. I mean, these players and us coaches, no one’s ever been through something like this before. Me, specifically, I think back on my emotions, you know, the hold deal where there weren’t going to be fans at games. I really don’t think that really phased me, and we were so locked in trying to win a championship. We needed to win three games in three days. We thought we could do it. It really didn’t until when, you know, they said, ‘hey, no game.’ Then, my emotions, I immediately felt for the seniors because hopefully Lord willing the rest of us will get to coach another game, play in another game, but you feel for those seniors. And so, that’s kind of where my emotions went directly and, you know, the next thing is just sadness that we weren’t able to play. I think a lot of times kind of what gets lost is what’s really important. I think what we’re all going through right now is the adversity of the virus as people, you know, not just Americans, not just Lubbock, just everybody. I think back into this we’ll all have a greater appreciation for the things that are important, whether it be going to a restaurant, visiting family, being able to go shopping which I don’t miss at all. This has been great for me and Randi. Anyways, I’m not a big shopper. Back to basketball, when they said there would be no game, I walked out to the floor, said I wanted to see Joe Larosa, the great legendary official that’s called Big 12 games for a long time. I think he’s a really good official. He’s an old NBA guy, called the Magic and Larry games and stuff. So, I knew that this was going to be his final game in the Big 12 tournament. I don’t even think he was going to call the NCAA tournament, and I knew we had him on the game if I’m not mistaken. So, I actually went to the floor to find him to thank him for everything he did for college basketball. When I got out there, just kind of surreal moment looking at the court and it just being empty. I think the biggest emotion I had was wanting to play the game. I wanted to play the game, and I really haven’t had that pure of emotion in a long time because normally that’s about the stress trying to win the game, but at this deal, I just wanted to play. I compare it to when I was a kid. I remember you’d be out at the park, and then you’d call next game. You’d be sitting there all night waiting to play. Finally, it was your game up and the lights went out. So, everybody would go home, just the sadness, man I didn’t get to hoop today. That’s kind of my biggest emotion. Just really sad for the players and for the coaches that we weren’t able to compete.”
Tell me about the new court. Are you excited about that? I know every so many years you got to get that refinished and all that, but a bit of a change. You got some black paint around the edges and kind of take me through that real quick.
“Yeah, my thing I think the floor has had some different, you know, designs over the years, and they're all good. My personal opinion is just, it's just my opinion, I'm only one card in the game, but I thought the state of Texas was associated with some of the other schools in our state. I never really thought, I don't really ever associate that state of Texas with the Double-T, so in my personal opinion, I know some people agree some people disagree, you can't make everybody happy, but I think it's good to get back to a cleaner, more traditional look. I think the Double-T pops and I hope our fans like it, and if they don't, you know, if anybody you know doesn't like it to just send Mark Adams an email. I really don’t want to hear about it (laughter breaks out).”
Chris, walk us through Brian Burg to GSU. What was that like for you, how proud are you as a head coach?
“Yeah, that’s big. That’s just as big as graduation Saturday or cutting the nets down for a championship or watching the guys sign a pro contract. We ask a lot of our coaches on our staff. In return, we support guys better in their careers and goals, head coaches, so really proud. We've had three guys in last five years get division I head coaching jobs just super appreciative everybody in the program contributing. That's a team victory starting with Kirby and Tony, just all the way down to the coaches supporting guys. My relationship with Brian Burg’s well documented going to friends, and it's hard to work with friends in this business. It doesn't always work out. It puts a lot of strain on a friendship, but Burg especially the first guy called when I got the Little Rock, job super appreciative of his five years in our program, and sacrifices work, his loyalty too. Special guy. He’s going to do great things as a head coach, but I felt really proud when he got that opportunity. He’s more than earned it.”
Yeah, and I know we’re all Georgia Southern fans now, Coach, and that’s extremely well-said. Burg’s a special guy, and I’ll tell you he reminds me or you as an assistant coach, which is about the highest praise I can give him.
Take me through trying to recruit now virtually: FaceTime, Zoom, or whatever virtual… how has that been, and how much fun have you had with that or how challenging is that?
“It’s been challenging for everybody, I’m sure, more-so than the next guy for me because it’s just not my world. First time somebody said Zoom, I had no idea what it was. I do have a little bit of experience FaceTiming because I pick up three daughters every night. There’s all sorts of stuff going on with this technology I never knew existed. So, on the back side of this, maybe we’ll be a little bit better, but it’s been challenging. One thing that I don’t think anybody forecasted would be these players are actually making decisions quicker than in the normal traditional process because in the old way, if you’re going to take three or four visits, that means at the minimum you’re going to take three or four weeks to make your decision because the visits are normally on the weekend. Now with no visits, a lot of these kids and their families, they’re getting after it pretty hard and making decisions within a week or two. So, it’s been challenging just like all things. There’s some good to it though. I literally feel like that I’ve been able to develop relationships with a couple of these players in the non-traditional way. I’ve been on the phone a lot more than maybe than we used to. We’re able to kind of do all of the same things; we just can’t get face-to-face. We put these players on like FaceTime and walk them around the facilities and basically do like an official visit, but it’s virtual, if that makes sense.”
You’re obviously big on mental toughness. Has this whole situation, the way the season was kind of ended abruptly, the routine thing changed and altered, all the inconveniences for the last month and a half has been kind of the ultimate test of four to one?
“Yeah, I think so, especially with some of our players that haven’t been able to go home and see their families, our international guys and couple of our other guys. I’ve always said that basketball is just kind of small part of this whole deal and there’s things that’re a lot more important. Obviously when you’re dealing with things like this, it’s much, much more important than athletics. But yeah, I do think you got to be pretty mentally tough right now to stay motivated and get after it from a player’s standpoint. You know, I could tell you that we’ve got a couple guys that have been very, very impressive during these times that basically haven’t taken a day off since we got back from Kansas City until today. We’re going on two months now. So, and I think some other guys have been challenged a little bit. I think when something gets taken away from you, it either fuels fire even stronger and it motivates you to be even better, or you know you can sit around and feel sorry for yourself. I know here at Texas Tech you guys know what we’re doing.”
Kind of take us through Jamarius Burton a little bit.
“Yeah, we’re excited about all our new guys, specifically with JB to answer your question. I think he’s special. I don’t like to put a lot of pressure on these players coming in, but I’m confident on this and I think when we talked about taking a transfer guard to get us a little bit of experience and age and kind of balance the classes out and the chemistry, this is the guy whose name just kept coming up. It wasn’t just me. We watched a lot of film, more than normal since we can’t go on the road. Literally guys just coming out in my office saying what about this, what about this. We all kind of agreed that this was the best guard we’ve saw in college basketball that was going to transfer. The obvious is he played at a great program at Wichita State, where he’s been coached, had demands placed on him, and he’s excelled for the better players in that league. He’s got real numbers, real experience. The next line of eval is obvious with his talent. He can play different positions, he’s athletic, plays on both ends of the floor, but then when the recruiting process started, you know what just jumped off the charts for the intangibles. He’s got a love for the game, a desire to be great, a discipline about him, a toughness about him, very similar in recruiting Matt Mooney. Some of the things JB was talking about earlier in our conversation. So, we’re excited. I think he’s going to be a big-time impact player. The plan as of now is to redshirt that year and even work on his body a little bit more, and then you’re looking at a starter when he becomes eligible. And so, that’s the plan as of today.”
(On the virtual Wreck ‘Em tour) What can fans expect when they tune in? Do you have a speech prepared or is this kind of ad lib?
“I’m much better on the ad lib. I think they might’ve sent me an email on what to expect. I was much more interested in recruiting today. We got a big morning around here.”
Yes you did…
“I’ve always wondered I know the rule is you can’t say anything. I’ve always kind of wondered what the consequence is, you know? Would it be worth just one time to kind of throw it out there? I don’t know… today’s not that day. I’m not doing that, but I always kind of wondered that.
Before we let you go, you said you mentioned Tiger King. I do have one question to ask you. The lady that was featured, that Carole Baskin, you think she had anything to do with her husband’s disappearance and all? Yes or no?
“Yes!”
Truth-teller.
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