Chris Beard is the best coach in America

In three years Chris Beard has taken a program that was elated to make the big dance to a program that was one or two big plays from winning it all. Needless to say, Chris Beard means everything to Texas Tech now. A city full of hard-working people that are content with nothing less than giving their all found a head coach who embodied their historic culture. A university that was looking for a winner to back found a man who doesn’t just win, but wins with class.

There is no doubt he will be coaching next to a statue of himself in Lubbock at some point. Marsha Sharpe’s moment of triumph deservedly earned her a highway; Chris Beard might damn well be named mayor. All of this is why Kirby Hocutt only has one job: he must keep Beard here. If he has to ask every single Tech student and alumni for pocket change, he has to do it. Chris Beard and this program have become far too engaged with each other to operate any other way. To some degree the program is still too new to this level of success to know how to sustain it without him.

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But for now Beard is the lifeblood of this program, and I fully believe he will make Lubbock one of the great basketball destinations of America. As long as Hocutt can keep him here, the future is even brighter than the lights over the National Title game. This loss stung, but have no doubt the man at the helm is everything to this university and deserves the key to Fort Knox. Go get him Kirby, this is your One Shining Moment. (gross)