As promised back in January, when I first posted about the Chris Beard contract situation. We are going back to reflect on how the season ended and get our final conclusions on how the contract with our glorious head basketball coach turned out. Let’s refresh our memory from the first time we did this during the season and what I wrote as the intro…
A few weeks ago the Texas Tech men’s basketball program leaped into the Top 10 in the national polls and all was good in Raiderland! There were some Red Raider fans screaming to get a contract extension/renegotiation in place ASAP. Thinking that the upper echelon programs will come calling for our guy and make him an offer he won’t be able to refuse at the end of this season.
Others were hesitant, and wanted to tap the brakes until they saw more of the regular season to change the terms of what Coach Beard was offered. Those fans thought it was too good to be true. That the product we were seeing on the court would come crashing back down to earth soon. Texas Tech has firsthand knowledge of what a massive financial extension can do to a program when the head coach was given it prematurely.
I went on in detail about how Coach Beard was making about $1.3 million per season (at the time) and that was only good enough for #9 in men’s basketball HC salaries out of all the Big 12 schools. My opinion was that Chris Beard needed to be locking into place with a new contract and paid as a top coach in the league. Then I asked the question:
What is a reasonable extension/renegotiated contract for our head guy?
The responses rolled in, here are a few…
Sorry if I left your response out, but we got a lot of interaction with this post. I tried to only show the comments that were directly answering the question and leave out all the replies and dialogue chit-chat. As you will see if you go back through the original post comments section, things got a little heated at times when it came to this question. The topic took a different path when compared to football and emotions ran high. It’s all good, I love it! As you can tell anything goes on my basketball posts in the comments, I never flag/remove/delete a reply on my articles… unless it is something so over the top that it breaks all STP (Seth’s) guidelines. Yes, I’d be the ref in basketball that might call a foul if you clothesline Kurt Rambis like Kevin McHale did back in the 84 NBA Finals.
Remember; those comments were the thoughts on Chris Beard’s contract at the time in January, so not a one of us had a crystal ball to know if we were right or wrong. Now, fast-forward to March 5th –
We are committed to building an elite basketball program at #TexasTech, and we are committed to @CoachBeardTTU building it.
Coach Beard has agreed to a contract extension through the 2023-24 season!
📰➡️ https://t.co/Ofv1lZbOJJ #WreckEm #4To1 pic.twitter.com/CKupBgWqpz
— Texas Tech Basketball (@TexasTechMBB) March 5, 2018
BOOM! After the regular season ended and before the Big 12 tournament began Coach Beard signed a $19,050,000 contract over six years through the 2023-24 season. I have obtained the whole signed contract in PDF, and if you want to see it all, send me an email (DanSwany@yahoo.com) or DM on twitter (@DanSwany). Here is the important financial stuff with incentives that I pulled from pieces within the document:
Well, there you have it. The contract was executed in March and I have put it in front of you to look it over and review what was signed. I 100% agree with everything that is in it, and am happy to have Coach Beard locked-up. He deserves to be paid as one of the top coaches in the Big 12, and he has earned it.
Now, the question comes back to you… Was this a reasonable contract for our head guy? He brought us to the top of the Big 12, and the nation saw us on our ride to the Elite 8. We are recruiting top talent to Lubbock, and for Coach Beard and staff the gas pedal is still being pushed with no stopping in mind. By the end of June, Texas Tech will officially be a pipeline from Lubbock to the NBA. Chris Beard is getting it done!
I am going to continue to lay low for the off-season; but I will have a story up next week while our former TTech superstar Zhaire Smith is getting ready for the NBA draft. This draft is special for us Red Raiders watching our first one-and-done going to the NBA. Wreck ’em Tech!!!