Texas parted ways with suspended head coach Chris Beard on Thursday.
Beard was arrested on December 12 after his fiancée told police officers he choked her, bit her and hit her during an argument
Here are more details from ESPN:
Longhorns athletic director Chris Del Conte released a statement Thursday afternoon announcing the decision.
“The University of Texas has parted ways with Chris Beard,” he said. “This has been a difficult situation that we’ve been diligently working through. Today I informed Mr. Beard of our decision to terminate him effective immediately.”
The university’s vice president of legal affairs, Jim Davis, wrote in a letter to Beard’s attorney, Perry Minton, that Beard engaged in “unacceptable behavior that makes him unfit to serve as head coach at our university.” Whether prosecutors continue with the case does not determine whether Beard engaged in conduct unbecoming of the school, Davis wrote.
Of course, it didn’t take long for John Calipari to land on a list of potential replacements for Beard.
Here’s what Gary Parrish says about Calipari:
John Calipari, Kentucky coach: All things being equal, there are few reasons for a men’s basketball coach to leave Kentucky for Texas. However, the circumstances for Calipari at UK are no longer ideal because he A) is stuck on one national championship despite having immensely talented rosters nearly every year, B) hasn’t been to the Final Four since 2015, C) turned in the worst season in modern school history two years ago, D) lost to Saint Peter’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March, and E) took a team ranked No. 1 at KenPom.com this preseason and started 2-4 in the first two quadrants with zero wins over top-40 KenPom teams.
UK fans are frustrated and restless. A close friend of Calipari’s told me last summer that Calipari should’ve taken the UCLA job after Steve Alford was fired in 2019 because “this thing at Kentucky has run its course.” I understand the sentiment. So Calipari bouncing to Texas after this season — especially if he doesn’t meet expectations — for a fresh start with a new fanbase and set of expectations would make some sense from a quality-of-life perspective, especially considering UT has the type of resources that would allow it to match Kentucky dollar-for-dollar if it came to that.
Parrish’s list of potential candidates
