Texas Tech head basketball coach Chris Beard has signed a new six-year contract through the 2024-25 season. The contract will average $4.575 million annually, making him one of the top paid basketball coaches in the nation after he guided the Red Raiders to the NCAA National Championship final this season and the Elite Eight last year.
Beard has a 76-31 overall record as the program’s head coach, including a National Runner-Up finish in this year’s NCAA tournament, a 14-4 conference record to win the program’s first Big 12 Conference regular-season championship and a 31-7 record in 2018-19 season for the winningest season in program history.
Beard was named the Associated Press National Coach of the Year and earned Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year honors for his role in continuing the success of the program that replaced five seniors and Zhaire Smith who was selected in the NBA Draft after his freshman season. The Red Raiders, who were picked seventh in the Big 12 Conference Preseason Poll and were unranked to begin the season, followed their first Elite Eight appearance with a season that also included going 17-1 at home to take Beard’s three-year record to 50-5 at the United Supermarkets Arena.
Tech’s National Championship game appearance came with wins over Michigan State in the Final Four, an Elite Eight victory against Gonzaga for the NCAA West Region Championship, a Sweet 16 win over Michigan and opening round wins over Buffalo and Northern Kentucky in the most historic run in program history. Beard has now led the Red Raiders to an 8-2 record in the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons. Tech led the nation in defensive efficiency, was second by limiting teams to only 37.0 percent shooting and was third by holding opponents to 59.5 points per game. The Red Raiders won 23 games by double digits and finished the regular season on a nine-game winning streak that was capped by an 80-73 win at Iowa State to secure a share of the Big 12 Conference regular-season title.
In four seasons as a Division I head coach, Beard is 106-36 including going 30-5 at Little Rock in the 2015-16 before being named the head coach at Tech on April 15, 2016. The Red Raiders have seen a significant increase in season ticket sales under Beard, and the program’s average attendance surged to over 10,000 fans per game in 2017-18 for the first time dating back to 2006-07. Tech averaged 12,098 fans per home game this season including four sellouts at the United Supermarkets Arena. The 31 wins broke the previous school record of 30 in the 1995-96 season.
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