Welcome to Bevo’s Fake Nuts, our weekly-ish column on the Texas Longhorns.
Nonconference play is nearing its conclusion for the Texas men’s basketball team. The gauntlet, headlined by Houston Baptist, Sam Houston State, and the Houston Nursing Home for the Uncoordinated Elderly is nearing its conclusion, and by all accounts, it’s gone splendidly for Chris Beard’s crew. The Longhorns smoked San Jose State. The Longhorns smoked UT-Rio Grande Valley. The Longhorns played Gonzaga and Seton Hall but it’s impolite to speak of such things.
There’s the performance side of this—the Longhorns have been fine, not far off of reasonable expectations, a little off of the unreasonable expectations with which they were saddled—and the vibe side. Chris Beard understands the need to win the vibe. Which is telling about who the coach really is.
College basketball has plenty of vibe-based coaches. Mike Brey comes to mind. Tim Miles comes to mind. Shaka Smart, to be honest, comes to mind. The idea here is that good feelings, belief, and talent can carry you through. It’s the idea behind Ted Lasso, whom many college coaches, Beard included, seem to be trying to emulate in the public sphere. The thing about these vibe-based coaches, though, is that they rarely intersect with grit.
This isn’t to say this Texas team is gritty. Far from it. It’s an all-star team, trying to figure out its identity and not doing a bad job but also not yet doing a good job (maybe they will, maybe they won’t). But Beard’s background is grit. It’s Lubbock. It’s bloody-nose basketball.
Yes, yes, I know Beard went to Texas. That’s not the point I’m trying to make. What’s striking about Beard’s identity in Austin as campus’s favorite coach is how distinct it is from his national identity from back in the Lubbock days, which was an identity of fire and bone. Beard’s Texas Tech teams played basketball the way alligators drown their prey. This is the man winning Instagram?
We can talk about Texas itself next week, when Incarnate Word is in the rearview and a soft entry to Big 12 play (or as soft as an entry to Big 12 play can be) stretches ahead. For now, let’s not lose sight of Beard’s shapeshifting.
If you’ve followed Beard closely, you may be saying he isn’t shifting shape. You may be right. I did not live in Lubbock these last five years. Beard was interesting, but he was low on the list of coaches I could describe well. I did know his teams, though, and I have some understanding of the Texas Tech identity, and Austin’s Chris Beard doesn’t fit it. Which brings me to the final point here:
Texas fans are rightly worried about Beard jumping for Kentucky. They should maybe be just as worried about him jumping to the NBA. Because if he can transition this chameleonically from the Old Town Road team to the Transfer Portal Globetrotters, chances are he’s practicing for a much bigger role change.
