Once again, it appears that Arkansas AD Hunter Yurachek has been out-maneuvered. After a brief, very public search that pretty clearly focused on Chris Beard, Beard ended up re-signing with Ole Miss. Arkansas is still searching for its replacement for Eric Musselman.
My emotions are mixed. Avoiding Beard means avoiding all of the headache and moral quandries associated with the apparent domestic violence incident that got Beard fired from Texas. I also sort of suspect that Hog fans were overrating Beard because he had ties to the state.
That said, this is a bad look for Yurachek to fail to lure a coach from a program that’s clearly much worse. And Beard is a good coach, despite the baggage. But is he so clear-cut above other options that this search is now doomed to be a failure no matter what? I’m not convinced.
If you’re wanting to feel better about whiffing on Beard, here are some considerations:
- Since a run to the national title game in 2019, Beard is just 35-34 in conference play as a head coach and has failed to get out of the first weekend in March.
- It’s fair to argue that a significant amount of his success was due to his assistant coach Mark Adams (the actual inventor of the no-middle defense), who was with him at Little Rock and Texas Tech but stayed behind when Beard went to Texas.
- The no-middle, the scheme for which Beard is best known, is not nearly as innovative as it used to be. It’s been widely adopted by other schools in recent years, including Kansas State’s Jerome Tang, another candidate. Pure no-middle is harder to run now anyway since the NCAA changed the block-charge rule last offseason (no-middle defenses rely on late-arriving backside help under the basket), and Ole Miss’s defense this year was not good at all.
Okay, everyone feel better? Whether you do or you don’t, Arkansas has to move on. Here’s a quick look at a couple other options.
Jerome Tang
Tang is very different from Beard, and that’s probably why fans have had such an immediate negative reaction to the initial reports that Tang is now the favorite to land the job.
Tang spent 19 seasons as Scott Drew’s right-hand man at Baylor before finally landing the K-State gig. The Wildcats came out of nowhere to earn a 3-seed and make a run to the Elite Eight in Tang’s first season, earning him National Coach of the Year honors. Most of the roster turned over after that season, but Tang turned program momentum into a strong recruiting and transfer portal class. However, things went south before the season started, when projected star Nae’Qwan Tomlin was arrested for a fight in a sports bar. Tomlin ended up leaving the program and transferring to Memphis without playing for the Wildcats. Kansas State went 19-15 and ended up in the NIT.
Tang is extremely well-liked in the coaching industry and has absolutely none of the baggage that a hire like Beard or Will Wade would carry. He’s known as an excellent recruiter and runs a very modern offense that emphasizes spacing and 3-point shooting, which we didn’t see much of during the Musselman era.
The main knock on him is a lack of experience. That might be excusable had Kansas State had another strong season this year, but they didn’t, so fans may wonder if the Hogs are getting another Stan Heath (who also had one Elite Eight and not much else on his resume when Arkansas hired him). That’s a fair argument.
Overall, I think this would be a better hire than many fans think, and the ceiling here is probably really high, but it would be risky given Tang’s lack of head coaching experience.
Will Wade
Wade is the basketball version of Hugh Freeze: a guy who looks like a used car salesman (or a Southern Baptist megachurch preacher) who burst onto the scene in the SEC with a couple huge seasons. Then came a multi-year return to mediocrity. Then came a firing for non-performance reasons. Then a trip to a smaller school, with wild success. Now Arkansas can complete the cycle by bringing Wade back into the SEC.
Wade had a monster first season at McNeese, though a very weak schedule helped. Defense is his specialty, and he’s known in coaching circles for the complicated switch-everything defense that he installed at LSU over his final few seasons.
Unlike Beard, whose off-court incident will likely continue to haunt him, Wade’s actions appear more benign with the changes made to NIL since he was fired at LSU. He’s well-liked among former players and is an ambitious tinkerer constantly trying to find ways to win. His 55-33 conference record at LSU is much better than Beard’s at Texas Tech/Texas/Ole Miss.
If this is your fallback option, you’re probably going to be fine.
Other Names
It’s hard to see Wade saying no if the Hogs somehow miss on Tang, but here are other options just in case.
Buzz Williams. He has Sweet 16s with two schools and NCAA Tournament appearances with three, and Virginia Tech and Texas A&M are not historical powers. He’s rumored to be frustrated in College Station. His resume is very strong overall… but his A&M rebuild has taken a very long time considering the resources at his disposal.
Chris Jans. Jans’ turnaround of Mississippi State has been impressive, with the Bulldogs reaching back-to-back NCAA Tournaments in his first two seasons. State is probably a worse job even than Ole Miss, so it be worth a shot to see just how ambitious Jans is.
Bryce Drew. We haven’t heard his name much, but Vanderbilt probably fired him too early and he’s been awesome at Grand Canyon. This would qualify as a disappointing hire, but I don’t think it would automatically be a failure.
Implications for Yurachek
Hunter Yurachek has been a pretty good athletic director. He seems to be excellent at identifying good coaches in all sports… but negotiations are not his strong suit. His coaching searches are usually high-profile and very public, and he’s whiffed multiple times. His bad contract for Sam Pittman is strike one against him; could his failed pursuit of Beard be strike two? And then if this next hire doesn’t work out, it’s hard to see him still being employed. I think he needs to nail this hire and handle whatever Pittman situation exists next season perfectly as well.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.
The latest from Fayette Villains, straight to your inbox
Enter your email to subscribe and receive new post alerts and other updates. You can unsubscribe at any time.