Texas Tech Promotes Mark Adams to be Next Basketball Coach
Less than one week after Chris Beard skipped town for the Texas Longhorns, the Red Raiders have their next head coach and will promote assistant Mark Adams.
Adams was a part of the 2019 Final Four staff and has been with Texas Tech since 2016. He made his first stint with the Red Raiders as director of basketball operations from 2013-15. For the 2015-16 season, Adams was an assistant at Little Rock under Beard for one year.
After the 2019 second-place finish in the NCAA Tournament, he was promoted to the associate head coach. Prior to Texas Tech, Adams was Howard College’s head coach from 2004-13.
Adams has big shoes to fill as he replaces Beard, who took Texas Tech basketball to unprecedented heights. Beard won 112 games in five seasons, during which the Red Raiders won 112 games, shared the 2019 Big 12 regular-season title, made three NCAA Tournament appearances and reached the 2019 national championship game, where the Red Raiders lost to Virginia in overtime. He also cultivated two of Texas Tech’s best recruiting classes.
Adams has been in charge of Texas Tech’s successful defense over the past five years, which actually garnered him lots of attention around the basketball world, including at the NBA level where the Chicago Bulls were interested in Adams for their head coaching job in 2019.
Since Chris Beard’s departure on Thursday, Adams has reportedly received lots of support from past players.
This is the fourth head-coaching change in the Big 12 so far this offseason. Iowa State fired Steve Prohm and hired T.J. Otzelberger. With Beard replacing Smart, the Red Raiders will be looking for a new head coach. Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger announced his retirement last week.
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