I may contradict myself a bunch here, like I said it’s very scatterbrained….
First, there are way too many cooks in the Indiana kitchen. Indiana isn’t run by Indiana people. Their alumni base is Northern suburbs of Chicago and the East coast. It’s a stuffy place. Greggggggg Doyel is already writing columns about how they can’t hire Beard and other guys 🙄.
If it was run by Indiana people, I think it would be an absolute no brainer that Beard would be their number one target (now that Brad and May have turned it down.)
All that said, it’s not that Indiana is a bad job. It’s a top 5-10 job in the country. It just is. Indiana’s problem is they’ve made bad hires (again with the too many cooks in the kitchen and very reminiscent of Tennessee football but I digress). Sampson was a terrible fit and he napalmed the program. Crean got it going for a minute, but his only real claim to fame is he rode Dwayne Wade to a Final 4. He had the team with Oladipo and Zeller that gagged in a S16 game vs Syracuse bc he looked like he had never seen a zone in his life. That was a Final 4 level squad and he never recovered. Archie was an atrocious hire. Hiring a Dayton coach is like hiring a Boise St football coach. Everyone wins there. They have big advantages over everyone in their league. Dayton might be the best job in the country in the strict terms of “resources vs expectations”. He played an ugly style at IU and had zero charisma. The idea of Woodson was good. “We’ll put a ‘front office’ together to get Woody players and he’ll coach an NBA style”. But it hasn’t worked. Giving Oumar Ballo an absolute f**kton of money and having him weigh 330 pounds…that’s something Chris Beard would never do in a million years. But they’ve got really, really, really deep pockets (they just paid Cignetti a boatload) in a state where basketball really is religion.
Now to the “Does or would Beard have interest part”..
THIS IS NOT ME BAD MOUTHING OLE MISS, I think you all know I’ve been nothing but respectful of you guys on here. But:
The reason why the IU job would be appealing to Beard in comparison to OleMiss isn’t because of “tradition” or “resources” or whatever. It’s because the B10 would be an easier grind at Indiana than OleMiss is in the SEC. You take this exact OleMiss roster, which if you’re being objective we all can all agree is in the bottom half of the league. You take this roster and play in the Big Ten…I’m telling you I watch a lot (too much) of Big Ten basketball..and they win 13-14 Big Ten games. I don’t think they are better than Michigan State now that Izzo put the ball in the Richardson kid’s hands, but they are better than Michigan who is going to finish second. I know they lost to Purdue, but play that game now and OleMiss handles them relatively comfortably. I think Maryland, Illinois, and Oregon are a little better from a roster perspective, but if OleMiss somehow gets matched up against any of those 3 in the tournament and are an underdog…I know where my money will be.
But outside of that, they run roughshod through the rest of it. In this league? They’re 10-8. And I’ll keep it real…if this team is coached by a bunch of other guys in this league (I’m thinking of guys like the Georgia coach), they win 5-6 SEC games.
So if he’s at Indiana and even has a kind of average roster…well, everyone in the league is kind of average from a roster perspective. Outside of Queen and the Illinois European kid…there isn’t an army of pros like you have in the SEC.
If you are a good team in the SEC, you can easily go 9-9/8-10 because the league is such a bitch. If you are a good team in the Big Ten, you’re going 13-7/14-6 and are looking at a top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
He’s Chris Beard. If he is at IU he is going to have at a minimum a Top 3-4 roster in the league on a yearly basis. With his ability as a floor coach (of which I personally think he is second to none), he is going a minimum 14-6/15-5ish every year in that league. Maxed out at Indiana, you are finishing top 3 in the B10 and are a final 4 threat every single year. He would dominate the league IMO.
And this is the part where I don’t want people to take offense because I’m just asking questions: can you ever have a top 4 roster in the league at OleMiss? Hugh did it in football once or twice and Lane obviously did it in 2024, can you do it in basketball? I get the argument that it’s a new age in college athletics, but has it ever been done in hoops at OleMiss? If anyone can do it, it’s this guy. Go look at the team he left behind at Texas Tech when he went to Texas. That team was f**king loaded. And he’s so elite as a floor coach that he doesn’t need elite talent to win. But he does need elite talent to win BIG and hang banners.
One big advantage OleMiss would have… Keith Carter is going to let Chris Beard run his program. The same can’t be said at Indiana unless some egos get put in check.
All of that said, it doesn’t matter one iota what I or anyone else really thinks.. It matters what Chris Beard thinks. I’m not in his head. Does Beard think “this is just the beginning here at OleMiss” and as Neal said last night “he now has a proof of concept to sell in the portal and on the recruiting trail”.? Or does he think “this is as good as I can do and we went 10-8 in this league”? Hey, it’s only year 2 he could very easily and probably does think the first thing. And there are moving parts here..does Oats take an NBA gig or UNC if and when it opens? Buzz is trying to get his name involved at every job, who would they hire if it comes to that? Who replaces Barnes at Tennessee? Who does Texas hire? All of which could change the dynamics of the hierarchy of jobs in the league
Nobody thinks higher of Beard than I do. Unless he just gets a nightmare matchup, I will have a future on OleMiss to make the Sweet 16. A one game scenario and a quick Thurs-Sat/Fri-Sunday turnaround? Beard is going to depants some poor bastard on the other sideline. Like please give me a 1v8 2nd round game vs Duke tied with 5 minutes to go. Schyrer looks down and sees Chris f**king Beard, there will be some pants shitting going on. When Rick Barnes does retire, Danny White better be making that call to gauge interest.
Sorry so long and so all over the place. Just an objective, outside view of the landscape. Welcome any and all disagreements.
First, there are way too many cooks in the Indiana kitchen. Indiana isn’t run by Indiana people. Their alumni base is Northern suburbs of Chicago and the East coast. It’s a stuffy place. Greggggggg Doyel is already writing columns about how they can’t hire Beard and other guys 🙄.
If it was run by Indiana people, I think it would be an absolute no brainer that Beard would be their number one target (now that Brad and May have turned it down.)
All that said, it’s not that Indiana is a bad job. It’s a top 5-10 job in the country. It just is. Indiana’s problem is they’ve made bad hires (again with the too many cooks in the kitchen and very reminiscent of Tennessee football but I digress). Sampson was a terrible fit and he napalmed the program. Crean got it going for a minute, but his only real claim to fame is he rode Dwayne Wade to a Final 4. He had the team with Oladipo and Zeller that gagged in a S16 game vs Syracuse bc he looked like he had never seen a zone in his life. That was a Final 4 level squad and he never recovered. Archie was an atrocious hire. Hiring a Dayton coach is like hiring a Boise St football coach. Everyone wins there. They have big advantages over everyone in their league. Dayton might be the best job in the country in the strict terms of “resources vs expectations”. He played an ugly style at IU and had zero charisma. The idea of Woodson was good. “We’ll put a ‘front office’ together to get Woody players and he’ll coach an NBA style”. But it hasn’t worked. Giving Oumar Ballo an absolute f**kton of money and having him weigh 330 pounds…that’s something Chris Beard would never do in a million years. But they’ve got really, really, really deep pockets (they just paid Cignetti a boatload) in a state where basketball really is religion.
Now to the “Does or would Beard have interest part”..
THIS IS NOT ME BAD MOUTHING OLE MISS, I think you all know I’ve been nothing but respectful of you guys on here. But:
The reason why the IU job would be appealing to Beard in comparison to OleMiss isn’t because of “tradition” or “resources” or whatever. It’s because the B10 would be an easier grind at Indiana than OleMiss is in the SEC. You take this exact OleMiss roster, which if you’re being objective we all can all agree is in the bottom half of the league. You take this roster and play in the Big Ten…I’m telling you I watch a lot (too much) of Big Ten basketball..and they win 13-14 Big Ten games. I don’t think they are better than Michigan State now that Izzo put the ball in the Richardson kid’s hands, but they are better than Michigan who is going to finish second. I know they lost to Purdue, but play that game now and OleMiss handles them relatively comfortably. I think Maryland, Illinois, and Oregon are a little better from a roster perspective, but if OleMiss somehow gets matched up against any of those 3 in the tournament and are an underdog…I know where my money will be.
But outside of that, they run roughshod through the rest of it. In this league? They’re 10-8. And I’ll keep it real…if this team is coached by a bunch of other guys in this league (I’m thinking of guys like the Georgia coach), they win 5-6 SEC games.
So if he’s at Indiana and even has a kind of average roster…well, everyone in the league is kind of average from a roster perspective. Outside of Queen and the Illinois European kid…there isn’t an army of pros like you have in the SEC.
If you are a good team in the SEC, you can easily go 9-9/8-10 because the league is such a bitch. If you are a good team in the Big Ten, you’re going 13-7/14-6 and are looking at a top 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
He’s Chris Beard. If he is at IU he is going to have at a minimum a Top 3-4 roster in the league on a yearly basis. With his ability as a floor coach (of which I personally think he is second to none), he is going a minimum 14-6/15-5ish every year in that league. Maxed out at Indiana, you are finishing top 3 in the B10 and are a final 4 threat every single year. He would dominate the league IMO.
And this is the part where I don’t want people to take offense because I’m just asking questions: can you ever have a top 4 roster in the league at OleMiss? Hugh did it in football once or twice and Lane obviously did it in 2024, can you do it in basketball? I get the argument that it’s a new age in college athletics, but has it ever been done in hoops at OleMiss? If anyone can do it, it’s this guy. Go look at the team he left behind at Texas Tech when he went to Texas. That team was f**king loaded. And he’s so elite as a floor coach that he doesn’t need elite talent to win. But he does need elite talent to win BIG and hang banners.
One big advantage OleMiss would have… Keith Carter is going to let Chris Beard run his program. The same can’t be said at Indiana unless some egos get put in check.
All of that said, it doesn’t matter one iota what I or anyone else really thinks.. It matters what Chris Beard thinks. I’m not in his head. Does Beard think “this is just the beginning here at OleMiss” and as Neal said last night “he now has a proof of concept to sell in the portal and on the recruiting trail”.? Or does he think “this is as good as I can do and we went 10-8 in this league”? Hey, it’s only year 2 he could very easily and probably does think the first thing. And there are moving parts here..does Oats take an NBA gig or UNC if and when it opens? Buzz is trying to get his name involved at every job, who would they hire if it comes to that? Who replaces Barnes at Tennessee? Who does Texas hire? All of which could change the dynamics of the hierarchy of jobs in the league
Nobody thinks higher of Beard than I do. Unless he just gets a nightmare matchup, I will have a future on OleMiss to make the Sweet 16. A one game scenario and a quick Thurs-Sat/Fri-Sunday turnaround? Beard is going to depants some poor bastard on the other sideline. Like please give me a 1v8 2nd round game vs Duke tied with 5 minutes to go. Schyrer looks down and sees Chris f**king Beard, there will be some pants shitting going on. When Rick Barnes does retire, Danny White better be making that call to gauge interest.
Sorry so long and so all over the place. Just an objective, outside view of the landscape. Welcome any and all disagreements.
