Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino endorses Chris Beard for IU opening

Indiana still has five regular season games left, but much of the attention on the program has shifted to the coaching vacancy that will be filled once the 2024-25 campaign concludes.

Earlier this month, Indiana announced that Mike Woodson would step away at the end of the season.

While the last two coaching hires – Archie Miller and Woodson – have only lasted four seasons each, there is optimism athletic director Scott Dolson can hire a coach to turn things around on the hardwood in Bloomington.

After Curt Cignetti flipped the direction of Indiana football in one season, the same could happen with the men’s basketball program if the correct hire is made.

One coach who has been mentioned as a candidate, although not as prominently as others, is Chris Beard of Ole Miss. On Friday, Beard received a glowing endorsement from a Hall of Fame coach with two national championships, Rick Pitino. Pitino is currently in his second season at St. John’s.

“I’m going to have some people upset at me,” Pitino said on the Pardon My Take podcast. “If I was the AD at Indiana, and ‘am I friendly with this person? Yes I am. Do I have a lot of respect for this person? Yes I do.’ But I would immediately and not even interview anybody else and hire one of the premier coaches in all of college basketball and that’s Chris Beard from Ole Miss.”

The 52-year-old Beard worked for Bob Knight at Texas Tech, reached the national championship game at Texas Tech in 2019 and has won more than 70 percent of his games as a head coach.

Now in his second season at Ole Miss, Beard has the Rebels on pace for an NCAA tournament berth with a 19-7 record.

Beard was also fired from his previous job at Texas after an arrest for a third-degree felony charge of assault against a family member for strangulation. The charge was later dismissed.

Just 14 months after his dismissal from Texas, Beard was hired by Ole Miss, where he replaced Kermit Davis. In his first season, the Rebels finished 20-12 and missed the postseason after finishing 7-11 in the SEC.

This season, Ole Miss is ranked inside the top 25 on KenPom and has the nation’s 16th-best defense.

“I wouldn’t even think about another person,” Pitino continued. “He’s perfect for that job. He’s a tough, hard-nosed … the years I was sitting out (of coaching), I got friendly with him because he asked me – he didn’t know me, I didn’t know him – to come out and speak to his team. He was at Texas Tech. And I went out and spoke to them. And I watched two days of practice. And I always judge a coach by his practices. And I have to tell you, those were some of the best practices and meetings with his team that I’ve ever witnessed.

“So I am a gigantic fan of Chris Beard. I think he would kill it at Indiana. He’d have them in the top five to seven every single year. Remember, he brought Texas Tech to the championship game and could have won it if that young man didn’t that from Virginia that corner shot, that shot that he did hit. So he’s a superstar, top three coach in my estimation.”

Category: Coaching search

Filed to: Chris Beard, Rick Pitino