Ole Miss Coach Beard Gives San Angelo Connection to March Madness

SAN ANGELO, TX — Ten years ago, Chris Beard guided the Angelo State men’s basketball team to its best season in program history.

The Rams went 28-6 and reached the regional final, just two years after a last-place finish in their conference.

That incredible season vaulted Beard into the NCAA Division I coaching ranks, and he’s been on quite the journey ever since.

On Friday, Beard will lead Ole Miss into its opening game in the NCAA Tournament when the No. 6-seeded Rebels take on No. 11 North Carolina at 3:05 p.m. 

Ole Miss is the fourth different team Beard has taken to the NCAA Tournament since leaving San Angelo in 2015.

The year after he left ASU, Beard led Arkansas-Little Rock to a 30-win season and an upset over No. 5 seed Purdue in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Beard then accepted the job at Texas Tech and nearly brought a national championship to Lubbock, but the Red Raiders came up just short in an overtime loss to Virginia in the 2019 national final.

Beard spurned Texas Tech in 2021, however, to take the job at the University of Texas, where he led the Longhorns to a tournament win his first year.

In his second season in Austin, however, Beard was arrested after a domestic dispute with his girlfriend. The assault charge was later dismissed, but he was fired by the Longhorns in the days following his arrest.

He was hired by Ole Miss in 2023 and has the Rebels back in the Big Dance for the first time in six years.

Beard has had success everywhere he’s been, and it was certainly fun when he was briefly in San Angelo for two seasons.

There will certainly be many fans here Friday who will be rooting for Ole Miss a little more than usual.