Texas Tech Basketball

Texas Tech and men's basketball coach Chris Beard agreed Monday on a six-year, $27.45 million contract that will keep him in Lubbock through 2024-25.

"Thank you to President Schovanec, Kirby Hocutt, Tony Hernandez, Chancellor Mitchell and the Board of Regents for making this strong commitment to both me and our men's basketball program," Beard said in a statement. "Thank you to our players and staff, both former and current, for your commitment to winning. Special thanks to our fans and our students for your incredible support and passion. Together we have accomplished some great things in the past three years but we are not satisfied and will continue working tirelessly to build one of the best college basketball programs in the nation."

Beard, 46, has posted a 76-31 record in three seasons at Texas Tech. He led the Red Raiders to an Elite Eight berth in 2018 and to the 2019 national championship game before losing to Virginia. Texas Tech had never reached the Elite Eight before Beard took over the program.

"In only three years, Chris Beard has elevated Texas Tech to the upper echelon of college basketball," director of athletics Kirby Hocutt said. "The 2018 Elite Eight, and this year's appearance in the National Championship game has raised the entire profile of Texas Tech Athletics and is a source of great pride for all Red Raiders. I am appreciative of the continued loyalty and personal commitment that Chris has made to continue to lead our program into the future.

"He is widely respected as one of the best coaches in the nation and I could not be more excited that through various resources, we have been able to invest into our basketball program at one of the highest levels in the nation."

The new contract makes him the third-highest paid coach in the nation, according to USA Today. Only John Calipari and Mike Krzyzewski earn a higher annual salary.

Beard built up the Raiders program quickly on the back of transfers and smart recruiting. Jarrett Culver was just a 3-star recruit before arriving at Texas Tech and is leaving a lottery pick. Davide Moretti is an Italian import who did not receive much attention from top-flight programs. Matt Mooney (South Dakota), Tariq Owens (St. John's) and Brandone Francis (Florida) were all transfers.

Beard took the unconventional mix of talent and turned them into a menace on the defensive end that came within a couple breaks of winning a national title. He'll have to make it work with a largely different group of talent in 2019-20, but his track record of instant success speaks for itself. 

Texas Tech sophomore shooting guard Jarrett Culver said following Monday's 85-77 overtime loss to Virginia in the national championship game that he is undecided about whether he will enter the 2019 NBA draft. 

According to Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News, Culver was noncommittal when asked about his basketball future: "The decision is yet to be made. All season I just focused on my team and trying to win the national championship, so I haven't thought about that any. Now the season is over, I'll take time with my family and coach and consider my future."

Culver, who was named the 2018-19 Big 12 Player of the Year, finished with 15 points on 5-of-22 shooting to go along with nine rebounds and five assists in Monday's loss to the Cavaliers.

The 20-year-old Lubbock, Texas, largely struggled in what could be his final collegiate game, as he allowed Virginia's De'Andre Hunter to hit a game-tying three with 12 seconds left in regulation before trying and missing an ill-advised three of his own a few seconds later:

TIE GAME!!!! @UVAMensHoops | #NationalChampionship pic.twitter.com/p1o0lxNYSa

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 9, 2019

As Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman pointed out, the Final Four as a whole showcased some of the weaknesses in Culver's game:

Culver shoots 5-of-22 against Virginia, 8-of-34 during the Final Four. Tough way to finish an impressive breakout year.

— Jonathan Wasserman (@NBADraftWass) April 9, 2019

In addition to Monday's performance, Culver shot just 25.0 percent and finished with 10 points against Michigan State in the Final Four. He also shot a disappointing 26.3 percent for 19 points in the Elite Eight versus Gonzaga.

Even so, Culver had a great season overall, as he shot 46.1 percent from the field and averaged 18.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

Culver is an elite athlete who excels at both ends of the floor, but he falls just short of being a truly complete player because of his shooting struggles. After shooting a solid 38.2 percent from three as a freshman, that number dropped to 30.4 percent during his sophomore campaign.

In his first 2019 NBA mock draft following Virginia's win over Texas Tech in the national championship game, Wasserman predicted that Culver will go No. 7 overall to the Memphis Grizzlies.

If Culver does declare for the 2019 draft, it is difficult to envision Chris Beard's Red Raiders making another deep NCAA tournament run next season since the team's third-, fourth- and fifth-leading scorers (Matt Mooney, Tariq Owens and Brandone Francis) are all graduating seniors.

Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said he expects forward Tariq Owens to play in Monday's national championship game against Virginia despite being in a walking boot. 

"I expect him to [be available], but I'm not sure what'll happen," Beard told reporters Sunday. "He'll rehab it all day today and we'll see what happens the day of the game, but I expect him to play."

Owens rolled his ankle in the second half of Saturday's national semifinal win over Michigan State. He was assisted back to the locker room but later returned to action briefly before Beard decided to pull him again.

"I knew he was going to play [Saturday], even if he's not 100 percent healthy," Texas Tech guard Davide Moretti said, per Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune. "I know he's going to play Monday. He's our guy. He's our magic guy. ... It's unbelievable."

Owens, a senior, averages 8.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game on 61.5 percent shooting but his value largely comes on the defensive end. An athletic springboard at 6'10" and 205 pounds, Owens is one of the best shot blockers in the country. He had three blocks in just 23 minutes of playing time against Michigan State.

"I'm good," Owens told reporters after the game. "We didn't make it this far to not play. I mean, this has been a dream of mine and nothing is going to stop me from playing."

Deshawn Corprew, whose playing time has dwindled during the tournament, may see more minutes if Owens is limited. 

MINNEAPOLIS — After he had guided Texas Tech to another stunning win and answered questions about it from TV and radio reporters. After he had soaked in the adoration of the faithful fans who followed his team here. And after he had walked down the steps of the raised court and embraced his family—Chris Beard broke into a full sprint. He blew by police officers and camera crews and stadium security. He passed doors in a blur and thundered through the last few hundred feet. And as he made the final approach to his locker room, he could hear the music.

While they waited for their head coach, Texas Tech's players bounced and sang along with "Dreams and Nightmares" by Meek Mill and "Yea!!" by Key Glock. Many of them expected that Beard would come in and request "Old Town Road," a viral country trap song by Lil Nas X that has become the team's anthem. But he told them that would have to wait. He said he was proud they knocked off another powerhouse basketball program in Michigan State, but that "Old Town Road" was on hold until after Monday night's national championship game against Virginia. "We enjoyed the win for about 15 minutes," Beard said. "But we came here to play 80 minutes of basketball, and we still have 40 minutes to go. I didn't want us to celebrate too soon."

It's the latest in a long line of creative motivational techniques that Texas Tech's enthusiastically eccentric coach has used on his players. And it'll be no surprise if this one works as well as all the others have on his team's remarkable run this postseason. Forget about the college dive bars filled with assistant coaches from across the country or the swanky cocktail parties populated by corporate executives, the best and most exclusive party in Minneapolis all week has been in Texas Tech's locker room. The Red Raiders' coaching staff takes celebrating so seriously that they travel with their own speakers and reserve the role of DJ solely to the head student manager.

I present to you the Old Town Road on the top (or technically the bottom) of a flipped car remix. pic.twitter.com/OpYjlkfjNw

— Eric Kelly (@EricKellyTV) April 7, 2019

"We all love music, and we all love having fun," said redshirt senior center Norense Odiase. "Coach Beard actually writes 'Have fun' on the board and says it in speeches before games and practices. Whenever you're grinding and the season gets tough, you gotta know to have fun. You're a person. This is a game. We're going for a greater goal, but we're going to have a good time along the way."

The music tradition goes back a long way, to Beard's brief stint at Arkansas Little Rock in 2016. After 10 years as an assistant coach and associate head coach at Tech, Beard wanted to become a head coach and worked his way up from a semi-professional team in South Carolina to Division III and then Division II teams in Texas and, finally, to Division I with Little Rock. But the Trojans, members of the one-bid Sun Belt Conference, did not always have the best accommodations. On a road trip to play DePaul in December 2015, Beard and his staff realized that they had been booked at a hotel eight miles from the arena in downtown Chicago.

"We quickly realized that, in traffic, it would take an hour to get there," says Brian Burg, an assistant under Beard at Little Rock and now at Tech. "We were worried our guys were going to get lackadaisical or just tired. We came up with this idea to have music on the bus."

But Beard didn't want to use the bus' suspect speakers, so he gave a student manager his credit card and told him to come back with the best sound system he could buy. On the bus to the arena that afternoon, the players took turns picking songs, from rap to country to the Serbian national anthem. They didn't even stop the music when they got off the bus. They took the speaker and walked it into the locker room. And after they beat DePaul by 22, they blasted music on the way home too. The songs haven't really stopped since for Beard's teams.

This is Beard's third season at Texas Tech, and the team is already on its second speaker. The first, from JBL, lasted two years before the bass blew out. And judging by the way they make the concrete walls in the tunnels of a massive football stadium shake, the new QSC loudspeakers seem destined for the same fate soon enough. "Even if I have the volume and the bass maxed out," said Cooper Anderson, the head student manager-slash-DJ, "Beard will walk in and tell me to turn it up louder."

For Beard, blasting music is one of the many reminders to live in the moment. In his career, he spent years wondering if he'd ever get his chance to run a high-major program. And even now that he has coached one to consecutive Elite Eight appearances, he knows that it's no guarantee he'll ever get back to the Final Four or the national championship game. "A lot of what we do now dates back to the Division III days," Beard said. "What worked for us there helped us to get here. We're not going to stop being ourselves now."

His players realize that this run is once-in-a-lifetime. On paper, Texas Tech's roster doesn't scream title contender. The Red Raiders don't have a McDonald's All-American and they only have one top-100 recruit. That recruit, Jarrett Culver, is Texas Tech's leader in points, rebounds and assists this season, and has  blossomed into a likely top-10 pick in this year's NBA draft. But Tech's second-leading scorer, Matt Mooney, is a two-time transfer who started his college basketball journey at Air Force. Its third-leading scorer is Davide Moretti, a sophomore from Italy who went from averaging 3.5 points on 33.6 percent shooting a season ago to 11.4 points on 49.8 percent shooting this season.

"We weren't top recruits," said Mooney, whose 22 points carried the Red Raiders to their win over the Spartans on Saturday, "but we've believed from the beginning that we could beat anyone in the country."

In fact, before the season began, Beard told his players that he believed they had the talent to play on the final Monday night of the season. ("He might be psychic," Mooney joked on Saturday.) During the year, he has kept them motivated in a multitude of ways, from printing shirts that read "Never Lose The Chip" to taking them on impromptu frozen yogurt runs. And even during a brutal three-game losing streak in January or an opening-round exit against West Virginia in the Big 12 tournament, Beard has helped buoy his team by reminding them to remember where they came from and to "smell the roses." During this NCAA tournament run, Beard has told his players to treat each weekend like a two-game tournament, focusing on 80 minutes of basketball at a time.

Now, only 40 minutes remain. And like their final opponent, Texas Tech's final song is already locked in. Normally Anderson has to manage a tug-of-war between the players, who prefer radio hits and rap, and Beard, who likes a ratio of at least one country song for every three rap tracks. But everyone is in agreement about "Old Town Road," an unexpected hit from a previously anonymous artist that blends unlikely genres into something sensational. In that way, it's the perfect song for this Texas Tech team. And it's all any of them want to hear after the buzzer sounds on Monday night.

"We came here to win," Beard said, "and we'll dance when we've done it."

Texas Tech students will be free to enjoy Monday's national championship game without any hang-ups.

With the men's basketball team set to face Virginia for the program's first title, the school announced classes will be closed Monday night and Tuesday:

With @TexasTechMBB playing for a National Championship Monday night, classes after 5 p.m. on Monday and all day Tuesday have been canceled. Please see the attached memo for specific details. pic.twitter.com/rLbhXhbsTk

— Texas Tech University (@TexasTech) April 7, 2019

The Red Raiders have been in an incredible run through the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament, starting as a No. 3 seed but winning five straight games to reach the finals. The team had never been to the Final Four before last week, but a win over Michigan State has it one game away from a championship.

Fortunately, the school's president has decided to let all students watch the game instead of having to possibly deal with class Monday night.

With classes also canceled Tuesday, the potential celebration could last all night long.

Texas Tech guard Jarrett Culver iced his team's 61-51 Final Four win over Michigan State in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament thanks to a back-breaking three-pointer with 1:01 remaining.

The Red Raiders led by 13 in the second half, but the Spartans cut the deficit to 52-51 with 2:55 left.

However, Culver hit a jumper to put Texas Tech up three. He later hit a free throw before his game-icing three to give the Red Raiders a 58-51 lead. 

Texas Tech will meet Virginia in the national championship on Monday at 9 p.m. ET. Neither team has won a men's basketball title.

The No. 3 Texas Tech Red Raiders upset No. 2 Michigan State 61-51 in the Final Four on Saturday night at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis behind a team-high 22 points from Matt Mooney.

The senior guard also led Texas Tech with four makes from three-point land.

Sophomore guard Jarrett Culver has been the main scorer, but it was all about Money Mooney in this one.

His 22 points matches the most he has scored this season.

The Red Raiders will now face No. 1 Virginia on Monday night in the NCAA national championship. Neither team has won an NCAA title in men's program history.

Matt Mooney has Texas Tech on the brink of its first men's basketball national championship after a 61-51 Final Four win over Michigan State.

The guard was the surprise hero for the Red Raiders on Saturday, as he finished with 22 points at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Jarrett Culver struggled for much of the night but scored eight of his 10 points in the final three minutes to help seal the game for the No. 3 seed.

Despite facing numerous programs with more past success in the NCAA tournament, Texas Tech continues to keep its dream run alive.

Michigan State's season ended in the national semifinals despite 16 points from Cassius Winston.

It was an ugly game throughout, as defenses ruled the day. The offenses especially struggled out of the gates. The teams combined to shoot just 30.6 percent from the field in a low-scoring first half. There was just seven combined points (and two field goals) over the final seven minutes before intermission.

Texas Tech was likely especially disappointed, considering it got no production out of its best player:

So, Jarrett Culver is 0-for-6 from the field, has more fouls (2) than points (1) — and yet Texas Tech leads Michigan State, 23-21, at the half.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 7, 2019

The team was fortunate to get help from role players, though—especially from Tariq Owens on both ends:

Oh my 🤭#MarchMadness https://t.co/9yg7nhkN73

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 7, 2019

Nothing weak inside 😳#MarchMadness https://t.co/dV3nOBBgXz

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 7, 2019

The center had seven points, four rebounds and three blocks before he suffered an ankle injury in the second half.

Matt McQuaid shouldered much of the load for Michigan State on the other end, scoring nine quick points to keep his team in the game.

These weren't the big names we were expecting to see make a difference, but neither team took much of an advantage before the half ended with a 23-21 Texas Tech lead.

Lowest scoring first half (44 points) in an NCAA semifinal since 2000, when Michigan State and Wisconsin combined for 36.

— John Niyo (@JohnNiyo) April 7, 2019

The Red Raiders continued to play well in the second half despite Owens' injury and Culver in foul trouble.

The key was the defense, which left few openings for Michigan State:

Texas Tech’s defense is just absolutely sick

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) April 7, 2019

Texas Tech does not allow a single easy pass. There's a reason it's the best defense in the KenPom era.

— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) April 7, 2019

Are we sure Texas Tech only plays with five guys on defense?

— Max Meyer (@TheMaxMeyer) April 7, 2019

The Spartans shot 31.9 percent from the field and had 11 turnovers with just six assists.

Mooney took over on the offensive end, making big shots from all over the court:

Mooney is FEELING IT
Mahomes is loving it#MarchMadness https://t.co/KRhyqeJdEC

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 7, 2019

Have yourself a game, Mooney 🔥#MarchMadness https://t.co/vyZqlWTdGj

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 7, 2019

It's Matt Mooney's world, we're just living in it.

— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) April 7, 2019

The grad transfer finished 8-of-16 from the field and 4-of-8 from three-point range—hitting at least twice as many field goals as anyone else on the court for either team.

Michigan State slowly crawled back into the game by getting to the free-throw line, scoring six straight points at the charity stripe as part of an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to one.

However, this is where Culver came up big with a personal 6-0 run to give the Red Raiders some breathing room.

Better late than never, Culver. CLUTCH. #MarchMadness https://t.co/LTXRbhVRCR

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 7, 2019

Although he went 3-of-12 from the field, he came through when needed.

Texas Tech ended up scoring the final nine points to close out the hard-fought win. 

The team will now take on Virginia for the national championship Monday in what will likely be a defensive struggle.

Texas Tech's first trip to the men's Final Four brought out some of the school's most famous alumni, including reigning NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes. 

The Kansas City Chiefs star was shown on camera taking in the Red Raiders' showdown with Michigan State on Saturday in Minneapolis. The winner will get a spot in Monday's national title game against Virginia. 

Mahomes spent three years at Texas Tech, throwing for 11,252 yards and 93 touchdowns in just 32 games.  

The No. 2 Michigan State Spartans are in battle with the No. 3 Texas Tech Red Raiders at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday night. 

The Final Four matchup was in the early going when Texas Tech senior forward Tariq Owens introduced himself with a powerful one-handed dunk over Spartans junior forward Nick Ward. 

Red Raiders sophomore guard Jarrett Culver drew Ward from Owens and then passed it to his teammate. Ward tried to recover, but Owens was simply too long and athletic. 

There's still plenty of time left in this one, and the winner will go on to face No. 1 Virginia in the NCAA national championship.